I guess it is up to you if you choose to cheat. Ask yourself, are you that lousy at fishing that you need to cheat??
If you are, you need to take up golf.

Well, is it technically cheating? If it's not in the rules then it's really not. It's not something I would do but some people can talk themselves into doing things as long as it not technically against any rules.

Do you know for sure that they were baiting them for bass and the guys were in the tournament? If you are talking about Sam Rayburn, there are x3 as many crappie guides out here as there are bass guides and I wouldn't be surprised if what you call "baiting holes" was simply a man doing his job.

I may be the person in question.... I live on rayburn where the shootout was held, and bait all kinds of holes from crappie to bluegill and even an old nasty catfish. I bait a lot of holes and even sink brush piles for bass. So by the original posters logic anyone that fishes one of my brush piles is cheating because you don't know which ones are for bluegill and catfish and have everything from dog food to range cubes and sometimes cheese mixed with dog food and flour sunk with them. Therefore unless you are sure there is nothing but brush down there and it might be cheating if it has something else down there it means you are a cheater if you fish my brush pile...... Sounds pretty stupid to me to even think fishing or baiting a brush pile is cheating considering so many people fish other peoples piles, don't get me wrong once i put it in the water it is not mine and I don' care who fishes it, i have six or seven dozen that are fresh at any given time and if you are on one I go to another or fish one someone else put out. Also most people do not put anything on brush for bass because that makes it have a ton more bluegills etc. on them and makes it easier for the lazy guys to figure out the good ones with their live-scope or whatever brand electronics they are using. I agree with redman above about his dock. If you are spending a ton of time worrying about something like this then you probably are part of the 60% of tournament pro-staffers(see the TFF cartoon) that regularly donates the prize pool. With all the talk about brush one would think all tournaments are won deep. I have caught 30lb stringers with out fishing deeper than 6 ft as well as in 20ft over brush, and more have come shallow than deep at all times of the year. One TX shootout we had 29 lbs and it was all caught in 13 ft of water the next year I had 25 lbs and they were all caught in less that 3 ft. My point is quit worrying about if someone is cheating, the overwhelming majority of guys fishing higher end tournaments have more integrity in their little finger than most people have in their whole body. Most are doing it because we love to compete and go fast in a boat and for a day not worry about our jobs life etc..

what if you tied a cinder block to a hog?

I may be the person in question.... I live on rayburn where the shootout was held, and bait all kinds of holes from crappie to bluegill and even an old nasty catfish. I bait a lot of holes and even sink brush piles for bass. So by the original posters logic anyone that fishes one of my brush piles is cheating because you don't know which ones are for bluegill and catfish and have everything from dog food to range cubes and sometimes cheese mixed with dog food and flour sunk with them. Therefore unless you are sure there is nothing but brush down there and it might be cheating if it has something else down there it means you are a cheater if you fish my brush pile...... Sounds pretty stupid to me to even think fishing or baiting a brush pile is cheating considering so many people fish other peoples piles, don't get me wrong once i put it in the water it is not mine and I don' care who fishes it, i have six or seven dozen that are fresh at any given time and if you are on one I go to another or fish one someone else put out. Also most people do not put anything on brush for bass because that makes it have a ton more bluegills etc. on them and makes it easier for the lazy guys to figure out the good ones with their live-scope or whatever brand electronics they are using. I agree with redman above about his dock. If you are spending a ton of time worrying about something like this then you probably are part of the 60% of tournament pro-staffers(see the TFF cartoon) that regularly donates the prize pool. With all the talk about brush one would think all tournaments are won deep. I have caught 30lb stringers with out fishing deeper than 6 ft as well as in 20ft over brush, and more have come shallow than deep at all times of the year. One TX shootout we had 29 lbs and it was all caught in 13 ft of water the next year I had 25 lbs and they were all caught in less that 3 ft. My point is quit worrying about if someone is cheating, the overwhelming majority of guys fishing higher end tournaments have more integrity in their little finger than most people have in their whole body. Most are doing it because we love to compete and go fast in a boat and for a day not worry about our jobs life etc..

I never said it was cheating or anything, yall assumed that. I only asked the question with no intent really. I could care less. You make a lot of accusations that, frankly, you have no clue about. If it tickles your fancy to bait holes then by all means, bait away. Again, I just asked a question and never even said the guy was doing it for the tournament or for bass. My $.02 is if you have to bait to win, you can't fish to begin with but it's not against the rules so I don't really worry about it. Actually I don't really worry about anybody else on the lake or how they fish or what they do. I do me, whether it's in a tournament or just fishing. But since you made the claim, were you out sat evening baiting holes? Describe your boat