Someone cashes a check in a tournament by cheating and you don't think of it as a theft? They stole from the people that did not cheat. Do you not understand that? Wow, how were you raised???? Questionable to say the least.

Kinda like Jeff Sprague?

They cheated and got caught. End of story. Lifetime ban.

+1

Who confirmed that they are minors? Could be an 18 year old senior in HS.

As I mentioned above, it's not up to courts whether they fish again in tournaments it's up to the TDs and organizations. A TD can choose to let them fish, now he or she does this at the risk of damaging their trails good name and having a line of people demand a entry fee refund and leave. Tournament fishing works because we self regulate. Integrity matters. If you allow people who have shown an inability to conduct themselves in an honest manner to fish the whole deal goes to hell in a hand basket. I dont get the sympathy and desire to let them earn their way back into tournaments, it's the easiest thing in the world to avoid, just dont cheat, it's that simple and they couldn't do it.

Says it in the OP

so what will everyone defending them/light punishment say if they had held up a bank, no weapons, and took 9,000.00?

no idea what the tournament paid but same principle. what punishment if they were bank robbers?

And I get this too. But whos to say they don't just cross a border and start fishing somewhere else? You keep that non-sense in Texas. A paper trail of some sort for cheaters would be nice across different tournament clubs/trails. No room in the world for cheaters and I don't get it myself but I am not trying to cut a check when I go fishing. I have done the very few charity tournaments or get together like 5 friends with boats and we all have friendly wagers, but thats about it. It's usually more about drinking, barbequing, getting away from everyday life and just having fun. So I am trying my best to put myself in you alls shoes.

Personally, I think a lifetime ban is perfectly fine. Leave them to rot and sell their boats and take up golf. But kids are kids and kids do stupid things (we all did and you are lying if you tell yourself you didn't). It has been proven multiple times that kids in the teenage era of life lack the ability to make proper decisions because half their brain matter is still mush. It was just a thought/idea for the clubs/trails to keep some sort of paper trail on cheaters who aren't prosecuted by law enforcement.

Let's be real, if team trails or clubs put this kind of sanction on anyone, they probably would quit anyways. If they are having to cheat to compete, they aren't good enough to be in the winnings anyways. Entry fees would not be allowed to go towards what was owed back to the club and it could potentially take years to actually make enough to be able to cut a check for themselves. All the mean while the club is still benefitting from entry fees.

Stop trying to reason with them , These are they same folk who started giving out participation trophies. Wake up America!

IMO, there should be punishment including restitution for the last tournament (if they admitted) as well as community service and a ban from tournaments for a set period of time. However, I am willing to be more lenient than many others considering they were minors. The good ole day syndrome is strong with this bunch. Minors do stupid things…I did when I was a minor and my 5 boys did as well. Frankly having 5 boys heavily involved in sports, I would venture to say I have seem more cheating from the adults than the kids. I would not be willing to sentence these kids to a lifetime ban for doing something incredibly stupid as a teenager. I also think it is wrong to post their info.

As a captain for my son I find this very irritating. We just finished the third year of fishing THSBA in which we have only placed once in the top 20 over the three years we have done this. I have suspected there was cheating going on and figured this scenario was possible. This undermines the trust of tournament fishing to the point of me thinking that it needs to get back to what fishing was to start with, family and friends getting together for an afternoon at the lake.

well if law enforcement decided to drop all charges (like in this case) I guess there would be no punishment. The robber still could walk into any bank and hypothetically rob another one. That's the issue and the only reason this thread is 9 pages long so far, because these kids are not being prosecuted. No doubt they cheated and they are wrong and they confessed, but nothing is necessarily happening to them except life time bans. All I am proposing is find a way to hold them to an agreement/contract/probationary timeframe to work their way out of the hole they created for themselves. All the meanwhile clubs could talk and have fair warning, with stipulations agreed upon in a contract, if they tried to go fish other tournaments elsewhere.

And I'm guessing you a part of the generation that raised their parents. Congrats, great job!