I agree 100%, they are kids and what they did was stupid. I'd bet every person on here has done some pretty stupid stuff in their life. They've been punished enough, they didn't hurt anyone, and a lot on here I'm betting have done worse. Remember that the next time some of you on here have 3 or 4 beers and drive home.

To the two young men, learn from your mistakes and move on in life. It's not the end of the world and I can promise you many on here have done worse and never got caught whether it was cheating, driving after having a few drinks but didn't caught, or whatever. I ran a high school club for three years and can assure you there were plenty of cheaters. We had a team turn another team in and not one thing was done about it, zero. The high and mighty group are full of [censored]. I'm all for punishing them but not making them out as criminals with a permanent record. For those of you who think otherwise how many times could you have been made a criminal with a record had you had a little bad luck and gotten caught.

You need to clean up your language also on here or get banned from posting completely. You are as pathetic as the boys that cheated. Same class act.

I agree with the young age there should be some grace, but I am willing to bet most that fish tournaments have never premeditated a plan to steal prize money. If they would have fished off limit waters, forgot to cull, did not fasten a PFC or kill switch those are examples of mistakes.

There should be grace given their ages, but the premeditated planning makes it hard things to look at as just a "youthful mistake". I am curious if an adult was in on this as well or who gave them the idea.

Forgiveness is a must, but many will never forget it.

No, no, don’t hold back. We want to know how you really feel…..

I agree, maybe not their first time, I'd bet is wasn't. Public shaming is probably the best, cruelest, form of punishment they can ever get. A criminal record would serve zero purpose, provide zero benefit, and hurt their lives forever. TPWD did the absolute right thing in my opinion, the captain made a very wise decision.

Hope everyone has a good evening.

Life will go on.

Some type of penance to the fishing community they harmed and want to maybe be a part of in the future. Hopefully this will be a learning point in their young lives.

Everyone who has an opinion has now had an opportunity to state it. We're going to leave this open another 24 hours, then lock it (thread will be closed around 7:30 pm tomorrow). If there's an important update on this topic after it has been closed that you think needs to be posted, please contact a moderator for approval.

Good call

I can just imagine the guy who called for it to be locked a few days ago, standing in his yard yelling at the moon

Nope, no calls to lock it other than the posts in this thread.

20 plus pages of thrashing some high school kids and this is what gets you fired up? They messed up and are paying the ultimate price just in an unorthodox way.. Txmasterpo, thank u for your service in law enforcement. Karen, I mean ezbassin, if u think cursing online is in the same class as cheating, u live in a bubble.

So how did they get DQ at Texoma

This Doug fella interests me. This post he made is very insightful and thoughtful. I think I must fish with him in the future.