I don't really understand the way many of you seem to just dismiss this as something less than blatant cheating. This was a complete disregard for the rules. The no info rules certainly have some grey areas. Sometimes you get into situations just being around other anglers that you are going to have info floated that you didn't ask for. I think every angler understands that. This however was a blatant disregard for the rule entirely. The proof is all in writing. MLF should have acted on this the second they had knowledge of it. The fact that they did not makes me question the integrity of the organization. In my eyes this is no different than someone putting fish in a basket before a tournament. Both are an attempt to steal money from other competitors in the tournament. I really don't see how you can look at it any other way. The fact that it took this long to enforce the rule leads me to believe that it was only pressure from the other anglers that forced them to act. MLF clearly wanted to just sweep this under the rug and never talk about it again. I commend the anglers that had some backbone and took this public.

I don't really understand the way many of you seem to just dismiss this as something less than blatant cheating. This was a complete disregard for the rules. The no info rules certainly have some grey areas. Sometimes you get into situations just being around other anglers that you are going to have info floated that you didn't ask for. I think every angler understands that. This however was a blatant disregard for the rule entirely. The proof is all in writing. MLF should have acted on this the second they had knowledge of it. The fact that they did not makes me question the integrity of the organization. In my eyes this is no different than someone putting fish in a basket before a tournament. Both are an attempt to steal money from other competitors in the tournament. I really don't see how you can look at it any other way. The fact that it took this long to enforce the rule leads me to believe that it was only pressure from the other anglers that forced them to act. MLF clearly wanted to just sweep this under the rug and never talk about it again. I commend the anglers that had some backbone and took this public.

Exactly my opinion.

I would like to know the circumstances for Wheeler and Connells fine. Did they overhear info and not ask someone to stop providing info, or did they too actually solicit info from someone? IMO there is a pretty big difference. Sounds like Sprague was given a map with specific areas to target and presentations to try.

I too do not understand how intentionally breaking a rule to win money is legal, but putting fish in a basket is not legal? Putting fish in a basket alone isn't illegal. People keep fish in baskets all the time for days at a time until they get a mess to clean. Nothing illegal about that. It only becomes illegal when you enter those fish into a tournament and those fish were caught outside tournament hours.

What Sprague did was violate a rule he pledged to uphold with honor and integrity. The fish he weighed in were not previously caught by him or anyone else. He still had to catch them, no guarantee this would happen with or without the best of information. No law broken. His accountability for this rule infraction is dictated by the powers to be at MLF. Sometimes the MLF reminds me of Saturday Night Wrestling. I still say it is why some good anglers have left.

Its not against the law to put fish in a basket either...........

(b) A person commits an offense if, with intent to affect the outcome of a fishing tournament:
...
(3) the person, as a participant in the tournament, represents that a fish was caught by the person in the course of the tournament when in fact the fish was not caught by that person or the fish was not caught in the course of that tournament;

Its not against the law to put fish in a basket either...........

It’s 100% against the law to represent that fish as caught in the tournament. Which was their intent.

Exactly, but The act itself doesn’t have to be illegal. They broke a tournament rule by weighing in a fish caught outside tournament hours. Same argument can be made in both cases. No laws were broken right up to the point they defraud the tournament. I fail to see the difference. The crime is defrauding the tournament by breaking the rules, not putting fish in a basket or soliciting info.

Some rules are unintentionally broken, misinterpreted, etc. intentionally breaking any rule to get an edge is cheating, plain and simple.

If a law was broken by defrauding the tournament, why no charges and only a DQ? Is MLF above the law? Intentionally breaking any rule to get an edge is cheating, plain and simple as you say, but not criminal?