Walleye Cheaters Sentenced Today

[Quillback]

Ohio has a law on cheating for sports.  If it involves more than a $1,000 then it is a class V felony.  They pleaded to the charge and won the felony conviction prize.  They also lost their fishing license for 3 years which is the maximum under Ohio law.  Here's the statute if anyone cares to peruse it.

Section 2915.05 - Ohio Revised Code | Ohio Laws

[Champ188]

Every instance of cheating is another setback for when we might see the catch-weigh-release format become a reality on the local level. Shoot, these fish were brought to the scales and the dudes STILL nearly got by with it. Pretty obvious they DID get by with it in previous derbies. 

[tjm]

I imagine that taking the gambling out of the contests  would go a long way toward taking the cheats out of the contests. Not much point in risking all if there is no money involved. The Ohio law seems to written to protect the gamblers from each other. Let the winners take home prizes with no resale and little monetary value and the cheats will go elsewhere. If you wanted more cheats and better cheats, the key would be to increase the money involved.

[Flysmallie]

17 minutes ago, tjm said:

I imagine that taking the gambling out of the contests  would go a long way toward taking the cheats out of the contests. Not much point in risking all if there is no money involved. The Ohio law seems to written to protect the gamblers from each other. Let the winners take home prizes with no resale and little monetary value and the cheats will go elsewhere. If you wanted more cheats and better cheats, the key would be to increase the money involved.

That would be great and all but then all these “hammers” wouldn’t be able to “grind” out a bag of fish so they can stand on stage and talk about what a “game changer” their sponsor(s) is/are. 
 

Profits over People. (Or in this case, profits over fish.) It’s the new American dream. 

[bluebasser86]

It's likely the amount that they won that classifies it as a felony. In a lot of instances, once a theft gets above $1,000, it becomes a felony. 

 

As for "Bubba", people are so protected in jail and prisons now, unless it's an indirect supervision setting, they're probably safer in jail than they are outside within reach of the people they cheated. 

[tjm]

2 hours ago, bluebasser86 said:

likely the amount that they won that classifies it as a felony

Yes, that is spelled out in the link above-

Quote

If the potential gain from the cheating is one thousand dollars or more or if the offender previously has been convicted of any gambling offense or of any theft offense, as defined in section 2913.01 of the Revised Code, cheating is a felony of the fifth degree.

 

[fishinwrench]

Well, when you take a bonafide look at the things that "Tournament organizers & competitors" get away with.......then it's kind of a push, wouldn't you agree?

I mean.... Clogging up and taking control of Public Lake accesses every stinking weekend.
Constantly Collecting  fish from their home areas all over the lake, parading them around parking lots dry as a popcorn fart, and then dumping them all into 1 or 2 primary locations, knowing full well that a fair percentage of those fish will die within a week, and NONE will find their way back to the place they were born.    
I could go on and on about how "tournament fishing" has gotten way too big for its britches, and is not being properly policed.

Instances like this is no reason to lynch anyone.   Instead it should be a wake up call to ALL OF US that the whole idea of it has gotten completely out of hand.
I mean $100,000.00 boats???? Come the hell on !!!!    It has  become a borderline sickness comparable to drug and alcohol addiction & excessive gambling. 
Honestly, there's nothing pure and lovely about it.....AT ALL

[Champ188]

14 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

Instances like this is no reason to lynch anyone.   Instead it should be a wake up call to ALL OF US that the whole idea of it has gotten completely out of hand.

And there you have it. Well said, Wrench. 

[Smithvillesteve]

Boys I'm a little confused. I personally wish all these tournaments would go to a catch weigh release system. And the thought of a fisherman taking a female off the bed and throwing her in the livewell repulses me. But Jay Kumar, author of the BassBlasters refutes all these claims. He claims bass fishing is as good as ever. And that tournament fishing is doing no harm. And i like Jay Kumar. He is a god fearing family man that i truly believe has the best interests of bass in mind. In one of his latest issues there was a state that implementing catch weigh and release tournaments only. He blasted the government regulations made by men that have no idea about bass fishing. For the most part i agree with Wrench. But i just dont know.

[fishinwrench]

33 minutes ago, Smithvillesteve said:

But Jay Kumar, author of the BassBlasters refutes all these claims. He claims bass fishing is as good as ever. And that tournament fishing is doing no harm. And i like Jay Kumar. He is a god fearing family man that i truly believe has the best interests of bass in mind.

 

Well then, I think we should start having "God Fearing" statewide Copperhead & Seed Tick tournaments, and the Weigh-in & live releases should be right next door to his house.  👍 

About 70 of them per month.  

Don't worry, they'll all go right back to where they were caught.  😉