Cheating in Fishing Tournaments

I have been fishing my whole life and it's something that has been rooted deep into my soul by my late father, Tom. He taught me everything I knew about fishing. Like my dad I was never a fan of fishing tournaments, my feelings were starting to change until recently.

When the news broke about the two fisherman, I will not mention their names because they are not worth mentioning, got caught cheating in the Walleye tournament on Lake Eerie it made me wonder. How many times have they done this and how many times have other people done the exact same thing? I have heard people say "If you arent cheating you arent trying.", and that is complete nonsense. If you have to cheat that means you have no confidence in yourself or your techniques. The two guys that got caught cheating should face severe penelties for their actions. As i asked before, how many other times have done this? They cheated not only themselves but other contestents, their fans, and their sponsors. Now I'm sure their fans have all disappeared, their sponsors are gone, and they have left a bad mark on tournament fishing and fishing in general. I know not all people who fish tournaments cheat but it does start to bring things into question. How many times have scales been adjusted to favor certain anglers, how many times have anglers cheated in some way? My answer, probably a lot. This is why i do not fish tournaments.

These two jerks cheated hard fishing anglers, sponsors, and communities out of thousands of dollars and gear. They are frauds and should be charged with fraud, banned from all tournaments, large and small, and maybe even lose their fishing license all together. They were scared of losing and only cared about themselves. If you have to cheat to win dont play the game. There is no excuse for their actions and they should be forced to publicly apologize and return all the money they have won as well as any gear they have gotten, since it was obtained through fraud. There is no excuse for what they did other than they are scared of losing. What ever happens too these two idiots, they deserve it. This is one of several reasons why I do not particpate in tournaments of any kind. To those that do and do it right I wish all of you the best of luck and tight lines.