Post by Woody Williams on May 5, 2006 8:19:10 GMT -5
Sun files
Facing charges: Fishing partners Dwayne Nesmith (left) of Island and Brian Thomas of Dawson Springs — shown with a 24-pound third-place catch, including a 7-15 big bass, in the 2004 Jet-A-Marina Classic tournament — now face attempted theft charges for allegedly bringing bass caught in advance and staked out to a recent tournament weigh-in.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Competitive fishing community is up in arms about alleged flimflam in which bass supposedly were caught in advance and held in hidden cage until pick-up during a buddy tournament.
Tournament bass fishing in the region has been soiled and ethical anglers stung by allegations of cheating in a recent charity event on Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.
Two regular partners in prevalent team-style events on the sister lakes — Dwayne Nesmith, 43, of Island, and Brian Thomas, 32, of Dawson Springs — were charged with attempted theft by deception after Saturday’s Relay For Life Buddy Bass Tournament held out of Lake Barkley State Resort Park.
Nesmith and Thomas were cited by Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Sgt. Bill Snow after the fishing partners allegedly weighed in bass that were not caught during the tournament but, instead, had been stashed alive in a fish basket.
The two fishermen weighed in a limit catch of five fish, yet fell just short of winning any money, hence, they were charged only with a misdemeanor attempted theft offense, officials said.
“They had 14 pounds and something, and they missed making the money by ounces,” Snow said.
The incident unfolded after KDFWR officers were tipped that a basket containing live bass was oddly submerged and tied off to a dock in the Double Creek arm of extreme northern Lake Barkley.
Snow said he examined the container and found four legal “keeper” bass inside. Anticipating that the fish had been hidden for improper inclusion in a tournament Saturday, the four bass were subtly marked and returned to the basket, the basket placed back into the water as it had been.
Early Saturday, KDFWR officers had the hidden basket staked out when a boat with two anglers — later identified at Nesmith and Thomas — went to the dock, retrieved the basket and transferred the bass to the livewell in the boat.
Officers identified the boat by number and determined who occupied the boat and that they were competing in the Relay For Life tournament. By weigh-in time, officers were at the weigh site.
Officers had quietly assumed roles at the weigh-in where Nesmith and Thomas showed up with a tournament limit catch of five bass.
“They had five bass, three of them being fish that we had marked in the basket,” Snow said. “They had filled out their limit and had culled one of the marked fish with a bigger bass, but there were still three with marked dorsal fins from the basket.”
Officers witnessed the weigh-in, then watched Nesmith and Thomas as they waited for the catch weight to be tabulated. The two remained until they learned that they had not won a check, then they prepared to leave — when officers approached them and cited them, Snow said.
Along with being cited for the alleged misdemeanor, Nesmith and Thomas also had the boat from which they were fishing and their fishing tackle seized by officers.
Nesmith and Thomas are scheduled to appear May 16 in Trigg County District Court.
Meanwhile, other individuals in tournament organizations are reflecting on earlier events the year, because Nesmith and Thomas have had a productive spring of fishing in competition. Justifiably or not, the latest alleged action throws a cloud of suspicion over previous catches.
The two won a two-day Superbass Tournament Trail Classic tournament on the lakes in late March, a circuit championship event that paid off substantially with a boat plus cash for first place. They started that tournament with a giant first-day catch of five bass weighing 27.22 pounds and ended up with 38.91 pounds over two rounds, winning by a 2.83-pound margin.
Superbass Tournament Trail operator Jeff Jarrells of Park Hills, Mo., found the charges against Nesmith and Thomas particularly disturbing because they were the Superbass Classic champions.
“We’re reviewing things,” Jarrells said, declining further comment because of legal concerns.
Among other events, Nesmith and Thomas placed fifth among 302 teams in the highly competitive annual Jet-A-Marina Classic. That was worth $1,200 in prize money.
“It gets me thinking,” said Kerry Clark, owner of tournament-sponsoring Jet-A-Marina. “But legally, I see no way of going back to be able to prove cheating in past tournaments.”
Clark said the alleged use of staked-out fish in one instance well could change the procedure of some tournaments by raising concerns about possible cheating.
“I think it will change how tournaments are done,” he said. “I’ll be doing some things to try to assure that Jet-A-Marina tournament catches are legitimate.”
Polygraph tests are often used by some team tournaments to spot check winners and occasionally other top finishers as a hedge against any conspired rule violation between partners. Clark suggested that polygraph tests might be used more in the future.
Clark said the worst fallout from the alleged cheating is for the image of tournament fishing and ethical tournament fishermen, who are highly offended by the purported irregularity.
“It makes me sad and angry for the people who are out there trying to catch fish the right way to think somebody was cheating,” he said. “The fishermen are really hot about it. I’ve already heard from people who have said that if these two guys are ever entered in another one of my tournaments that they won’t fish it.”
Tournament-hosting groups understandably take a hard line against cheating, and anyone with such dubious credentials would generally find themselves unwelcome in competition thereafter.
FLW Outdoors spokesman Dave Washburn noted that FLW rules maintain the organization’s right to refuse entry the tournament entry of any angler who has ever been disqualified from a tournament.
Both Nesmith and Thomas previously have fished FLW events.
“Anybody who would cheat gives a black eye to the entire fishing community,” Washburn said.
He called incidents of cheating in fishing competition “very rare.
“As a whole, the tournament fishing community is upstanding and ethical,” Washburn said. “This (alleged cheating incident) is certainly not indicative of tournament fishing and tournament fishermen in general.”
“Ninety-nine point something percent of tournament fishermen are going to be banging their heads against the wall trying to compete in the right way while trying to have fun,” said regular tournament angler Ray Barga of Gilbertsville.
Barga, who also supports tournament fishing by sponsorship through his insurance agency in numerous area events, said, “It’s an expensive sport, and it helps to win some money to pay your expenses, but cheating in a tournament is just stealing from other fishermen.
“Tournament fishing, especially buddy tournaments, is an honorable sport that works on the honor system,” he said. “It would be easy to cheat, but fishermen for the most part are honorable people.
“Something like this throws a shadow of doubt over the whole thing, and the people I’ve heard from on this are furious,” Barga said. “These guys will never fish (in tournaments) here again. Nobody will enter a tournament that would let them in now.
“We have great competition among the regular tournament fishermen here, and it’s a friendly group, but groups will police their own,” Barga said.
Facing charges: Fishing partners Dwayne Nesmith (left) of Island and Brian Thomas of Dawson Springs — shown with a 24-pound third-place catch, including a 7-15 big bass, in the 2004 Jet-A-Marina Classic tournament — now face attempted theft charges for allegedly bringing bass caught in advance and staked out to a recent tournament weigh-in.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Competitive fishing community is up in arms about alleged flimflam in which bass supposedly were caught in advance and held in hidden cage until pick-up during a buddy tournament.
Tournament bass fishing in the region has been soiled and ethical anglers stung by allegations of cheating in a recent charity event on Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley.
Two regular partners in prevalent team-style events on the sister lakes — Dwayne Nesmith, 43, of Island, and Brian Thomas, 32, of Dawson Springs — were charged with attempted theft by deception after Saturday’s Relay For Life Buddy Bass Tournament held out of Lake Barkley State Resort Park.
Nesmith and Thomas were cited by Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Sgt. Bill Snow after the fishing partners allegedly weighed in bass that were not caught during the tournament but, instead, had been stashed alive in a fish basket.
The two fishermen weighed in a limit catch of five fish, yet fell just short of winning any money, hence, they were charged only with a misdemeanor attempted theft offense, officials said.
“They had 14 pounds and something, and they missed making the money by ounces,” Snow said.
The incident unfolded after KDFWR officers were tipped that a basket containing live bass was oddly submerged and tied off to a dock in the Double Creek arm of extreme northern Lake Barkley.
Snow said he examined the container and found four legal “keeper” bass inside. Anticipating that the fish had been hidden for improper inclusion in a tournament Saturday, the four bass were subtly marked and returned to the basket, the basket placed back into the water as it had been.
Early Saturday, KDFWR officers had the hidden basket staked out when a boat with two anglers — later identified at Nesmith and Thomas — went to the dock, retrieved the basket and transferred the bass to the livewell in the boat.
Officers identified the boat by number and determined who occupied the boat and that they were competing in the Relay For Life tournament. By weigh-in time, officers were at the weigh site.
Officers had quietly assumed roles at the weigh-in where Nesmith and Thomas showed up with a tournament limit catch of five bass.
“They had five bass, three of them being fish that we had marked in the basket,” Snow said. “They had filled out their limit and had culled one of the marked fish with a bigger bass, but there were still three with marked dorsal fins from the basket.”
Officers witnessed the weigh-in, then watched Nesmith and Thomas as they waited for the catch weight to be tabulated. The two remained until they learned that they had not won a check, then they prepared to leave — when officers approached them and cited them, Snow said.
Along with being cited for the alleged misdemeanor, Nesmith and Thomas also had the boat from which they were fishing and their fishing tackle seized by officers.
Nesmith and Thomas are scheduled to appear May 16 in Trigg County District Court.
Meanwhile, other individuals in tournament organizations are reflecting on earlier events the year, because Nesmith and Thomas have had a productive spring of fishing in competition. Justifiably or not, the latest alleged action throws a cloud of suspicion over previous catches.
The two won a two-day Superbass Tournament Trail Classic tournament on the lakes in late March, a circuit championship event that paid off substantially with a boat plus cash for first place. They started that tournament with a giant first-day catch of five bass weighing 27.22 pounds and ended up with 38.91 pounds over two rounds, winning by a 2.83-pound margin.
Superbass Tournament Trail operator Jeff Jarrells of Park Hills, Mo., found the charges against Nesmith and Thomas particularly disturbing because they were the Superbass Classic champions.
“We’re reviewing things,” Jarrells said, declining further comment because of legal concerns.
Among other events, Nesmith and Thomas placed fifth among 302 teams in the highly competitive annual Jet-A-Marina Classic. That was worth $1,200 in prize money.
“It gets me thinking,” said Kerry Clark, owner of tournament-sponsoring Jet-A-Marina. “But legally, I see no way of going back to be able to prove cheating in past tournaments.”
Clark said the alleged use of staked-out fish in one instance well could change the procedure of some tournaments by raising concerns about possible cheating.
“I think it will change how tournaments are done,” he said. “I’ll be doing some things to try to assure that Jet-A-Marina tournament catches are legitimate.”
Polygraph tests are often used by some team tournaments to spot check winners and occasionally other top finishers as a hedge against any conspired rule violation between partners. Clark suggested that polygraph tests might be used more in the future.
Clark said the worst fallout from the alleged cheating is for the image of tournament fishing and ethical tournament fishermen, who are highly offended by the purported irregularity.
“It makes me sad and angry for the people who are out there trying to catch fish the right way to think somebody was cheating,” he said. “The fishermen are really hot about it. I’ve already heard from people who have said that if these two guys are ever entered in another one of my tournaments that they won’t fish it.”
Tournament-hosting groups understandably take a hard line against cheating, and anyone with such dubious credentials would generally find themselves unwelcome in competition thereafter.
FLW Outdoors spokesman Dave Washburn noted that FLW rules maintain the organization’s right to refuse entry the tournament entry of any angler who has ever been disqualified from a tournament.
Both Nesmith and Thomas previously have fished FLW events.
“Anybody who would cheat gives a black eye to the entire fishing community,” Washburn said.
He called incidents of cheating in fishing competition “very rare.
“As a whole, the tournament fishing community is upstanding and ethical,” Washburn said. “This (alleged cheating incident) is certainly not indicative of tournament fishing and tournament fishermen in general.”
“Ninety-nine point something percent of tournament fishermen are going to be banging their heads against the wall trying to compete in the right way while trying to have fun,” said regular tournament angler Ray Barga of Gilbertsville.
Barga, who also supports tournament fishing by sponsorship through his insurance agency in numerous area events, said, “It’s an expensive sport, and it helps to win some money to pay your expenses, but cheating in a tournament is just stealing from other fishermen.
“Tournament fishing, especially buddy tournaments, is an honorable sport that works on the honor system,” he said. “It would be easy to cheat, but fishermen for the most part are honorable people.
“Something like this throws a shadow of doubt over the whole thing, and the people I’ve heard from on this are furious,” Barga said. “These guys will never fish (in tournaments) here again. Nobody will enter a tournament that would let them in now.
“We have great competition among the regular tournament fishermen here, and it’s a friendly group, but groups will police their own,” Barga said.
