This is an example why I got out of the tournament business

Back in the 70’s their was a surf caught bluefish tournament every fall, in Montauk, more often than not a local beach rat won, granted he was a good fisherman, but his brother was a mate on a nite bluefish head boat. Connect the dots……John
 
When I was 13 years old, I worked at Augie's Bait and Tackle in Babylon Village and I also worked at Sunrise Fish Company in Islip. Augie's was a weigh-in station for Babylon Tuna Club tournaments. I was very good at estimating the weights of fish and I put them on the scale which was located inside Augie's. Augie's wife Jean was a tough woman who took no crap from anyone. There was a bluefish tournament over the weekend while I was working. The President of the Babylon Tuna Club, who I will not name, came in with his catch. I tossed the fish on the scale and was amazed at the weight. When I took it off the scale, I placed my hand under the fish on its belly and squeezed. I could feel the numerous weights inside the fish. I told Jean and she said we were going to cut the fish open. The President refused to allow us to cut it open. While the two argued, I cut the fish and the weights numerous weights fell out. Although I was yelled at by the President for cutting the fish, I didn't really care and he was busted. It wasn't uncommon that we found blackfish and bunker stuffed beyond normal eating inside the stomachs. Some will do anything for recognition.
 
Roccus7 said:
They can get back to the fishing grounds faster and leave later, but still return for the weigh in, e.g. more fishing time over productive grounds...
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So that would apply to any tourney? And the big fasts boats would actually have to catch the winning fish
 
cany said:
What do big fast boats have to do with winning a shark tourney?
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Because they go out where there's less competition and more sharks. If there was a shark tournament out of Freeport, the smaller, slow boats would go out 20-25 miles and all be in the same general area, while the big fast boats could race out further east or further offshore and not have to compete with other boats . That's what I saw , usually a very fast boat won the tournaments.
 
Back in the day, at noreast I ran the Triple Crown of Fishing - There was a striped bass event, a fluke event, and then a bluefish tourney. It was from New Jersey to Rhode Island, and there was over 50K in prize money as well as a new boat that at the time was valued at over 25k.

Every year someone failed the polygraph, and cheaters were clipping fins to stay in the slot in the bass tourney. And the accusations were enormous. Finally, we couldn't deal with the BS, and we shut it down.

It's too bad because it was a money maker and a lot of fun, but as has been stated here before, money brings out the worst in people.

@Pangaroo One year probably 1990 or so, I was in the Bayshore Mako Tourney. I was running a twin-engine Grady at the time that ran fast for it's day. I was the first to break the inlet. I was also the first to put a weighable mako in the boat. It turned out it was the only weighable shark in the tourney. Problem was my fast boat blew a powerhead and I got back to the dock at 1am and lost the tourney.
 
Buddy of mine won the LIF dreamboat after 4 guys before him failed the polygraph. Won it with a 4lb flounder caught at Jones Beach CG station.....go figure!

Didn't someone claim they caught the world record fluke a few years back only to learn it wasn't legit? Caught on a dragger.......
 

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