Angler Caught Cheating in BASS Event

Texan_Til_I_Die · November 28, 2005

From the Shreveport Times:

November 20, 2005

By Jimmy Watson

Shreveport angler Sam Huckabee was fishing in an oxbow across the Red River from the Coushatta bridge during practice at the recent CITGO Bassmaster Central Open when something unusual happened.

Huckabee was casting in the middle of the lake near some stumps when a fish hit his crank bait -- so he set the hook.

"I pulled him about three or four feet and then he stopped," Huckabee said. "I said, 'Darn, that's a good fish.' But it jumped and I saw that it didn't have my crank bait in its mouth."

Huckabee immediately saw that he had snagged some fishing line instead of a 3-pound bass.

"My first thought was that I had snagged a line that someone else had broke off," Huckabee said. "I got my bait untangled then figured I'd take the other bait out of the fish's mouth and let it go. But there wasn't a hook in its mouth."

Instead, there was a braided fishing line tied through the bottom lip of the bass with the other end tied to a stump. Huckabee immediately threw his rod down, picked up his cell phone and called BASS tournament officials.

"I told them what I knew and where the fish was located because I didn't want them thinking I had done this," Huckabee said. "There had been several other bass fishing tournaments on the Red River recently, so I figured that someone in another event had done this."

Huckabee would find out later that Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents located the fish and marked it "distinctly" in four places. Nothing was said about the incident at Thursday's first-round weigh-in, but when Huckabee came to the stage on day two, LDWF agents were waiting for him to secure a statement.

During the weigh-in Lee's Summit, Mo., angler Paul E. Tormanen, 39, was arrested and charged with contest fraud.

Tormanen was "subsequently disqualified from the tournament and -- after admitting he violated state law -- was banned from all future BASS tournaments for his unsportsmanlike conduct," BASS officials said.

But not getting to fish again in a BASS event may be the least of Tormanen's worries. The LDWF release said that he was booked into the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center and later released on $5,000 bond. He faces a fine of up to $3,000 and imprisonment with or without hard labor for up to one year or both.

An LDWF release said Tormanen "admitted to catching several bass before the tournament and tying them to stumps in order to weigh them in during the tournament.

Tormanen weighed in a five-fish limit weighing 8.00 pounds (46th place) the first day and three fish weighing 3.10 pounds on the second day. His two-day total of 11.10 left him 82nd and out of the money. The anglers were competing for a top prize of almost $50,000 in cash and prizes in the event which paid through 50 places.

Tormanen did not return a phone call to his cell phone.

Huckabee said he felt good about having a hand in stopping the alleged fraud.

"BASS, FLW and ESPN are working very hard to grow our sport and things like this give it a black eye," Huckabee said. "It's hard enough to win against some of the top anglers in the country when people aren't cheatin'. If I can do something to help the sport grow, it tickles me to death."

Local Reeves Marine Tournament trail director Mike Echols said he was shocked that something like this would occur at a BASS-level event.

"When professional bass fishing first started, something like this was probably more likely to happen," Echols said. "I don't know if the big money involved makes it even more susceptible to happen now."

And Echols is elated an alleged offender got caught.

"He was cheating and he should have been handcuffed on stage," Echols said.

At most local tournaments, the winning anglers are given a polygraph test and the RMTT randomly requests that other top competitors take a similar test. But Echols knows that even that doesn't guarantee the elimination of cheating on his trail.

"I am less worried about it than some of the national circuits probably are," Echols said. "The guys who compete on our trail are friends and they live here. They know if they get caught cheating, they're ruined.

"They also don't have as much to gain as anglers do in bigger (paying) events, although some people probably cheat for $10."

Huckabee said the fish he hooked weighed about three pounds and that he checked several other stumps in the area, but found no other similarly encumbered bass.

You'd think that if someone were going to cheat, they'd do it well enough to finish higher than 82nd, But if Tormanen had earned a higher spot, he could be facing a stiffer fine and more jail time.

At least he gave credence to the adage about what happens to cheaters.

6sixpoint_nobrows · November 28, 2005