23 hours ago, Susky River Rat said:

@Rockhopper it doesn’t matter what is possible. It matters that everything is in question because of how blatantly  he lied/cheated.

 

Exactly. Once you've cheated, you're a cheater. Tide Pods won't wash out that stain. 

^ Heck, even Oxy-Clean wouldn't help.

Every tournament that I have been in the boat get inspected for mandatory safety items and each storage compartment is opened and checked.

How does the crook launched his boat and/or his kayak without someone seeing what he is doing? 
The fish photos on the measurement board doesn’t show the angers body or legs…are the officials blind!

Tom

No legs, no water, nor any other telltale evidence of use.  I hope someone has taken a look at the officials.  This seems like a pretty egregious oversight on their part, or…??

What a weirdo. It's never just cheating in a fishing tournament. If he's willing to do something that underhanded and bizarre, I can guarantee he's doing all sorts of other stange and foul deeds.

I wonder if any cheaters have been caught using false bump boards?  I once had a "fisherman's ruler" which would show a 12 inch fish to be 24 inches.

6 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

I wonder if any cheaters have been caught using false bump boards?  I once had a "fisherman's ruler" which would show a 12 inch fish to be 24 inches.

Specific brands and models have always been mandated as long as I have been fishing kayak tournaments.   There were problems with some that could be bent slightly, so now, I think they all require Ketch brand, which don't flex.  I did hear of someone cutting an inch or two out of the middle of a board once, but that may have been just a rumor.

3 hours ago, WRB-2.0 said:

Every tournament that I have been in the boat get inspected for mandatory safety items and each storage compartment is opened and checked.

How does the crook launched his boat and/or his kayak without someone seeing what he is doing? 
The fish photos on the measurement board doesn’t show the angers body or legs…are the officials blind!

Tom

I believe these were remote tournaments. Kayak competitions often just set a designated time and (sometimes) multiple eligible bodies of water and the angler is responsible for following the rules. The fish aren’t ever seen by a tournament organizer in person, they’re simply caught by the angler, a photo taken, and then that’s submitted to a website. 

 

In some tournaments, you can even be outside the kayak as long as you’re tethered to it, for instance in shallow creeks. That’s why you can conceivably take a photo with no legs in it.

 

There are usually people inspecting the photos for issues, like checking to see if it’s the same fish, but Kayak tournaments by their nature tend to be more governed by trust than other tournaments. 

Naive  to think tournament anglers are honest with money evolved.

Tom

 

On 11/10/2025 at 8:39 AM, A-Jay said:

Just looked it up ~  Just so Classic in a couple of ways.

Definitely gets my endorsement for another Bud Light "Real Men of Genius."

https://youtu.be/nDxfBX_DVE0?si=10y0OaBgmoLwHE-I

#loser

A-Jay

@A-Jay I’m sitting in a work trailer with 3 other men who can’t figure out why I’m over here laughing to myself as they didn’t see or hear the video you shared 😆

15 hours ago, Tackleholic said:

I wonder if any cheaters have been caught using false bump boards?  I once had a "fisherman's ruler" which would show a 12 inch fish to be 24 inches.

 

I've definitely heard of guys with doctored up boards, yes.

 

I can't imagine what would drive a man to cheat in FISHING.

 

To me, it all starts with parenting.

 

Yes these are grown bASS men, but I don't think Momma did a good job of teaching wrong from right.

 

 

Eh, my mom taught me right from wrong and I’ve still done plenty wrong when I knew better 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

Eh, my mom taught me right from wrong and I’ve still done plenty wrong when I knew better 

Stop saying that like you’re the only one 😂😂

2 minutes ago, Smirak said:

Stop saying that like you’re the only one 😂😂

On 11/11/2025 at 2:20 PM, Swamp Girl said:

Everything that Jacob Housman has ever claimed is now suspect. The stench will linger a long, long time because the Internet never forgets. 

 

Good luck re-joining society, getting a new job, or finding a school for your kids with this type of reputation.  Everything you do will be looked at with a fine tooth comb and no one is going to trust you again.

@gim no doubt. I am in the process of switching jobs and being under the microscope having nothing to hide is brutal. I couldn’t imagine having something like that over your head. I guess when you have a huge ego there isn’t enough room in your head to think of that.

Cheating in the broad sense is bad.  If you forget to buy your license and fish a tournament you're technically cheating because you broke rules.  Inadvertently maybe, still on you for sure, but that's minor cheating. 

 

This is a whole nother league of cheating.  Using a boat in a kayak tournament and then cutting up a kayak to make it believable.  That is every bit as bad and intentional as stuffing weights into fish.  (maybe not as bad for the fish).  

On 11/10/2025 at 9:39 AM, A-Jay said:

Just looked it up ~  Just so Classic in a couple of ways.

Definitely gets my endorsement for another Bud Light "Real Men of Genius."

https://youtu.be/nDxfBX_DVE0?si=10y0OaBgmoLwHE-I

#loser

A-Jay

 

"Oh ninja of the nasty..."

 

I totally forgot about these but they are so good.  

2 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

If you forget to buy your license and fish a tournament you're technically cheating because you broke rules.  Inadvertently maybe, still on you for sure, but that's minor cheating. 

 

 

To equate violating a rule with cheating is pretty harsh.  I’d be very hesitant to accuse someone of cheating simply because they failed to renew their license.  
I think cheating involves intent…intentionally ignoring rules to gain an advantage.

And there is no such thing as “minor cheating” unless the perpetrator is younger than 18 yo.  Cheating is cheating.  And any incident of it should result in a ban from the sport.

@OldManLure- while I agree for the most part, you clearly didnt read the thread about Milliken and his Texas bass from earlier this year. 
 

 

@casts_by_fly the difference is Ben couldn’t win the prizes. Since 6th sense donated most of them for that. Other than the state getting to spawn the fish Ben was going to get nothing out of it. Bonehead move 100% he should have had his license. 

Edited November 14, 2025Nov 14 by Susky River Rat

4 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

@OldManLure- while I agree for the most part, you clearly didnt read the thread about Milliken and his Texas bass from earlier this year. 
 

 

I’m familiar with the Milliken incident.  His cheat wasn’t fishing without a license, but lying about it when he completed tournament forms.  Not having a license was stupid; lying about it was criminal.  Regardless, you didn’t mention him in your post.  Had you, it wouldn’t have sounded  like such a broad brush statement.

Asking for a friend…

 

Does anyone know what the fisherman intends to do with the kayak cutout now that he has been caught?

@Susky River Rat- fair point.  At the same time, the infraction is the same competing in and “verifying” yourself, trying to register a fish, etc without a license is against the rules and thus technically cheating.  Whether he could gain from it or not isn’t the point.  Nor is it the point of the comparison.  The point of the comparison is that there is ‘little’ cheating for minor things and then there is what this guy did.  I think what this guy did is at the highest level of cheating, up there with leaded fish and pre-caught fish in a basket.  

@casts_by_fly I agree.
 

only Ben will know if he truly planned to fish without a license in the state he lives all year. He 100% broke the law. Whether negligence or purposeful. No different than if I run a stop sign knowing it’s there or I was new to an area and don’t see it. I broke the law and what happens happens.
 

this guy has it thought out and planned to win money. He did it multiple times. There was 100% disregard for any rule or law. It isn’t even arguable about what he did. There is not excuse or apology in the world for him. 

I’m guessing the punishment/consequences are also what will differ in the two cases mentioned above. The kayak cut out guy will probably be blackballed from anything in the future, where Milliken came in second recently in the Won Bass US open. Ironically he finished second behind Spencer Schuffield who was DQd from a BPT event for catching the same smallmouth(s) over and over