I was fishing the tidal Potomac River a few years back and had a four pound largemouth in the livewell, waiting to show to a buddy before I released it. While I was waiting at the marina, a guy fishing a tournament pulled into the dock and asked if I'd had any luck. I showed him my fish and he offered to buy it from me! I couldn't believe that a tournament fisherman would stoop so low to try to win. Have any of you experienced a similar situation while out on the water? If I'd been able to find the tournament director I would have reported this guy in a heartbeat!

There's a guy who fishes a lot of local tournaments that I know has offered to buy a few bass before.  Thankfully, the guys he's tried to buy them from have been as ethical as you.  Thanks for not selling the bass.

Pathetic, maybe they should have livewell and wallet checks.  Im teasing about the wallet checks of course, but still thats sad.

I'm guilty of jokingly offering money for a fish, but never with real intent. Too bad. Gotta remember though, fishermen are people too, and none of us would be surprised to see/hear of an athlete doing something illegal.

Guess that gives a whole new meaning to "dock Fishing! > I'll give this technique the middle finger, or should I be polite and just give it a thumbs down?

Comes with the territory.

Once money enters the equation, ethical conduct is the first casualty.

I used to fish the Fed Trail and I saw some shady stuff from time to time but, over all most of the guys were on the up and up. We caught a guy who was catching big fish and tying them off on docks and piers until tourney day. He won a few doing this until we caught wind of it by someone who knew what he was doing. He was arrested by the DNR while winning a tourney one day and accepting a check. It is stealing, no ifs ands or buts. To that guy I said, aaaaaaaaaa.......ba buy!!!

I just don't understand going to such lengths to win a grand or less.

Tournament ethics,    ????????      This last April, I was fishing a 3 day event on Sam Rayburn,   after tourney hours, I offered a guy 20.00 for a bass.

It wasn't for the tourney.     One hour later, it was filleted at the boat ramp, a nice 7 lber laying at the ramp in the water.  

Maybe his ethics were different than what you percieved.

Matt