81lb Bass?

[TheSpecialist]

Originally Posted by rizzo

People regularly cheat in tournaments!!! Hows the weighmaster going to know if the fish has been stuffed or not unless they rip the fish apart. I wouldnt if I owned a tackleshop, as you have money to make. However, if your scale is certified, you get a reading and fill out the affidavit. From the weighmaster's point of view, what are you gonna do even if you suspect cheating?

You can't take the OTW tournament too seriously as it is a fish stuffers dream. Bring your fish in to a local tackle shop with a clueless employee and you can turn a 50" 38 pounder into a 50 lber pretty easily. We had threads last year about this. Good guys being accused of stuffing, cheated, blah blah. Lie detectors came up, but theyre not 100% dead on. I just like to see things straight up across the board and it gets old hearing about so and so cheating, when they really arent. A few bad ruins it for all. You can have your 10k prize.

In this case we're talking world record status, so I hope if the state of CT certifies it as a record, igfa or whoever, a state bioligist looks at it to confirm theres no tampering. I hope for greg's sake they are already undergoing these investigations to clear up the accusations of cheating. Theres no reason why this can't be accurately documented. IF the fish is not inspected there is not much credibility plain and simple. Really anyone could go in with a 50" fish (easy to come by) and get fancy stuffing it to make it the record - I'd like to see some proof to make this a little more credible.

Seriously how much extra weight will you get by stuffing a fish? A few lbs. Cause you sure as hell are not stretching his length.

[rizzo]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

Seriously how much extra weight will you get by stuffing a fish? A few lbs. Cause you sure as hell are not stretching his length.

5 pounds of lead doesnt take up that much room. Look at a 25 pound weight lifting plate, thats cast iron and doesnt take up too much room. Rebar is pretty heavy too. I'm saying the fish should be completely gutted, it wouldnt effect the lovely skin mount he'll get so theres no excuses. If you weigh it at 81 pounds, gut the fish and inspect it, and find nothing in the fish, its hard to argue its not the record. Anyone not allowing this has to be hiding something, or is not in it for the glory. If youre not in it for the glory, it would have been released and would have been just a rumor among a few good friends. You bring a fish forward like that, be ready to defend its status.

[Nebe]

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[Nebe]

buncha great pics here... Story and Photos: Potential World Record Striper