Outdoors column: Cheaters do get caught. At least some of the time
Back in high school, I would become angry – irrationally so, I guess – with the guys who didn’t push hard in wind sprints at football practice.
We all hated sprints, but I ran them to the limit every time, hundreds and hundreds of times. I figured that would make me better. I wasn’t exactly a speed demon – one of my old coaches used to say, “You know, you’re small, but you’re slow.”
But I know I always beat the fastest guy on our team. He was a good player, our best back, but he trotted the 40 yards. I always thought he’d have been better if he hadn’t cheated us and himself by being so lazy.
Of course, I wasn’t always on the up and up myself. In grade school, I copied an answer on a spelling test from the kid next to me. Mrs. Norton called my mother to school. That was humiliating.
Worse, the answer was incorrect. What an idiot. That episode bothers me to this day, nearly 70 years later, which maybe is a good thing. Guilt can be a positive motivator.
So, I again was thinking “what an idiot” when yet another fishing cheating scandal recently was revealed. An angler set an Oklahoma state record, but an anonymous tip prodded the fish and game department to x-ray the fish. It had a couple of ball bearings in it. The guy lost his record, and I’m sure, whatever reputation he had, as well.
This kind of thing has been going on forever, of course. I used to help at a kids’ fishing day each year. One time, a parent brought several bass to the weigh station. These fish were less than lively and rather pale. We figured they had been caught somewhere else previously, then hidden on a stringer at the contest lake the day before. The fish were not entered.
In 2022, an Ohio walleye tournament was marred by two guys who put weights in their fish. Last year, one of the same men was charged with multiple violations for poaching a half-dozen or so trophy deer, after previously being banned from hunting since 2008 for multiple previous violations.
I once wrote about a local hunter who claimed to have a killed a huge buck downstate. It turned out the deer was killed in this area illegally. I don’t recall the penalty, but it was considerable.
Why do people do these things? Money? Vanity? I don’t know. I do know faking record catches or poaching big bucks rarely turns out well. Not all cheaters get caught, of course, but those who do are branded forever.
Even if you do everything legitimately, many people aren’t going to believe you. If you kill a record-book buck, I can almost guarantee that within 24 hours there will be stories you spotlighted it, found it on the road, or bought it from someone. Current record holders sometimes are the first to cast stones. I’ve encountered that more than once.
One of the most notorious cases of alleged record-catch misbehavior involved Arthur Lawton and Len Hartman, famed muskie hunters and rivals on the St. Lawrence River in the 1950s and 1960s. Lawton’s 69-pound, 15-pound 1957 muskie was the world record for many years, and its photo appeared in ads for Ashaway fishing lines in Field & Stream every month. As a little kid, I was fascinated by it, and hoped that someday I would catch such a fish.
In the early 1990s, some people in Wisconsin set out to discredit Lawton’s muskie. They were successful in getting it delisted, although the “facts” supporting the action were questionable in themselves. Then, the fish that replaced Lawton’s also was discredited. And then Hartman, late in life, “confessed” that he and Lawton would pour sand into their muskies to add weight. He also said he bought fish from others and claimed them as his own.
By then, Hartman was old and falling apart, financially and in other ways. It might have been he was just telling tales, or maybe he wanted to stick a knife into Lawton’s long-dead ribs. He might have been lying.
He might have been telling the truth. We’ll never know.
I’ve hooked but never landed a big muskie, and I’ve caught some very large bass and trout, but a record? That is extremely unlikely given my angling talent and the places I fish. I wouldn’t mind seeing my name in some book, but that’s not why I’m out there. I am not likely to kill a record-book whitetail, either, although I’d like to continue to try for a long time yet.
Really, just being out there and having a chance at a good deer is often enough.
This is not to say I look down on those who chase records or try to win tournaments, but I wish everyone would do it the right way. Don’t cheat. It isn’t worth it.
Write to John Pitarresi at 60 Pearl Street, New Hartford, N.Y. 13413 or jcpitarresi41@gmail.com or call him at 315-724-5266.
Sauquoit Creek cleanup scheduled
The Mohawk Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited will hold its annual Sauquoit Creek Spring Cleanup April 20.
Volunteers are asked to gather at the Piggy Pat’s Restaurant parking lot on Kellogg Road in Washington Mills at 9 a.m. There will be suggested areas to clean, but volunteers can participate wherever and for how long they’d like along the creek from Cassville to Whitesboro.
A dumpster will be provided by the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority. There will be no roadside cleaning, and children must be accompanied by an adult when near the creek. Trash bags, plastic gloves and water will be provided.
Please dress for the weather conditions. Information is available from Don Hahn at 315-269-3389.
Those aren’t brook trout
In the last Outdoors column, I discussed possible threats to brook trout in New York State because of global warming.
We had a glitch, so the accompanying photo was of a brown trout. I don’t know how many readers noticed, but I did.
This reminded me of the time I was in a fancy New York restaurant that had live trout in a tank, ready to be selected for dinner. The sign on the tank said, “brook trout.” The problem was all of the fish were rainbow trout. I mentioned this to the hostess.
“Oh, no,” she said. “They’re brook trout.”
“But … ah, okay,” I said.
I did not order trout for dinner.
Upcoming outdoor shows
The CNY Sportsman Show, at the Verona Fire Department, and the Big East Camping and Outdoor Sports Show, at Accelerate Sports in Whitesboro, are coming soon.
The CNY show is March 16. The Big East Show is March 23 and 24. Information is available at holycrossacademy.com/sportsman_show and kesslerpromotions.com/event/big-east-show/.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Outdoors column: Cheaters get caught, sometimes
