We actually had one of our club officers cheat at this tournament a few years back
Fortunately he did not win or do that well, but he could have totally fucked our club.
We all launched from the same spot on the river and had to be back by a fixed time or you were DQ'ed. Pretty standard fishing tournament rule. Some of the best fishing in the area required locking through a dam. That's where I would have gone if I was seriously competing. I was the one handling the registrations, all the money, and had to be back to make sure everybody returned on time, so it pretty much limited where I could go. To get to this area you would have had to lock through the dam to get above and lock through to get back down. The rule for the lock is that barges get preference. So as a recreational boater, you may be forced to sit and wait. This could be a major problem if you are fishing above the dam since you could get stuck and get DQ'ed. You could also waste a lot of time trying to get above the dam.
So this guy is the one going over all the rules in the pre-launch briefing. He adds that, "oh by the way, I called and talked to the lockmaster, there are a line of barges waiting to go through the lock" Everybody planning to go above the dam realized they were screwed. It was all a lie. He went straight to the lock, straight through, and everybody else planning to go up there is now left scrambling. We allow trailering now, so the locks are not an issue. I and probably 1/3rd of the boats will trailer up to that area.
The funny part was he claimed he did call the lockmaster and there really was a line of barges and he just gambled. One minor problem with that. The lock logs are available on line. I posted them. One barge went through at 2 AM. One recreational lying asshole went through at 5:30AM about 30 minutes after the start of the tournament, another barge and a couple recreation boats around the middle of the tournament, and one recreational lying asshole about an hour before the end of the tournament.
He was moderator on our site and started deleting posts, ... It was a total mess. He was a big value to the club, we probably would not have even given him the boot if he would have just owned up to it, but it quickly became clear that he had to go. He even threatened one of our guys out on the river about a month after that. People get crazy when a little bit of money or even bragging rights are on the line. We've had a couple other incidents, but that was the worst. It really could have hurt the club.