It’s incredible to see what lengths someone will go to in order to cheat in a fishing tournament. I mean, I’m almost impressed by the ingenuity here… I said almost…
As the bass fishing game seems to be getting more and more expensive, with fully-tricked out bass boats reaching prices up over six figures, kayak angling has been exploding across the country. And don’t get me wrong, serious kayak anglers can easily drop over 10 grand on their rig, but it’s just such a lower barrier to entry compared to buying a bass boat, a truck that can pull it, filling it with gas, etc…
And with that, kayak tournament angling has gotten pretty popular as well. But as you may well know, any time there is tournament angling, there is bound to be someone who cheats. Of course, we all saw the infamous walleye anglers who were caught stuffing sinkers in their fish on Lake Erie a few years back, the story made national headlines. But the truth is, cheating happens in all kinds of fishing tournaments, even in the kayak angling world… and this might be one of the most insane examples I have ever seen.
In kayak fishing tournaments, some are live and person, and other take place online, meaning that anglers submit photographs of their fish on a bump board, which are then approved by tournament officials. Since nobody is in the yak with you, it’s obviously much easier to cheat. But this is next level…
In an effort to get the upper hand on his competition for a New York Kayak Bass Fishing monthly event, Pennsylvania kayak angler, Jacob Housman, was using a green kayak cutout on top of an aluminum bass boat to cover water quicker, and catch more fish. He then photographed his catch the green kayak cutout to give the impression that he was actually fishing from a yak.
Just diabolical stuff here… in this photo from a boat ramp surveillance camera, you can see the cheap kayak cutout sitting there on top of the boat deck:
The first red flag should’ve been the very cheap kayak that Jacob submitted in the fish in, that he also appeared to be standing on? The fish was basically arranged on the seat… quite head-scratching, and I suspect it gave tournament officials pause too. Nobody who fishes seriously uses a $200 Walmart kayak like that.
But what got Housman busted was that he shared a picture of this smallmouth on a boat, and it looks shockingly like the same fish he submitted for the kayak tournament. Officials dug a little deeper and found the video footage that proved he had a kayak cutout on the deck of his boat.
He was also DQ’d from an event on the Susquehanna River in August for repeatedly fishing too close to a dam, so integrity clearly isn’t his strong suit.
According to Outdoor Life, Housman confessed to the scandal, and NYKBF, NY Slay Nation, PA Kayak Bass Nation, PA Slay Nation, and TourneyX have all given Housman a lifetime ban from fishing any kayak or online-format events. It’s also unclear what other events he has cheated in, and I’m sure various tournament officials will be digging in over the next few weeks and more and more bans will follow.
Like I said… just utterly insane that someone would try to do this. And you have to remember, the prize for winning these tournaments is far from life changing… we’re not talking thousands of dollars. More like hundreds. But regardless of the prize money, you just hate to see a blackeye on kayak tournament fishing because of one clown like this.
Kayak angling is awesome. I’m fortunate enough to live on a beautiful body of water in southern Wisconsin, a nearly 1,000-acre, natural lake with largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, pike, panfish, it’s just a great place to fish. Tough, but fun. I get to fish just about every single day when the weather allows for it, and my primary mode of transportation… an Old Town fishing kayak. I can cover enough water with it, fit into tight places with it, spend zero dollars on gasoline, and since I’m mostly fishing alone, it allows me to use my slip for a family-focused boat instead of a bass boat. If you’ve never fished in a kayak, I highly recommend it… the community is awesome and the tournament anglers are insanely good,. But if you want to get out on the water and a boat is out of your reach, give a kayak a try… you won’t regret it.
