whitley open

[Stewart 1971]

It used to go on years ago mate a few on here might be able to tell you better ? it was one of the reasons i give up fishing the opens, there were "rumors" people were found to have sinkers in their catch and so on, anywhere money is involved you will always find someone who cheats in any sport i guess, im not saying it goes on now-a-days hopefully not but with large boundaries it must be still hard to Marshall these events

I have fished matches since I was 11-yrs-old (I'm 42 now) and all of the opens all over the North East.
I have never, ever been at a match weigh-in where somebody has weighed a fish with sinkers stuffed in it.
Maybe someone who used to do weigh-in's could enlighten us.
In fact, I've never been at an open where the winner was disqualified for cheating - mind you...it was always top match anglers that won anyway...Not me...:-)
Cheating in opens, never seen it happen, but the organisers have it covered and do a great job in organising them - I hope your comments doesn't put anglers off entering this season's events.
Some clubs rely on their opens attracting a good turn out....

The rumours have always been there and as far as I know there has never been any proof to back them up.

I was scalesman for the Seaham club in the late 1980's, back then the £1000 top prize is probably equivalent to £2500 in todays money. Never any hint of cheating back then, nor at the Feedex which had a massive £3000 top prize IIRC. The big fish with a chance of winning would be checked thoroughly anyway, held upside down and given a good shake, belly squeezed etc just to make sure and as I said, never happened.

How many 5oz sinkers would you have to stuff into a fish to be sure of winning anyway? And besides it would have to be a good sized fish to be in with a chance to start with. Would it really be worth getting caught and being banned from every open comp in the country for an extra few ounces that you might not need? There are always plenty of anglers around and when someone gets a good fish word spreads very quickly and it will often be weighed there and then if someone nearby has a set of scales.

[batt22]

I agree with the sinker malarkey i always thought that was a bit far fetched but what about Billy bucktooth he takes a few mates fishing the comp they all catch but give all their fish to Billy bucktooth who weighs in, big boundaries no one see's job done Billy bucktooth shares the prize money all go away happy i bet this goes on ? ps if there are any Billy buckteeth on here i don't mean you LOL

[Stewart 1971]

Don't know how much has changed but back then almost all the big opens were heaviest single fish. Certainly ours was at Seaham, as was the Feedex down on the Holderness.

For heaviest bag even then it is likely that most marks will have a fair few anglers on them so anyone weighing in more fish than they were seen catching is taking a big risk. I know when I've fished matches on the south coast (fair enough all pegged and C&R) word spreads very quickly if someone is bagging up as I'm sure Paul will testify to (especially now so with mobile phones, I've been fishing one end of a beach and known very quickly that a guy a mile away in the next bay is bagging up).

[kensr27sz]

everything is done to check for and prevent any kind of cheating at every open i know ,is someone going to risk being banned from every club in the land and possibly get done of the police if they are caught, never mind what honest anglers will do to them when the word gets out . i hope not and if anyone is stupid enough to try i hope they get caught and get what they deserve .

[CODMAN]

Just to dispel all the rumours of cheating and the hard time some of you gave Sidblank. I was the lad who fished next to him and had a fish of 5lb 10oz on my second cast. I ended up with 3 fish for 7lb 12oz.

[sidblank]

cheers pal, well done by the way i know where im heading for my first club match lol

[batt22]

No one is accusing anybody of cheating and yes i was speculating just speculating, what with all the corruption going on with snooker ,cricket on the television at the moment i was just wondering if it was possible to cheat and get away with it in sea angling, i remember fishing the newbiggin open many moons ago this young kid about 11 or 12 years old who was fishing the comp,, he told me this was his first time fishing asked if he could fish next to me it was church point newbiggin the lad cast out about 10 yards into a gully nearly taking my head off in the process then left his rod to go jumping around the place with his m8 the next thing his rod is bouncing off its stand i couldn't touch it (rules) so i shouted after him to come get his reel wound in ..... the result a nice cod of about 7-8lbs he then asked me if i wanted the fish obviously i said don't be stupid you could win the comp with it i asked if he had the heaviest fish sweep on ? he said what's that !!! at the weigh-in he would have won the heaviest fish prize a couple of hundred quid if i remember right, now my point being was if i was a cheat i could have taken that fish without anybody seeing and church point was packed with anglers at the time, to me cheating is a sin and pointless no achievement at all one of the trophies im most proud of is a little plaque i won in the Newcastle brown ale world championships held at seaham i won it on merit and it makes you feel great like i say im in the opinion we anglers are a different breed i based my post on the rumors i heard years ago im talking 20years + like a few on hear heard them too,, not this comp or any other comp. ps if its one thing i miss the most about fishing the comps its the banter and pint at the weigh-in and presentation great times .
cheers batt22

[canman]

It was a good year that (1982) the brown ale comp at Seaham, when Alec Harvey won the two cars fishing Roker pier. My wife won the ladies prize on both days amidst accusations of her cheating by getting a little occasional help from me, in other words, putting some peeler on her hook when it was hectic, hand lifting the fish up the side of the pier, and taking the gut hooked fish off the hook. All within the rules at that time.