Zero Tolerance

Tuesday, March 30, 2004
by Ray Scott

The first was safety for the anglers, and the second was cheating. I knew one good cheating scandal would scuttle my fledgling tournament trail. And once B.A.S.S. became B.A.S.S., it could irreparably harm the whole Society and everything it stood for.

I was already battling the sordid history of local bass "derbies." My tournaments had to be above reproach. So I locked myself into the Holiday Inn motel in Springdale, Ark., and for 3 days my paranoia and I pounded out the first set of tournament rules.

The Good Lord was looking out for me because those same basic rules are used today, not only by B.A.S.S. but other tournament trails as well – amended from time to time of course, like the American Constitution. It continues to be a very "copied" document.

No doubt my early precautions were overkill, but B.A.S.S. came to be known for fair and honest competition, and I'm proud to say no major scandals have tainted our organization. I give credit to strict rules and even stricter enforcement. Believe me, tournament directors have not been popular at times, myself included. Cold-blooded zero tolerance was the policy.

But interesting things happened because of my reputation for strict rules and enforcement. Cheaters, or those prone to bend or break the rules, mostly stayed away from the B.A.S.S. tournaments. We attracted honest anglers and then those anglers policed themselves and other competitors. It was a self-perpetuating cycle of honesty.

In a perverse way, I was glad when we had some infraction of the rules – because we came down hard and made known to the world what had happened, and what the consequences were. I figured it was darn good publicity. Above all, we didn't want to sweep it under the rug and let the rumor mill take over.

In the early years of B.A.S.S. we had an audacious cheating incident with a guy who had stashed a basket of bass caught previous to the tournament. We not only disqualified him from B.A.S.S. tournaments for life, but we also sent out a news release about the incident to every outdoor writer we knew. (I won't go into the details here, but the incident is recounted in detail in the chapter on "Cheaters" in my biography, BASS BOSS, by Robert Boyle.)

The First Rules

I was absolutely paranoid about cheating or the possibility of cheating. Some of my first steps were overkill, but most were on target. I immediately prohibited buddy fishing. Pairings were random and no one from the same state could fish together. Every day a different partner. The fishing partners had to stay in the boat, could not be out of eyesight of the other at any time and verified each other's weigh-in documents. And at no time – for whatever reason – could anyone leave the boat in the course of a fishing day. The rule list goes on and on.

In those early days I decreed that no one could fish who was a guide or who resided in a county that touched the competition lake. And I was so cautious that after the first day of fishing, the Top 20 anglers (and partners) had to fish with a non-fishing observer in the boat. Those Top 20 were scrambled and paired, but not with fishermen from the same state of course.

Needless to say, it got a little awkward – and more than a little boring for the third man sitting in the middle of the boat. But no one complained, and I never had a shortage of volunteer observers.

It was obviously cumbersome and unrealistic, and on one occasion in my first tournament it came to a comical end one morning at blast-off. As pairings would have it, we ended up with three men who averaged at least 260 pounds each plus piles of tackle. The gunwale of the boat was barely visible as they eased off in a 14-foot jon boat with an 18 hp Johnson outboard. The observer was a 280-pound footballer, a tackle from nearby University of Arkansas. Rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub. It was a sight I'll never forget. Impractical, but well intentioned.

The Polygraph

Some situations are very emotional or just hard to call. He said, she said. And on those occasions, beginning in the early 70s, I depended on a very unemotional, rational tool called a polygraph. Results of polygraph tests may not be admissible in some courts of law, but I know from law enforcement, the U.S. military and corporate security types that it is mighty accurate when applied by an experienced, licensed, and certified polygraph technician.

Every fisherman knew he might have to take one if the occasion warranted: In those days, with the signing of the tournament application, the applicant not only agreed to take a polygraph if required, but agreed to accept the finding of the examiners.

The polygraph had a wondrous effect – surprisingly, not just to ferret out the cheater but to protect the innocent and the honest. I've had big-name fishermen thank me for nipping rumors in the bud with a polygraph. Nothing is more vicious, demoralizing and destructive than rumors, especially to a pro fisherman who fishes for a living.

Like buck fever, bass fever can do strange things to a person's perspective. One angler insisted he saw a bass being passed from one boat to another in the course of a competition. He knew it was a fish. Rumors ran wild. The offending competitor explained he was getting a 14-inch aluminum measuring board and witnesses agreed. But in the heat of competition, it was a fish to the other angler and he was absolutely right (and required) to report it.

The fisherman in question gladly took the polygraph and passed with flying colors. End of rumors. Everyone was happy. No hard feelings.

Very early on I noted a unique phenomenon – honest men will take a polygraph willingly and people with something to hide will not. Not that anyone likes them. The polygraph not only protected the innocent, I'm convinced it acted as a deterrent to potential cheaters.

Actually, after 30 years of personally conducting tournaments, I found that is true of rules, period. Honest men welcome tough rules. They know the rules are there to protect them, not hinder them. On many occasions over the years, men accused of breaking a rule insisted on taking a polygraph exam.

One thing is for sure: The future of the bass fishing industry (and it is an industry) rests upon its reputation as fair and honest. Integrity and bass tournaments must go hand-in-hand. We have enjoyed an excellent reputation thus far, and everyone must work to keep that reputation spotless, no matter what it takes.