Hart the Tart

[Paul Matthews]

Wow. This guys been stealing for years and finally gets caught. Naturally all his old partners are sticking up fore him. Sorry guys this won't wash with me. Never liked him and never will. Even KVD doesn't win as much as he did. Sad day for So Cal. I do miss Ca. fishing and all my old buddies. Well except for Hart the Tart. Hope you saved some of those tourny winnings to pay for your lawyer. Karmas a bitch. Loving Az. Congrats to Clifford Pirch for taking Az to the top. Now if Ca. would support Az and 1070, life would be good. I know that one bad apple doesn't make the whole barrel rotten if we get rid of it.

[Paul Matthews]

Whoops.Meant say he could have been stealing for years. When I read this I had a major melt down. I retract my statements pertaining to Mike's partners. Nothing can be proven except for the facts as known. Should have kept my mouth shut. My personal issue with Mike in the past clouded my judgment. Sorry guys. Nope, nobody told me to do this. When I'm wrong I man up.

[doug77]

In this politically correct society,you can think it but not say it-this is why so many people get away with their crap.On the other hand if you do speak wrong somebody can get wrongly accused.
I also find it really hard to believe that this guy won all those tournaments and suddenly decided to cheat for the first time at the US Open.He wasnt even in contetion for anything but a check.If I had been one of his team partners I would be clammering to take a lie detector test even at my own expense

[Smitty]

Give it a little time. In another post, someone stated that one of his team partners is asking to take a polygraph about the previous tournaments where they had great success.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot so to speak. What if you had fished with him in the past, had alot of success legally and this happens? Now you are put in a position to protect your integrity when you had nothing to do with this act. Is that fair?

What if that partner passes a polygraph and next year dominates castaic with a different partner. Some people will wrongly still speculate that by having fished with someone who cheated at an event he must be cheating. That is flat out wrong.

The best scenario for Mike Hart, his former team partners, and the sport as a whole is for Mike to agree to a polygraph about previous wins to remove speculation about his former partners. Just an idea.

Smitty

[doug77]

makes sense-good idea

[Paul Matthews]

I doubt Mike will have the spine to face any of us. Just never impressed me as a stand up guy.

[longshot]

This is why you have to make sure you pick your partners wisely. You know the OLD quote "you are who you hang out with" really fits here.
All i can say is I feel good about never winning a tourny now BUT my partner and I have a TON of fun practicing together and getting a game plan for an up coming event ect. You dont think these guys did that? YOu dont think that they were cheating with all the top finishes? the %s are unrealistic now looking back it fits doesnt it? Well we all have our right to our opinion.
HEY kudos to Won bass GREAT job and way to handle it. Now bring back the clearlake summer series lol.
LS

[CHANDLER]

I am one of Mike's former partners and still a close friend and dont appreciate the allegations. When we fished we did very well also. I think what is getting missed with his dominance in recent years is that when we fished there were always 70-90 teams on the water and I think more/better competition. Even if 75% of those teams were not that good they were still occupying SPOTS on the lake that better guys couldnt fish. This affected alot of guys. Now, there are only 20-30 boats in a tournament, so most of the lake is open. No fighting for spots and good anglers can fish mostly all of their areas. I cant tell you how many times we couldnt get on a spot because of another boat. And many times they couldnt catch the fish. As sonn as they would move we could go on that spot and cath em. Also, the tournaments were all mostly on Castaic which Mike, John, Bill, and Joey know inside and out. Put an observer in his boat every time and I bet they still win these events. What Mike did was have very bad judgement and he needs to deal with that. As Rick says IMHO

[Andy Giannini]

I am certain there was a little more than "bad judgement" going on here.

This appears to be a deliberate attempt to cheat, or commit fraud.

The weighting rigs were very sophisticated, and obviously used before and tested. Looks like some were coughed up at some point in the livewell, and the stinger hook was added to prevent this.

"Bad judgement" isn't a really good rationalization for what has happened.

A.G.

[doug77]

You mean to try and tell me that he won 8 in a row and didnt cheat?He then had a mental ,slip and cheated at the US Open when he was only in contention for a check-not even a top 10 check.Any criminologist will tell you that the more a criminal gets away with something the bolder they get.Your trying to convince the wrong crowd with this BS

[Mike]

Pre rigged weights= Premeditated.

This was not is 1st time or a bad judgment. This is a criminal, liar, cheat, low life POS who was steeling from us all. Stop trying to defend this scum. He is getting what he deserves and I hope it dentures those who are now or in the future are thinking of cheating.

[Smitty]

I dont think anyone is trying to defend Mike Hart. I think some , including me, think it is unfair to his former or current team partners to assume that he cheated in every event he won with them which in some way makes them labeled as bad apples as well.

Am I way off here? I dont think so. It is easier to just assume he cheated all of the time, than understand why someone who would be able to legitimately win tournaments be so short sited as to risk so much for one event.

I am not assuming he did or didnt cheat previously, he obviously is getting what he deserves but are his former partners? I dont think so.

Smitty[/quote]

[blkdog812]

there was no bad judgement or a mistake here. it was a premeditated deliberate attempt to cheat and steal money and prizes from others.

remember if you cant do the time, don't do the crime

[Kevin]

Smitty, you're not way off. I agree 100%.

[lcates]

the way i see it if this guy could cheat in an event like the us open and the ams didnt notice this guy already had this little scam figured out and has been cheating for years.and just maybe his partners never really knew he was cheating i say hang the sob we need to get rid of scumbags i say send him to arizona as a illegal and let mexico deal with him

[Ron C]

Smitty, you're not way off. I agree 100%.

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