Heres my questions? Yes its about the cheater...

[g-man]

How can a guy (mike hart) weigh in 400 plus bass with an over a 1/4 death rate without a red flag? I'm not saying assume hes a cheater, but how about someone, anyone, question him on his fish care?? On top of that how come no one ever thought to keep an eye on him to see how he won all that money? Its extremely rare to see someone with that kinda winning ratio, and thats another red flag. The dead fish ratio is ridiculous, I'd bet in the last three years me, and my buds (30 plus) didn't weigh that many dead fish combined! IMHO theres no way you can look at the numbers, and NOT think he didn't do it the whole time.

I'm amazed at the numbers of wins, winnings, and dead fish!

[Andy Lippert]

G-man,

I held back my own "guilty" verdict on his previous tournaments until I found out how many dead fish he had previously weighed in. Now that the number is out, you'd be an idiot to say that he hasn't been cheating for quite some time. This guy is a first rate scumbag, and regardless of how many people that say "Get over it" I think that the ongoing discussion regarding this situation is healthy and will only help us in the future.

We may have to take our lumps as a sport when sh*theads like Mike Hart get exposed to the public, but it will only help us in the long run by learning from these crafty bastards and preventing it in the future.

[Brian Linehan]

In the 7 events I ran in which he fished last year, he didn't weigh 1 dead fish so I'm assume the stat you saw is a typo.

[careyj1]

The Bass Fishing Forum Congrats Mike Hart!!
TEAMDEADMONEY 20 983 Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:36 pm

I did a search on this website on cheating. This posted came up. Read the post kind of interesting.

[Team Pollard]

Thats what I said on another post G-Man, I got info from hear, someone posted his earnings, # of fish caught, dead fish and tournaments entered, if that state is true, (126 dead fish out of 441) it amazes me that he got away with it this long...He is averageing 2-3 dead fish per tournament, thats ridiculous...That is a red flag...

[fish_food]

Hart at least tried to employ a modicum of stealth, unlike the ballsy guys who weigh in trout and stripers with obvious freezer-burn or gray gills. Hey, why is that fish rock solid and curved like it's been in the freezer????

[BuckSnort]

I was thinking the same thing...LOTS of red flags...

[mark poulson]

In the 7 events I ran in which he fished last year, he didn't weigh 1 dead fish so I'm assume the stat you saw is a typo.

I also weighed fish for Mike Hart alone, and Hart and Zank as a team, over the last three or four years, and can't remember a dead fish.
There may have been one, but certainly not one out of four.
Almost all our tournament's dead fish were taken home and eaten by a staff member, so we would have heard pretty quickly if there had been weights in any of them.
It has to be a typo.

[K Luby]

Let's not forget that a fish with a hunk of lead in it's belly may not die until after it's been released. To me that's the only way that the guy could have done this and still win.

[Tin Can]

In the 7 events I ran in which he fished last year, he didn't weigh 1 dead fish so I'm assume the stat you saw is a typo.

I also weighed fish for Mike Hart alone, and Hart and Zank as a team, over the last three or four years, and can't remember a dead fish.
There may have been one, but certainly not one out of four.
Almost all our tournament's dead fish were taken home and eaten by a staff member, so we would have heard pretty quickly if there had been weights in any of them.
It has to be a typo.

They didn't find the weights in his day one fish, do you think he didn't use them on that day?

More likely is the fact that you don't cut the stomach open to filet a fish. Why would you do that? You filet them leaving the stomach intact and toss em.

[bryanmc]

In the original story they said that one of the folks doing the filleting was interested to see what the fish were eating and cut open the stomach of one or more (I don't remember if they said how many).

Had it not been for that, Hart may well have gotten away with it.

[Lance]

I'm also going to say its a typo. I worked turneys for WON and Top Stick for 2 years. I dont ever recall seeing a dead fish from Mike

[Rick G]

The main reason there were no red flags is that lots of people watched him and his partners catch the winning bags. He and his past partners were and still are very good sticks and weights or no weights they still had to put them in the boat. That sounds like alot of dead fish to me and must be a mistake. Rick G.

[DougH]

The main reason there were no red flags is that lots of people watched him and his partners catch the winning bags. He and his past partners were and still are very good sticks and weights or no weights they still had to put them in the boat. That sounds like alot of dead fish to me and must be a mistake. Rick G.

That kind of hits the nail on top of the head with this whole affair Rick, the dude was a supreme stick and he didn't need to cheat. This washes away what should have been a stellar career, that anyone of us would have more than proud of. That's why it's sad in a way. What would have been more than enough for 99.99% of us just wasn't good enough for him... It's just a shame...

[fishinman]

Dead Fish, supreme sticks, whatever whats done is done and for the guys that know me That I've said to before this NOBODY IS THAT GOOD! Always had the same response back. "How can you say that ,do realize who your talking about". I'd say yeah But but but and I'd shut-up. Now it's all over maybe we will have better participation at Castaic, in future Tourneys. Sure would love to see 75 boats or more. We would even have a top 10 payout/more returning Anglers/ Dollars to team tourneys in so cal!

[Andrew Jackson]

Wasn't gunna chime in on this topic but, and this may have been mentioned, he placed 2nd or 3rd in last seasons WON Bass Tri-States, fishing alone, and weighed in early I believe because he was having issues keeping his deep caught bass alive. Now I spoke with him after the event to ask about how he goes about finding and getting them deep bass to bite. Very informative stuff he shared with me. However, what I now scratch my head about is why did he have such a hard time keeping them alive when I am sure he would know how to and implement "needling" the fish.

[Cooch]

The dead fish ratio is ridiculous, I'd bet in the last three years me, and my buds (30 plus) didn't weigh that many dead fish combined!

I would never take that bet, simply cause you guys never caught that many fish last year! HAR! HAR! HAR!

[ASD]

The dead fish ratio is ridiculous, I'd bet in the last three years me, and my buds (30 plus) didn't weigh that many dead fish combined!

I would never take that bet, simply cause you guys never caught that many fish last year! HAR! HAR! HAR!

Now that's funny

[jimmy87]

bastard needs to be punished to the fullest extent.
Unreal. How dose anyone live with themselves cheating all these years? I guess some people do not have a soul.


Far as deep fish. Its easy to keep them alive. Just reel them up faily slow so thier guts stay inside their mouths. If you just put them in the livewell they almost always stay alive in need of popping.
Pop them shorlty before the weigh. that way if you make a mistake and poke the wrong spot they will be alive at the scale.

In a decade of tourney fishing I can honeslty remember weighing only one dead fish. There maybe a fish or 2 more but I do not recall.

[g-man]

The dead fish ratio is ridiculous, I'd bet in the last three years me, and my buds (30 plus) didn't weigh that many dead fish combined!

I would never take that bet, simply cause you guys never caught that many fish last year! HAR! HAR! HAR!

I did just fine...

[Terry Smith]

The dead fish ratio is ridiculous, I'd bet in the last three years me, and my buds (30 plus) didn't weigh that many dead fish combined!

I would never take that bet, simply cause you guys never caught that many fish last year! HAR! HAR! HAR!

I did just fine...

Us too!!! think we have only had 1 dead fish in 5 years