For minor tournaments, cheaters can be charged with a Class A misdemeanor and face up to a year in jail, or a maximum $4,000 fine. But if the prize involved is more than $10,000, contestants can pay up to a $10,000 fine, as well as spend 2 to 10 years in prison.
HB 1806, as it was known in May 2011, expanded existing law to all fishing tournaments, including fresh and saltwater. The bill made it an offense for contestants to give, take, offer, or accept a fish not caught as part of the tournament. It also became an offense to misrepresent a fish. In short, fraudulent fishermen throughout the Lone Star State were warned to "reel it in...or else."
As you might imagine, when contents of this bill became public knowledge, it created a whirlwind of comments from the "peanut gallery" all across the state. Following is just a sampling of those comments:
From Hook 'Em Horns came this: "Texas = PRISON STATE! Any questions?"
From DD came this: "The golf lobby is high-fiving each other to celebrate their exclusion from this bill. And if you cheat at Solitaire, I guess it's up to God to strike you dead. I can only surmise that the Legislature already has solved all of our vexing social problems, such as tax relief for yacht purchasers, legislators' compelling need to bring guns into churches and bars, and criminalizing the hiring of any undocumented aliens, except those providing child care or lawn care."
From Anonymous 1 came this: "I was thinking that next session all us guys who lie about the size of certain 'parts' will be in a real pickle...2nd-degree felony, maybe? On the serious side of things, what happened to all those less important bills, like the budget? Sometimes, you think a session will produce great things for the lives of the citizens; then the cold, dead redsnapper of truth hits you right across the face."
From Anonymous 2 came this: "Maybe eventually, they'll make running for or holding a public office in Texas a felony and solve all our problems."
And finally, from The Homeless Cowboy came this: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am deeply saddened by this event. Truly one of the last bastions of manhood has been stripped from us. Men have misrepresented their fishing trophies for thousands of years, even gone so far as to stop at the market and buy them when we had a bad day. So far as lying about the size and fight they put up, it's an inalienable right. Mail a dead fish to your congressman and maybe they will begin to see that WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH; they must cease and desist from this practice. They have just turned every law-abiding male citizen in this state into a felon. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE. P.S. I cheat at Solitaire, too."
According to some newspaper accounts, many anglers nevertheless were happy with the bill.
Fishing lore may be full of tales about "the one that got away," as well as fishermen who long have been known to exaggerate the size of their catch. The bragging problem in the Lone Star State in 2011, however, simply had gotten "so bad that something had to be done," as explained by Tommy Hagler, a fishing guide operating out of Abilene at the time.
He went on to say he himself never had lied about the size of a fish...and, in fact, on one occasion had shorted himself by two pounds. That, however, wasn't on the occasion when he caught his personal best to date: an 11.62 pounder.
Steve Schmidt, another fishing guide, said that tall fish tales told by tourists, not involved in tournaments, "probably were acceptable." He clarified that statement by noting that "when everybody is just telling stories, that's fishing, but to cheat, that's another thing. That's just not right."
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