Tournament Bass Angler Goes on the Lam After Weighing Down Catch with Lead

A Louisiana man has been arrested after six days on the lam for trying to cheat at a bass fishing tournament.

The organizers of the Big Bass Splash in Toledo Bend contacted the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) because they suspected that 38-year-old Aaron Moreau had cheated in the contest. The tournament is held at lakes in Texas and Louisiana, and contestants fish for the heaviest or longest largemouth, smallmouth, and Kentucky spotted bass.

Tournament officials called LDWF enforcement agents to Lake Toledo Bend on May 17, 2024. Those agents, along with a state biologist, confirmed that Moreau had placed 2.59 pounds of lead weights in a fish he used for weigh-in.

Moreau fled the tournament when the weights were discovered and briefly became (probably) the only man in America running from the law for cheating in a fishing tournament. But agents were able to obtain a warrant for his arrest, and Moreau turned himself into LDWF agents six days later on May 23. He was…