The Cod Nats Cheat Code

[MUSIC] >> Coward, it's always been coward. >> I strongly disagree. >> It's why it is. >> [LAUGH] >> You're about to throw the ring down in the nose line. >> Just so I could go down and drink a cotton while everyone punches on. >> Just, this is me, the cheese, that's the worst thing you can do. >> You shut up your hat, talking about beer. This is what I wanted to get for the stuff. >> What are you saying? >> You just made it, yeah. [MUSIC] >> And welcome to the Chumannup podcast, the Fishing Spear Fishing and Ocean Adventure podcast that believe only cowards fear the truth. I am squirrely and I don't catch yellow bellies, let alone have one. And with me, as always, is the bacon a truth? Lately, well, Mitchell, how you going, big ass? >> Yeah, good, I've never been called the bacon a truth before, but yeah, let's try it with that. >> Yeah, loud bacon. The emergency bacon probably, but I think it's a good time to do a podcast. We've had a couple days since the cod nationals have finished and it finished in a very controversial way. Let's be honest. >> Yeah, massively controversial and like, right, you've ever had a couple of days. I would have thought I would have called my jets off of it, but I'm even more wound up now, it's crazy. >> Yeah, it's kind of gone the opposite way and I still don't fully understand why. But yeah, we'll run through exactly what we know has happened so far. The questions we've still got and people can come up with their own answers from that or probably not, they'll probably come up with even more questions. >> Maybe, yeah, as far as I say, it's as big of a thing as the weight's in fish in America, thing that they had in war, whatever it was. >> Yeah, well, I mean, yeah. So we'll just run through the controversies as they came. Got to the last day of cod nationals and yeah, like great win by Billy Westerville. >> Yeah, great win, boys be starred and we had them in the boat oxygen, so even better. >> Yeah, even better. And so during the presentation, some controversies come up, including Bryce Abbott, not winning most improved angler, because he was seen to be casting before lines in on the last day. >> Yeah. >> And he was on the phone at the time and just happens to catch a large cod. >> Yeah, I heard around 70 centimeters. >> Yeah, he's excited about that. Until he's told, mate, lines in hasn't happened yet. >> Yeah, one of the other boats next to him. >> Yeah, so he chucks the fish back in, reports it that yeah, owns up to his mistake, but is de-cued. So does not get the prize. >> Yeah. >> Which, yeah, I mean, it happens, I guess. I don't think anyone was too upset on every way of that. I think they knew it was a mistake. And then, yeah, also that sometimes that can get you disqualified in fish tournaments just to keep the integrity of the comp. >> Yeah, that's right. And I think where the mistake was happened was the day before day three, was the dash for cash, where you all go, you get the horn goes off, you all shoot from one spot like race, and the quicks one there once you pull up your start fishing. Like it's a race to fish. That's what the first day before is the third day. And then the fourth day, you get your token at 720, and everyone races to their spot, you have to wait till 745. So start fishing. And some people get there before 745, and then they forget, like in the moment, but it's like that, you know, we not almost forgot, but on the way there, I'm like, oh, that's right, when we're driving the boat, I'm like, oh, I can turn another lure on another rod, because we don't have to start fishing as soon as we get there. And we've personally seen another boat cast once, and I'm like, you can't, can't fish it, and they're like, oh, shit. You know? >> Yeah, what? >> It all happened. >> Actually, their first response was like, wait, wait, wait, here first. And then. >> Yeah, and it's like, no, you can't fish it. They're like, oh, shit, they told them off, they can't fish there. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, so it does happen, so that was the first controversy, which I think some, or there's not a hate of fishing comps that doesn't have at least one controversy. But there's-- >> Yeah, it's weird though, because they took, most improved angler section of them. It was a weird, like just, that's what the penalty was, you know, they just decided that. >> Yep. >> And that was the punishment for it, and they called it out in front of the whole 104 competitors in the room. >> And that's not that he won't be winning it, and it went to another angler. >> Yeah, with the exact story. >> Yeah. >> Yeah, yeah. >> So that happened. There was already a little bit of controversy on the last day. Of it came into it. It was probably three comps, three teams in the running. >> Yeah. >> At that time, realistically, there were a couple outside chances. Even third was going to find it pretty hard to catch. Billy up the top. Do you know the names of the three teams? >> I'm up. Thomas Pinto was at the top, but the Tom Billy was a couple of points behind going into the last three. >> Okay. >> So the three teams were team Black Widow. That's Tom Smith, Steve Pinter. >> Five champions. >> And then champions. >> Yeah, yep. And then there was second was team Ranger, and that was Billy Westavelt. And lucky, I think it's McLaughlin. They end up being the champions. This controversy has a lot to do with that. >> Yep. >> It's pretty interesting. And just before anyone thinks it's got to do with them, they're the right pool champions and the under-spoted champs. There should be the champs. And then team three, which I think was team Zammel and it's team Kupi, Kupi and Harley. Sorry, how are you? I think I remember your last name that I found. They were in third place. >> Yeah. And so probably the first controversy is one team decides to follow Black Widow for the team. >> Yeah. So one of the teams in the top 10, with them, multiply still left on the last day, one of two teams that could say that we're in the top 10 that had an odd place, they decided, and this is our Ricky Doyle, is the team. The captain of his boat and he decided he was going to follow the pinters for the day. So just say, the rule is you know, close to 50 meters to a boat and you can't fish in front of where water they want to go. So he decided he was going to follow that boat 50 meters behind in their dead water. So he didn't break any rules. >> Yep. And he didn't even fish for the day, did he? >> No, I don't think he fished. I think he just watched what was going on. I'm not sure if you wanted to see how they do it because they win so many tournaments, especially on last days coming from home. If you were suspect on something, which wouldn't surprise me because he found something by watching them, but he did it. You know, I never lost sight of him. So. >> Yeah. >> And we noticed that on the day, because we were fishing near where Thomas had started. And then when he took off, you said to me, I think someone's followed. And Thomas. >> Yeah, I was like that to boat literally following him because you know, boats go close to each other, especially the top team boats. And there's a boat literally following Thomas Benta. And I'm like, I think it's really man like this is wild. He's following him. And Thomas was like on eighth on his electric just burning around fishing like anyone that ever could fish to. It's not really how you see it done normally. It's only slow in the theoretical, but they were just ripping around. They were all over the shop. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> So that was interesting anyway, but yeah, it's all up that totally was following him. >> Yeah. >> And then from there, what happens? >> Well, because we had, yeah, like, fishing, yeah, we had Billy in the boat auction. >> Yeah. >> I ran him at about 10 o'clock or whatever it was. And I was like, oh, buddy, how are you going? He's like, here we go, and we caught three fish or whatever, so fuck you, he's a killer, he's going to win this thing. And then I said, like, Doiley's following Thomas around and he's like, oh, we had heard that. I'm like, we'd heard like it's an actual thing, you know, like, so other guys had been seeing it and hearing it was, well, how would I? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, that was wild. >> So then the next part of the controversy probably is the controversy. >> Yeah. So the day goes on, the pinches catch three fish. At lunchtime, they tried out, because there's half an hour lunch break, they tried out run Doiley get away from him and they're unable to. And from what I'm led to believe, they contacted Tony Bennett, the organizer of the tournament and said, what's going on here, Tony, rang Doiley up and said, what are you doing? And Doiley, I think, may have come up on him. That's just a silly thing, you know, he's a grown man, he can do what he wants, he wasn't breaking any rules. >> Yep. >> Yeah, so the pinches caught three fish and anyone that's fished the card and that's, if you catch on the sponsors, as well as on the day, you get bonus points for each fish. You know, legal fish you get on the sponsors, and. and all of their fish had been put in as legal fish on sponsor's loaers and which were really the rumballuas and they make hard bodies Jack makes, so I lizard topwaterless, sebripa loa is the absolute great. And I doily noticed that the fish at 8am they caught who was so close and he had another witness on board the fish is with him so dual witnesses that um one of the fishers indeed caught on a spinnerbait which is able to be used on the last day because you can use any style of lure but you don't get the bonus points for it. Yep. So and that's kind of weird to use a non-sponsored lure isn't it? Like it's it's not kind of weird it's massively weird you would not do it it's not it's not done like the bonus points are everything and Tony Bennett made a point of it there was a fish trolled up on an orgy lure on hard body day and he in fact said that the three fish they got on or g's at that time where the only lure was not caught on sponsors lure as so it's it's pretty unusual it's not common and yeah so um doily had seen that caught on the spinnerbait here got wind that the lure had been put in as a sponsor lure yep and the procedure for that is put in a written protest a complaint yep so he put that in and I had the preview of seeing that through Tony Bennett showed it to me at the end of the presentation night when there was not many people left I asked him about this controversy because I got wind of it and I hadn't been drinking anything and I chatted through it and he showed me it and the timestamp when it was 4.55 pm the written protest came in and I've since talked to Doily and that's he's the creeps on yep and from that moment action had to be taken so because lined out with 3.30 pm because the last day so it's early lined out yep and presentation was about to kick off at six o'clock so obviously the fish was called at 8am it says that the written protest it says it was on the spinnerbait and it says it was called by Steve Pinter yep so then Tony has told me that he has rang Steve after the protest and at some point after to sure when but before the obviously the awards come out Tony also told me that he was annoyed because all the score sheets had been printed out and he had to go back through and redo them so clearly by that mention you know the the lure had been put as a as a sponsored lure with bramber lure yeah because he had to redo the score sheets he told me that personally yep I got the three photos of the fish that was caught there was no lure in the photo even though in the rule book it shows you how to take your photos and when that's on a sponsored lure there has to be the lure in the photo yep and the poker chip for it but that wasn't in it it was just the photo of the fish and the chip and even Tony mentioned that maybe from a certain the way the camera angle was taken maybe the fish wasn't touching the end of the measuring board but it definitely looked like it could be as well and I like it to do that you couldn't tell now it wasn't a great photo it wasn't directly on top of the end of the measuring board but I think I've seen it like there was definitely no lure in the photo there was just the poker chip and then I assume they tell him what the lure is even though in the rule book it says otherwise yeah and then Tony told me he rang Steve because Steve was going to court it and I said he's very clear of what was said on the phone and this is what Tony told me he said Steve went oh like Tony said we've got a complaint saying he caught that fish on a spinnerbait it was witnessed and Steve went oh oh yeah we did yes I did Thomas must have noticed it and put it through as a sponsored lure which you know it's skeptical because I doily is confirmed that and the other witness the second witness is confirmed that Thomas netted the fish and they pulled it on board so he seen what lure was in its mouth the fish was only 55 point something centimeters yeah maybe just legal say the lure was very unlikely swallowed all the way in you'd be able to see it everyone knows what their part is throwing what that wouldn't have been a time man you wouldn't know what we're casting it's just crazy yeah let learners spin a bait on hard body day exactly on the run of the day it's ridiculous a team that is never in my knowledge ever put a fish in that wasn't on a sponsored lure was not once because it's not what you do yeah so and doily watched them both on hook it so anyway Steve said that Thomas may not have known that that one was on a spinnerbait but then what's really interesting is the next thing Steve said was we were just about to call you and cancel the fish that's what Tony told me he said and that's wild because did Thomas not know that it was caught on it or we used just about to call because the fish was caught at 8 a.m. wise out was 3.30 this is somewhere between 455 and the 6 p.m. briefing then we're just going to call like did he not know that he acted that you didn't catch it on it or we're just calling to disqualify the fish yeah and that's exactly what Tony told me and I even ran through it twice with him to be super clear I checked the time stamp on the written complaint at 455 of rank doily back today to confirm that he's confirmed that even already knew it but confirmation from him yeah yeah that's what we ludicrous and then even to add to it Thomas Pinter has got wins that maybe we were going to do this podcast then talk about his controversy so he's been trying to ring me and honestly answer the phone and I just said I don't go ask for cheaters don't fucking call me again and hang up and which proceeded for him to start taking me which I didn't reply to come out silly and one of the texts actually says if you hold on I'll look on my phone it actually says the last text says if it's worth anything much like Marlon's using if a fish eats two liby's tight on two rods it's a DQ I called Tony instantly before anything broke out sending that fish through and seeing my dad pick up a spinovates to say the fish wasn't sponsored lower yeah that's the exact wording so I have that text obviously so what was it of the three situations was that we didn't know until after the four fighting 55 protest yeah was it we're about to call you here or was it they've already told him but the first one would then assume that then Tony was lying about then calling them after the protest which I don't think is the case but you know there's three different stories and they're all of them admit that they were doing yeah so at the very least if which seems to least likely there's this mistake that doesn't get picked up through the whole day which seemed very unlikely but even at that it seems like you would you would have to disqualify 100% it's falsification of a lower top well I yeah yeah that's what it is and I don't think to me I just don't say it so if that's the truth then someone has to come out and explain how because it makes no sense to me and well bris was disqualified for his one yeah for a fish that wasn't even sent through yeah so had no effect on any scoreboard and this incident wasn't so bris was made to was told in front of the whole crowd of 104 anglers yeah was made to feel little about it and told about it this was not even brought up in front of people yeah there was no backlash the only thing that changed was the bonus point was taken off the fish but it was never supposed to be there in the first place so there was no even backlash the fish still counted like there was no come up at all yeah and so it's so then yep go ahead yep oh and then a fish like that was basically the the points difference in Billy Winner you know that bonus point like honestly and like Steven Thomas Pinter have beaten multiple teams at the last line by less than two bonus points year after year yeah yeah and the other thing which could be coincidence was in over like 29 days straight of this tournament over the years four days of time Thomas hasn't had a day where he hasn't caught a fish he's been champion angler for like seven years rum and whatever and including this one he won champion angler would know you know the qualification of anything after this fish incident even though Steve caught it but and the day that Dolly follows him whole day Thomas didn't catch a fish when someone's watching him the whole day yeah you know that could be coincidence but it's still coincidence you know it's still whether it's a coincidence or it's only a coincidence it's still a coincidence and it's a fact that he did not catch a fish while someone was watching him and with then being sent a lot of coincidences which we won't go into but there is a there is lots and lots of thoughts coming through you yeah and I mean if the first thing doesn't happen and be reported and then nothing comes of it then they remain coincidences but I think Now the questions got to be asked of all of it till there's an answer. And it's not for us, like just so everything's cleared, we were not anywhere in the running. We didn't catch a fish the last two days. Personally, it won't change anything for us and I'd rather not be talking about any of this because I have loved fishing the cod nationals. But for third place, the difference is about $6,000. Yeah, yeah, cash. Yep. But also, they, to me, are rightfully the second best cod fish him in this week in the country. 100% answer and talks should be third and it should be fourth and fourth, you know. And if that bonus point hadn't been picked up by Ricky Doyle and Billy and that hadn't one, we wouldn't have won the boat auction and there was four green difference between first and second. So, you know, it's big bickies and you know, potentially, you know, a lot of money over time. Yeah, yeah, it's absolutely crunchy. So yeah, I think there's a lot of questions. I mean, sometimes people say whether there's smoke, there's fire, but also whether there's fire, there's fire. So the last day is the wrong law that needs to be answered. Yeah. And every other question is a question till that is answered. Well, there's a lot of answers out there, but they're not given up, not being given. So there's been a committee formed by Tony Bennett of great guys and great anglers. There's about six of them or something from memory. And Tony hasn't released, like I've seen the photo of that one fish that night, a briefing night, but he hasn't released, why does he just text your photos of all your fish? Why doesn't he just release all of them? And they should be screenshots. I think it just needs to be a bit more transparent. There's literally $10,000, $10,000 any tournament involved in, like their speculations of years. Thomas Pinto was banned from another comp, a team's fishing Australia tournament in the lake. They weren't allowed to prefish or pre-sound or pre-scope in there before the tournament, but they were a certain period. I've seen screenshots of things and he was well aware that he wasn't allowed to. He asked if he could, he said no. And then he was caught fishing in there before the team's fishing Australia event. And they banned him. They kicked him straight out of it. Sorry. Yeah, it's not the first offense. And it's been a lot of funny things. The dash for the cash morning day. There were the closest boat to Thomas. And he's bath cat was pumping water out. And I thought it was a built pump, severely enough, because I was so naive. And I was like, man, that's thing. I've got a ballast put in it. They've used it to run across the lake when they got here for the start of the dash for cash. And it went for like 10 minutes and never stopped. And then it's now like, that was probably a live well tank. And they were literally five meters from us. So it'll love to look in the live well tank. We've got video of the live well tank pumping. So, you know, on that dash for cash morning session before we went, you know, you can see my boat in it. So. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Definitely questions. Hopefully the right outcomes come for the right people. If we are wrong, then yeah. Yeah. Well, we're not wrong about the facts we've said about the lower and all of that. There's nothing wrong there. That's all fine. Yeah. The speculation speculation, the live well was pumping in the rules at Cessian. All that. Have the live well going. That's another rule. Yeah. That seems to be a few rules. But no action was taken whatsoever. And a lot of people have messaged since and no action taken. It'd be really interesting to see what the committee come to when they. They come together. I'd love to see the photos like anyone wants to see the photos of our fish. We took in the company and welcome to see them all. They can see everything. I won't even send the photos. I'll send the screenshots of the messages with the photos in it that are sent to Tony so that they can't even change the photos. You can have the whole timeline for the four days. Yeah. Yeah, loud if you want to see us, we're happy to share them. It'll take you about two messages because they're like all fish in there. That's it. But I think that would be a good start. You know, like all dodgy things. Now we can only guess how deep it may go or may not go. Yeah. So yeah, it's very, very interesting. In the world of Murray cod fishing and you know, it's answered a lot of questions for a lot of people. Well, you know, like I've seen a lot of weird things that was just quirky, weird stuff. But it doesn't make sense. Launching a different boat ramps come back to them before lines out, lines in, running around last year on the last day or the day before they swapped a boat. People there's out and put another one in. Yeah. Yeah, I like to talk to a lot of a lot of strange stuff going on. People have a million stories about strange stuff. Yeah. So a lot of questions. Lot of questions. Yeah. What are your thoughts, really? It in my view is more likely than unlikely that that last day is a deliberate action. And a lot of the other stuff doesn't make sense and seems like there's shenanigans going on. Yeah. And I think the biggest priority over the top now is the lack of action about it. It seems to be getting swept under the rug. It's a boiling point amongst cod anglers. Everyone's going nuts. And the phone hasn't stopped. Neither has many guys. Anyone who's anyone in cod fishing in this area knows about it. It's toe and ham. You know, like, yeah, there needs to be some action taken. Otherwise, you know, it just like any inaction, it breeds bad things like it could potentially breed vigilante action and stuff like that. You know, like, which we don't condone and we don't want to see any of that here, chamin' up. It's just, it's wild how nothing's been done and it's so obvious that there's been cheating. Yeah. And for someone to walk away with champion angler and second place boat, you know, the amount of money and prizes they've taken and other people that have rightfully deserve haven't got. It's absolutely crazy. Yeah. Yeah. So I think we'll put this out there and yeah, if there's answers we missed and share the answers, if not, hopefully the right result becomes the right result. Yeah. Well, that's all we can do. And I think the other thing is I just want to say like from my end, I can't speak for Scroely, but when you've got a medium like this podcast and you live fishing and you're exposed to something as as massive as this is in fishing, you sort of, you know, we can't just sit there and do nothing about it. We have an obligation to report stuff like this and the fishing world needs to know, you know, like, um, so yeah, it's just, it's just interesting instead of having a podcast where we literally just talk and shit. We're actually reporting on something that's, um, that's a massive deal in the fishing industry, you know? Yeah, well, if you can't take out word for them, there's no point in doing anything. When we say something, saying it because we truly believe it. So yeah, that's right. And I've got screenshot to text and some evidence and honestly, if anyone's questioning it out there, just talk to any kind of hangler in the country that you think is reputable and you will definitely hear something of some sort like everyone's going to have an opinion. You're just hearing a lot of it these hours with sex signing. Yep. Well, I'm happy to call it there. You got anything else to add? No, mate. I don't have anything at the moment. I could have million things, but I won't. So, um, that's it. Thank you. Yeah. Hopefully the codnets will be stronger for the action that gets taken and I'm sure the committee will do the right thing. Yeah, well, that's right. It can't be wake up. Action has to be taken on these sorts of things. It needs to be stamped out. Roger. Anyway, cheers for chumming up. Cheers. Yeah, yeah. Cheers. What? I like going down the punches. Blue girls coming high. Coming high.