Curtis Lee Daniels was arrested and charged with violating fishing tournament law after officials found weights in a fish at a Lake Fork tournament.
WOOD COUNTY, Texas — A man accused of trying to cheat during the weigh-in of a fishing tournament on Lake Fork was arrested this weekend.
Curtis Lee Daniels, of Willow Park, is charged with violating fishing tournament law. He was booked into the Wood County Jail Sunday on a $20,000 bond and released the next day.
According to a statement from the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife, Game Wardens in Wood County were contacted by the organizers of the Lake Fork Lure Co. Tournament to investigate a bass presented during weigh-in that could’ve been tampered with.
Using a metal detector device, tournament officials were alerted to there being a foreign object in the fish. After the wardens performed a necropsy, they found three weights in its stomach that also showed no signs of erosion.
Wardens then found weights of the same style and size in Daniels’ boat.
Since the prize for the tournament was greater than $10,000, the charge is a third-degree felony, meaning he faces two to 10 years in state prison and fines up to $10,000.