{"id":556372,"date":"2026-03-24T00:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556372\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T00:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T00:39:09","slug":"rcmp-investigate-alleged-cheating-at-montreal-lake-walleye-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556372\/","title":{"rendered":"RCMP investigate alleged cheating at Montreal Lake Walleye Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe Nation wishes to reassure the public that the integrity of the derby remains intact and that it continues to uphold a fair and transparent process,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"\/<\/p>\n

The derby has a grand prize of $100,000.<\/p>\n

Andrew Pallotta runs about 30 competitive sports fishing tournaments a year with the Competitive Sports Fishing League in Ontario. When lucrative prizes are on the line, he said it\u2019s not uncommon to hear about cheating.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty strict right from the get-go in the morning with the way we check boats,\u201d Palotta said. \u201cWe\u2019ve used metal detectors and we\u2019ve done lie [detector] tests. We do everything it takes and we\u2019re fortunate enough that we haven\u2019t had anybody do anything stupid at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t the case, however, at a fishing event in Ohio in 2022<\/a>, when two men admitted to stuffing fish with lead weights and fish fillets. According to NBC news, they were given 10-day jail sentences and had to forfeit a boat valued at $100,000.<\/p>\n

Pallotta said people need to realize fishing events are a serious sport and participants have their reputations on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think they ever want to be put into that position where you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0want to be considered mud and never\u00a0fish\u00a0a tournament again for the rest of your life,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

larongeNOW reached out to MLCN Vice-Chief Dean Henderson for more information on the situation at this past weekend\u2019s derby, but he declined to comment. The MLCN did say, however, if violations are confirmed, it will support all enforcement measures and prosecutions, where deemed necessary, in accordance with the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe First Nation remains committed to ensuring a fair and respectful event for all participants.\u201d<\/p>\n

The winner of the 18th annual Montreal Lake Walleye Derby was Drayden Morin. His 2.5 lb walleye landed him the $100,000 grand prize.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe Nation wishes to reassure the public that the integrity of the derby remains intact and that it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-556372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}