2 anglers accused of cheating in fishing tournament

GUNTERSVILLE, AL (WAFF) - Two Marshall County men are facing charges for allegedly cheating in a fishing tournament.

Tournament officials said they are outraged someone would rig the outcome of a competition, and they hope the arrests send a message to others.

Robert Gillaspie and Gary Lee Minor Jr. turned in a crop of fish to win the Tuesday and Thursday night Owls Fishing Tournament, but officials say they later learned the fish had been previously caught.

The revelation landed both Gillaspie and Minor in jail, where they were charged by Alabama Fish and Game officers with tampering with a sporting event.

The pair were booked into the Marshall County Jail Thursday, and then released on $5,000 bond.

The event is held at a boat dock in Guntersville. Tournament officials said a tip led to a surveillance operation, which caught the two men catching fish prior to the tournament and placing them in a holding tank.

The men later went back during the tournament and placed the fish in their live well and submitted them at weight-in. The men won a couple hundred dollars as a result of their supposed win.

Tournament officials said the pair have been barred from any future tournament and hope it sends a message.

"I just hope they and all these other people that even think about it think twice before they do it, because it's going to ruin their lives," said tournament director Jerry Nyman. "Not only from fishing, their family, their work; it's going to affect all that."

Both men are due in court June 18.

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