Bass Tournament Cheater Feels Weight of the Law

A fisherman caught cheating at a bass tournament has been sentenced to two years at hard labor after being one of the first people ever prosecuted in Louisiana for such an offense.

State District Judge W.C. Falkenheiner of Vidalia ordered Alva Anding of Baton Rouge to report to the Concordia Parish sheriff Monday to begin serving the sentence handed down Wednesday.

Anding was arrested by Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents following the weigh-in for a Louisiana Bass Casters Assn. tournament held on a Concordia area lake in May 1985.

He was charged with theft and attempted theft by fraud, accused of of catching some big bass before the tournament, hiding them in the lake in a wire basket, then presenting them at the official scales for weigh-in.

His plan went awry when another fisherman found his bass first and reported the scheme. Tournament officials marked the bass and returned them to the water.

Anding was allowed to weigh the fish but was arrested after accepting the winner’s prize of a boat and trailer valued at $4,500, along with $100 cash in the big bass division.

Tournament official Allen Butler said bass anglers throughout the state had written letters and sent petitions to local officials urging the case be prosecuted to the fullest.

“I’m satisfied. This should definitely be a deterrent to anybody else who entertains the idea of doing this sort of thing,” Butler said.