Mike Miller
Appearances
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
I think there was some crazy stat. They won nine out of 12 tournaments that they fished, which is ridiculous. I mean, just absolutely ridiculous. And it started to get to the point of like, are you kidding me?
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
all right, hold on a minute. Nobody's even seeing where this guy's fishing, okay? Other teams would talk about it. They were never seeing him on the water during tournament day or in practice. So it was like, how is he doing this?
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
you know, people were definitely starting to take sides. And I would actually get into arguments with people like, how do you not understand what he's doing? Are you that blind? How can you just look past it? Like, it's black and white. It's right here. Just look. All you have to do is open your eyes and look. And I was like, all right.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
It wasn't ever ruining friendships with anybody, but people around the fishing community knew that I was on his ass, so to speak.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
It was a beautiful day, sunshine, everybody was in great spirits.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
It's just like, no way. Like, there's just like looking at them. You can just look at these fish and you can just tell that these fish weren't the size that they were supposed to be.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
And now there's grumblings in the crowd. And then they come off a stage and I say, hey, Jake, let me see that bag of fish. And he ignored me. I'm like, Jake, Jake, let me see that bag of fish. And he walks over to me, him and Chase walk over to me, and he opens the bag up like three inches just so I could, you know, peek in there. And I look, and I see that these fish are not seven-pound fish.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
They're four- and five-pound fish. So I go to reach my hand in there and grab one, and he snatches the bag away from me. You know, and he's like, F you, Mike. And Chase is going off about, like, how he wants to kick my butt, just like some high school stuff, you know. So everybody sees this, what's going on.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 1 | 2
You can see Jason, the tournament director up on stage, looking at us and seeing what was happening. And then that's when he told them, hey, come here, I want to see those fish. And Chase ran to his truck.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
He's at the tail end of his career. That was the last tournament he ever fished. So he could have went out as a champion, but he's second place. And then there was another tournament that Chase and Jake won where a father-son team came in second place.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
So it's like not only the monetary value of what they're stealing from people, they're also stealing people's hopes and dreams and fantasies and lifelong memories that you have with somebody. Where's the value on that?
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
Since this has happened, it's been a fantastic year of fishing in these tournaments.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
The atmosphere is the way it should be. It's back to the way it used to be. There's high fives. There's attaboys. There's a lot of people congratulating. There's guys who are winning tournaments that have never won before. And it's just a much more positive atmosphere. Nobody's going home on Sunday and calling each other wondering and complaining about Chase and Jake cheating anymore.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
Chase ran. He literally ran to his truck. I was running after him. It reminded me of a little teenage boy running to soccer practice. It's what he looked like. Yeah, he just went and hid in his truck.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
Obviously, there was an angry mob. He let Jake ride the whole thing out.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
He didn't run away. He didn't put a hoodie over his face and take off. He legitimately just stood there and took the wrath of the crowd.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
We're not talking about weekend tournament where you win 600 bucks. These tournaments that he was winning, I think in a year and a half, him and Jake were like over $300,000.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
There's nowhere in the rules that say if you get caught cheating, you do 30 days in jail or it's a $20,000 fine. Just says the tournament director has his discretion to disqualify or deny entry to anybody that they want. To a criminal, I think it was a no brainer.
Big Time
Dead Fish Tell No Tales: Part 2 | 3
Something to be said is in that Rossford tournament, the guy who took second place, he was a very seasoned and longtime, very well-respected angler.