Before a fishing tournament even opened on Saturday at Wisconsin’s Minocqua Chain of Lakes, 14 largemouth bass were discovered in the livewell of competitor Adam Eisele on Friday.
The Wisco Crown Bass Championship Tournament is the largest single-angler contest of its kind in the state. The top 50 anglers competed for a total purse of $21,000, with $11,000 awarded to the overall tournament winner.
While Eisele did not have a chance to enter the fish in the following day’s tournament, it was still a violation of tournament rules to have live bass in his boat the day before the competition.
The bass were discovered by a fellow competitor, who noticed Eisele’s boat lights were still on the night before the tournament.
“We got a call from another angler, Dave Van Ert, that night, who was staying at the same house Adam was and saw the lights on in Adam’s boat,” says Kyle Carpenter, co-owner of the Wisco Bass tournament. “He was going to turn them off when he found the bass. Dave did the right thing by contacting us.”
Eisele was in violation of two tournament rules, according to Carpenter, who says such actions put the integrity of the competition at stake.
“His actions violated two of our rules, one being anglers can’t possess fish during the pre-tournament practice fishing day and the other is the code of conduct form all anglers involved in our contests are required to sign,” says Carpenter. “We also called DNR conservation wardens about the incident and they’re investigating it for natural resources violations.”
In addition to violating tournament rules, Eisele may have violated state game laws. The daily bag limit for the lake is five bass, with no minimum size limit. The possession limit is generally double the daily bag limit on Wisconsin waters. Officials may also investigate the failure to drain a livewell after leaving a lake, which is a law designed to prevent the spread of invasive species.
Conservation Warden Lt. Chris Bartelt confirmed to Outdoor Life that an investigation regarding bag limits is underway and that DNR officials have been in contact with local law enforcement, but declined to provide additional comment.
Game wardens don’t usually investigate fraud allegations related to fishing tournaments, but may refer their reports to local law enforcement for an independent investigation.
Eisele was named Wisco Bass’ Angler of the Year five times and had won some money in competitive bass fishing, according to Carpenter. Still, his violation of tournament rules on Friday didn’t come as a surprise to Carpenter.
“One year we even had a marshal ride in his boat. We’ve been suspicious of him for the last four to five years,” Carpenter says. “Integrity is so important to us, we can’t operate without it. While they’re very rare, we have an obligation to take care of incidents like this.”
After Van Ert reported the bass in Eisele’s livewell, Wisco Bass officials contacted Eisele and asked permission to search his boat. Eisele agreed to the search. He also told officials he didn’t have a good plan for the fish but did intend to use them in this tournament.
“We want to thank Dave Van Ert for holding himself to a high level of integrity and having the anglers in mind when he made the call to us,” Carpenter says. “In light of this situation, Wisco Bass has decided to ban Eisele from all our events. This is a very unique situation, one that’s in the best interest of all our anglers, sponsors, and Wisco Bass LLC.”
A routine check showed Adam Eisele had plead no contest to a charge of taking or attempting to take game in excess of the daily bag limit in Vernon County in November 2024.