Barron Adams, the winning angler of The National Professional Fishing League (NPFL) event at Wright Patman Lake in Texas, missed out on a $100,000 payday when he was disqualified because he didn’t have a Texas fishing license.
The disqualification opened the door for the second-place angler, Texarkana local Ryan Satterfield to step in and take the big check. Satterfield put together a three-day total of 50 pounds, 4 ounces on his home water. He caught most of his weight fishing frogs to big females that were moving up on the banks to spawn.
“It makes me sick for him,” said Satterfield. “Barron had a great week out here; I don’t wish what happened to anybody. We all work so hard out here that it just makes me sick for him.”
According to a NPFL press release, Adams filled out his information for a license online but failed to complete the purchase process. The Georgia-based angler even passed a polygraph after the weigh-ins but could not produce proof of a valid fishing license.
“The League is confident that this was an inadvertent and unintentional rules violation on Barron’s behalf, and this is in no way a reflection of his integrity as an angler,” said Brad Fuller of the NPFL. “Barron is a great person and a phenomenal angler, and we are proud to have him as a competitor in the National Professional Fishing League.”
For more on the NPFL, go to https://thenationalprofessionalfishingleague.com/