A huge tournament was announced the following weekend. The grand prize was 15,000 dollars. There was a 250-dollar entrance fee. Ryan was sure he had a chance at winning the tournament. He paid his money and purchase some new gear to aid him in the competition.

He had heard that the competitors could be down right viscious at times. He knew from listening to some of his friends, that he had to watch his back. There were stories of cheating, threats and outright violence during the tournaments.

There was even rumor that one man was severely injured by some guys who did not want him to compete. There were also rumors that one guy had sabatoged another guys catch, by contaminating his equipment with a scent that drove fish away.

Ryan was an outdoors guy so, he figured he could he could handle all the rough housing. On the morning of the tournament Ryan rose early. He drove to the docking site and waited for the competition to begin. He prepared by tuning up his equipment.

While in the parking lot he was approached by two men. They looked like fellow fisherman. They were also about to prepare their equipment. One guy was about Ryans age and seem to be pretty friendly. The other guy was older and seemed to have a mean personality.

The young guy started talking to Ryan about the competition and the other places they had been fishing. The older guy seems to be aggravated by the friendship that was emerging between the two. He told the young guy that he was giving away their secrets.

He also told Ryan that he knew what he was up to and he was going to tell the judges. Ryan did not have a clue what the guy was talking about and tried to ignore him. The older guy persisted; he began to move really close to Ryan.

Ryan felt uncomfortable and tried to back up. The guy moved closer. He pushed Ryan. Ryan knew there was going to be trouble. Ryan tried to reason with the guy. The guy would not listen he became very loud and was about to push Ryan again, when Ryan grabbed his wrist.

A struggle ensued and then the younger guy jumped in apparently to try and break up the fight. By that time a crowd had gathered to watch. To the crowd all three seemed to fighting each other. The struggle continued for a while.

Moments later competition security arrived. They where able to separate the three. They all told their story to the tournament officials. The official were not totally surprised, they had seen this sort of thing before.

With such a prize they were sure there would be some fights. The competition officials decided the only fair thing to do was to suspend all three from the tournament and give them a full refund of their entry fee.

Ryan was disappointed but he knew there would be other tournaments. He was grateful that no one was seriously injured in the scuffle. The young guy apologized to him for the behavior of his older friend. He told him that the guy had a bad experience in a tournament once and was never able to let it go.

Competitions can become violent. Some people are dead set on winning no matter what the cost. If you are approached by a competitor in the wrong manner, you must be prepared to defend yourself.