APennsylvania angler has been busted for cheating in the New York Kayak Bass Fishing (NYKBF) month-long online tournament on the St. Lawrence River in June 2025. While NYKBF is a kayak-only event, angler Jacob Housman allegedly used a midsection carved out of a kayak on top of a bass boat to stage photos for his submissions for the tournament from the bass boat, giving the impression in his submissions that the fish were caught from a kayak.
Angler caught presenting fish caught on bass boat as kayak fishing catch
Previously, Housman had been accused of cheating by way of fishing within the 100-yard limit of dams on the Susquehanna River. According to Adam Milstead, one of the anglers concerned about this most recent cheating scandal as it came to light, Housman was caught by suspicious anglers who conducted independent research and found a selfie of Housman clearly on a bass boat while holding a fish on his personal Instagram.
The fish in this photo looked suspiciously similar to a fish Housman had submitted via catch photo release (CPR) for the NYKBF tournament. The concerned anglers took this evidence to NYKBF, who confirmed it was the same fish and investigated further, finding surveillance footage from a dock showing the photo of the plastic kayak cutout inside a bass boat on the St. Lawrence River.
“This is a blatant violation. That is something he knew in his head is cheating but he went ahead and did it,” stated Milstead in a video.
Housman receives lifetime ban from some kayak fishing tournaments
According to reports obtained by Wired2Fish, Housman came clean Sunday, November 9, 2025 returning his $200 reward from the June tournament to NYKBF and Housman has received a lifelong ban from kayak and online-format events from NYKBF, NY Slay Nation, PA Kayak Bass Nation, PA Slay Nation and Tourney X.
In Facebook messages shared with Wired2Fish by John Tammaro, tournament director for the NYKBF, Housman wrote “I just wanted to reach out and tell you I am terribly sorry for cheating in your online event back in June for NY KBF. I understand my apology will never be accepted, and I am fine with that. My actions were unacceptable and I am happy to receive a lifelong ban from all tournament trails across the country. I was wondering if I could send back the money I won so that you could properly distribute it to the rightful winners.”
Tammaro told Wired2Fish that Housman’s motive for cheating was a desire to grow his social media presence.
