Five-time Angler of the Year on Wisconsin circuit busted for bass overbagging

Minocqua, Wis. — On Friday night Sept. 11, the night before the Saturday, Sept. 12, WISCO Crown Bass Championship Tournament was set for the Minocqua Chain of Lakes in Wisconsin’s Oneida County, five-time angler-of-the-year Adam Eisele was found with 14 live largemouth bass in his livewell.

Eisele, of Fort Atkinson, hadn’t actually yet fished in the tournament, which could have been grounds for fraud had he won or placed, but having live bass in his boat the day before the tournament was a violation of tournament rules – and potentially a violation of state fishing regulations.

Another tournament angler found the fish in Eisele’s boat after seeing the boat lights on that night. The fisherman went over to Eisele’s boat to turn off the lights. The WISCO Crown Bass Championship Tournament is the largest solo-angler contest in the state, where the top 50 anglers compete for a total purse of $21,000, with $11,000 going to the tournament winner. Many bass tournaments use a two-angler per boat format.

 “We got a call from another angler, Dave Van Ert, that night, who was staying at the same house Adam was using and saw the lights on in Adam’s boat. He was going to turn them off when he found the bass. Dave did the right thing by contacting us,” said Kyle Carpenter, co-owner with Brent Te Kulve, of WISCO Bass, LLC, tournament organizers. “The integrity of our business was at stake, in addition of our need to protect sport anglers from this type of activity. 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,” said Carpenter.

“We also called Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conservation wardens about the incident and they’re investigating it for potential natural resources violations,” he said.

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The investigation by DNR game wardens will look at the possession of over-the-bag-limit of game fish and likely failing to drain water from livewells after leaving a lake, a law designed to prevent the transfer of aquatic invasive species. Wisconsin’s daily bag limit is five bass on the lake, with no minimum size limit. The possession limit is generally double the daily bag limit on Wisconsin waters.

Game wardens do not investigate allegations of potential fraud in tournament winnings during this type of contest, but may refer their reports to local law enforcement for an independent investigation. In this case, that would be the Oneida County Sheriff’s Department and Oneida County district attorney.

Wisconsin DNR Conservation Warden Lt. Chris Bartelt, the local warden team supervisor, confirmed an investigation regarding bag limits was underway and his team has been in contact with local authorities, but Bartelt is unable to comment any further at this point. Law enforcement agencies typically do not comment on ongoing investigations.

Eisele won WISCO’s Angler of the Year Award five consecutive years and has done well monetarily at competitive bass fishing during his career, according to Carpenter, who also added he, Te Kulve, and some of WISCO’s anglers have been suspicious of Eisele’s activities.

“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 said. “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 being contacted by Van Ert the night of Sept. 11, tournament officials contacted Eisele and asked permission to search his boat, to which he agreed. Eisele also said he didn’t have a good plan for the fish, but did intend to use them in this tournament, breaking the tournament rules and allegedly state laws involving possession limits of game fish.

“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 said. “In light of this very unique 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,” Carpenter said.

Upon the news that WISCO banned Eisele from any future tournaments, two other circuits also banned Eisele – the Wisconsin Alliance of Bass Tournament Anglers and the Central Wisconsin Bass Anglers.

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.

Mitch Van Ert won the tournament with a two-day total of 34.44 pounds.