Wisconsin ice fishing contest ends with big switch

[February 25, 2009]  SOMERSET, Wis. (AP) -- Lee Shehow had a whopper of a fish tale.

Shehow, of New Richmond, claimed to have won Saturday's ice fishing contest on Bass Lake in Somerset after pulling up a northern pike weighing 2.42 pounds.

TV cameras were rolling when he was asked what he would do with the grand prize, a $27,000 Dodge pickup truck. He replied: "Drive it like it's stolen."

But private investigators working for the tournament suspected the winning fish was smuggled in.

Under contest rules, the winner was offered the chance Sunday to take a lie detector test and refused, organizer John Montpetit said, and that meant the prize had to go Tuesday to the runner-up, Monica Slimmer, of La Crosse, who caught a northern pike weighing 1.72 pounds.

Shehow denied cheating when interviewed by KARE-TV of Minneapolis-St. Paul. He said he caught the fish fairly and only gave up the prize because he didn't want to cause bad publicity for the Somerset Youth Athletic Association, which had put on the tournament as a fundraiser.

No phone listing could be found for Shehow when The Associated Press tried to reach him Tuesday night for further comment.

[Associated Press]

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