Lake Wylie, S.C. ? The weigh-in was over, and Bobby Carroll of York, S.C., and Tracy Schiff of McConnells, S.C., finished second in the National Bass Circuit team tournament at Buster Boyd Landing.

Carroll and Schiff won $1,000 for catching 16.44 pounds of largemouth bass in Lake Wylie on June 12.

But before they could collect their check, Carroll had to stop by an RV parked beside the weigh-in booth. Inside, Joe Gallimore of Sumter, S.C., administered a polygraph test on Carroll, who had been chosen randomly.

Carroll passed with no problem, picked up his check, then returned to the RV to talk about his first-ever polygraph.

“Heck, yeah, I was nervous,” said Carroll, football coach at the new South Pointe High in Rock Hill. “Anytime anybody puts a blood pressure cuff on me I feel nervous. I thought (Gallimore) was a doctor.”

Polygraph tests are as much a fixture at open fishing tournaments as crankbaits, coolers and scales. They’re given routinely to tournament winners to prevent and detect cheating, whether the prize money is $1,000 or the $677,800 paid June 18 in the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament in Morehead City.

Bass Circuit President Scott Turner hired Gallimore to polygraph winners in 30 of 85 tournaments this year in the Carolinas. Anglers don’t know when Gallimore will show up. “If people have concerns, we’ll always do one,” Turner said.

The threat of a polygraph deters anyone who might think about catching some lunkers ahead of time, put them on a stringer and tie them to a stump in the lake. At one tournament, Gallimore said, “two anglers were surprised I was there, packed up and drove off. They had won second place, $1,200-$1,500.”

“Keeping honest people honest and keeping out the riff-raff,” Gallimore said of the value of a polygraph. “Fishermen know if they get caught cheating their name is mud.”

Given the thousands of fishing tournaments, cheating appears relatively rare. One episode occurred in Florida in 2002 when a winning angler was found to have stuffed three 8-ounce weights inside the stomach of a thawed-out bass.

Not all anglers face a polygraph. The N.C. Bass Federation doesn’t test winners in member-only tournaments, said president Phillip Sain of Rutherfordton. “We know who he is and what club he’s from,” Sain said. Still, the federation keeps the polygraph as an option if someone raises a question.

BASS, the nation’s largest fishing organization, once used polygraphs but no longer does. Asked when it dropped the tests and why, spokesman Doug Grassian said BASS wouldn’t say.

The rival FLW Outdoors hasn’t required polygraph tests for its freshwater tournaments, spokesman Dave Washburn said, but this year adopted a rule that provides for a polygraph if needed. “Nothing in particular that prompted it other than adding a layer of security,” Washburn said, adding so far no tests have been given.

He said FLW Outdoors makes polygraphs mandatory for its saltwater tournaments, fished by teams not randomly drawn.

Both organizations pay six-figure amounts. BASS’ championship Bassmaster Classic pays its winner $200,000; the FLW Tour pays its champion $500,000.