Lafe and Matt Messer with their $100,000 winning prize checks from Dual Threat Fishing. [Photo courtesy Dual Threat Fishing's Facebook page]

CLEWISTON- Two fishermen stood on stage with a $100,000 check after winning Dual Threat Fishing’s opening tournament on Lake Okeechobee. But a month later, no money has been paid to the team, and the tournament organizer has gone missing.

Dual Threat Fishing first announced their plans for a fishing tournament back in 2025. The organization claimed it was going to have the largest payout scale for a fishing tournament in the country. Fishing influencers across the internet were contacted by Dual Threat to promote the upcoming tourney.

“There’s a new professional league coming on to the scene in 2026,” said Youtuber Mark Fisher about Dual Threat on his Mark Fisher Outdoors channel. “The team series is going to have a big money payout, and it’s got a schedule that is amazing. It’s probably the best schedule out of any of the pro leagues for 2026.”

It appeared to be a coordinated effort by Dual Threat Fishing to promote their upcoming series by reaching out to multiple personalities in the competitive fishing world. And a way to provide legitimacy to a new fishing league. Clewiston’s Scott Martin announced that he and his daughter would be competing in the tournament together as a team, traveling across the country to fish in every tournament.

“We’re talking the biggest championship payout in bass fishing,” said Martin in a Facebook video about Dual Threat Fishing.

But now, Martin calls the man behind Dual Threat Fishing a “fantastic liar.”

“I’m embarrassed to even be associated with this in anyway,” said Martin. “I had no agreement with this organization or ownership of this thing. I was just a normal guy fishing this thing with my daughter.”

“He scammed me like he scammed everybody else,” continued Martin.

Dual Threat Fishing was charging for entry fees for every boat for all six stops along the scheduled tournament.  In a reply to a Facebook comment back in August, the Dual Threat Fishing Facebook page said the entry fee was $5,000 for every event and teams would be required to sign a contract to fish all six events.

Eventually the tournament switched to a ‘no entry fee’ tournament after not enough boats signed up. According to Martin though, six to ten teams had already sent in their deposits. In a social media post shared online, Martin said he thinks the scam evolved after not enough people signed up when Dual Threat was charging entry fees. And that he believes Dual Threat was possibly hoping to scam a company in regards to sponsorships or partnerships. But Martin says he isn’t aware of any companies in the industry that gave money to Dual Threat. And that the only people scammed were the anglers who traveled to compete in the tournament.

Lafe and Matt Messer won Dual Threat Fishing’s first tournament back in January. The duo competed in a three-day tournament on Lake Okeechobee from Jan. 21-23 with over 60 other teams.  The pair was set to split $100,000 for the win. They were photographed holding giant novelty checks after the win. But that would be the only checks the duo would get.

The following weekend Dual Threat held another tournament on St. Johns River in Florida. Jace Lindsay and Fisher Anaya won that three-day competition. Again, the winning team was photographed for Dual Threat’s social media holding giant novelty $100,000 checks.  

But the real checks never materialized.

Lafe Messer told Outdoor Life that a series of excuses came from Dual Threat in the initial days after winning on Lake Okeechobee. First that the team couldn’t cash the checks until he filled out a proper W-9 tax form. Then the excuse was that they needed to adjust the payout due to some disqualifications in the tournament. And then Dual Threat said they were waiting for an investor to come back from out of the country to re-open an account.

After that, all communication stopped.

On March 3, over a month after the initial tournament on Lake Okeechobee, competitors received a letter from Dual Threat announcing that the company had ceased all operations.

“Despite good faith efforts and ongoing communications,” read the letter, “the anticipated financial backing necessary to sustain operations and fund scheduled obligations did not materialize or follow through as represented. As a result, the company was unable to secure the capital required to continue conducting events and administrating league activities."