A walleye fishing tournament in Ohio sparked outrage when heavy, egg-shaped fish were found. The two-man team that submitted them was caught the heaviest, before they were eliminated. This file photo shows a fish unrelated to the scandal.
Photos by Scott Olson / Getty
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Photos by Scott Olson / Getty
A walleye fishing tournament in Ohio sparked outrage when heavy, egg-shaped fish were found. The two-man team that submitted them was caught the heaviest, before they were eliminated. This file photo shows a fish unrelated to the scandal.
Photos by Scott Olson / Getty
Months of suspicion flared into utter fury at a pro fishing tournament in Ohio where two anglers were allegedly caught with the egg-shaped weight of their catch – more than 7 pounds would have guarantee a lucrative championship.
“We have fish weights!” Jason Fischer, director of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament, announced in a video posted to social media.
Fischer had just pecked one of five fish submitted by Jake Runyan and Chase Cominsky, who defied dire conditions to dominate the premiere tournament from Cleveland’s Gordon Park. For a moment, it looked like their capture victory had also secured the title of teammate of the year.
But in a dramatic turn of events that took place in many videosRunyan went from grinning at the news of his victory to staring at the rock face clear evidence of fraud. It plays out in front of a chorus of fishermen, whose laments of doubt and disappointment have turned into screams of indignation and vulgarity.
Everyone knows I love to fish, well… this pisses me off!
Meet Jake Runyan and Chase Cominsky, the big cheats of AKA.
They were recently caught cheating in the final tournament of the year of the major walleye fishing tournament.
They will even be crowned team of the year. pic.twitter.com/Bw7hf96q4z
– DannyBT domains (Daniel Baldwin) (@DannyBTosystem) October 1, 2022
“Disgusting ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to let you guys down for so long and I’m glad I caught the cheating going on,” Fischer said. tell his Facebook community.
It was not the first controversy for Runyan and Cominsky, who were dropped from a major tournament last year after one of the anglers failed a polygraph test.
In a moment, the team won everything
To win the walleye contest, the angler must bring home the heaviest of the five fish, with an “extra pot” for the largest fish. The competition is fierce: At least 70 two-player teams $400 each to participate in this year’s tournament.
But bad weather limited the tourney to just one day, and many participants struggled to catch any fish, not to mention a basket of fish pits that could land them big cash prizes.
Runyan and Cominsky’s largest Walleye fish came in at 7.9 pounds – a shocking result, as Fischer peeked through their stock and assumed the fish was a “5-pound cookie cutter,” or standard Lake Erie fish. from 4 to 5 pounds, as he told Big water fishing audio file.
“No way, no way,” Fischer recalls thinking about the nearly £8 entry.
Then came the all-around, with Runyan and Cominsky needing 28.18 pounds to take first place. An electronic scale measured their catch at 33.91 pounds, and the tournament director wasn’t the only one in doubt. As a large screen showed the team’s numbers, a voice from the crowd said: “That’s right.”
The winning fish goes under the knife
Fischer solemnly declared Runyan and Cominsky the winners, to a standing ovation. But he also asked them to stand around to take pictures with the fish. He then asked to examine the fish – something the team balked at at first, he said. They asked him if he was serious. He was.
“I just want to feel the fish. I squeeze the fish, I squeeze the belly,” Fischer said. “And I immediately felt things in this fish’s belly, hard things.”
He then asked for a knife to open the fish – and he did so after giving his phone to a friend, to record a video of what happened next: the prize caught. weighted lead, along with some fish fillets. Weight alone totals 7.58 pounds, follow a photo on the tournament’s Facebook.
“I had a little bit of animation and it was basically just raw emotion,” Fischer said of the pandemic that followed, adding, “At the time, it went from a fishing tournament to a crowd scene. .”
The accused fishermen did not immediately respond to the accusations in the videos of the incident, nor did they comment publicly.
When everyone dismantled the old operation in Runyan and Cominsky, Fischer told the other anglers Do not harm or touch them. Photographs taken later at the scene show the two fishermen sitting in the parking lot as two officers stood above them – but at the time, Fischer said, “the officers were basically just trying to get there. keep them safe.”
Some shouted at the police to investigate the fraud; Fischer said he presented it to authorities.
Cleveland Metroparks police told NPR on Monday, “This case has been referred to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for investigation, as the alleged violations of the law would take place in their jurisdiction.”
Fishing tournaments with great prizes and multiplayer games
Fishing tournaments like the walleye contest attract dozens of teams and prominent sponsors. The level of branding isn’t quite NASCAR-level, but it’s not far off either: officials and top anglers often wear jackets and hats with multiple sponsors’ names printed on them. Along with cash, top prizes can include expensive fishing boats.
Runyan, who hails from Cleveland, and Cominsky, who hails from Hermitage, Pa., are nearing the end of a 2021 season in which Runyan once said their total winnings were more than 300,000 dollars. But the pair have also seen some of their wins stripped away due to high disqualification, after one of them failed the tournament’s polygraph test.
Lie detector tests have become popular among the winners of big prize fishing tournaments, and the Lake Erie tests are no exception. But last December, Runyan insisted he and his partner did nothing wrong, clarify“Our reputation means the world to us and we will never cheat.”
With the pair’s results in the Cleveland competition now disqualified, Steve Tyszko and Chris French have been declared the winners, the tournament announced. Instead, the title of Team of the Year went to Steve Hendricks and Brian Ulmer.
