As if the chess cheating scandal wasn’t enough, now a pair of competitive tour fisherman were busted over the weekend trying to walk away with a tournament and season title after stuffing their walleye catch with lead weights and fish remnants. The remnants were used to prevent the weights from jingling when weighed or carried. Jake Runyon and Chase Cominsky were stripped of their Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tour title and the matter turned over to law enforcement after tournament director Steve Fischer noticed…wait for it…something fishy about their catch.
Normally walleye weigh between four and five pounds, but Runyon and Cominsky presented a behemoth 7.9 pound fish. The weight alone was suspicious, but Fischer, a former police officer also told witnesses that he felt something hard when he grasped the fish to weigh it. After declaring the pair the winners, he then gutted their fish. shouting loudly, “WE GOT WEIGHTS IN FISH! to the assembled participants, who had to be warned by Fischer not to harm Runyon. According to reports, Cominsky, sensing trouble, absconded beforehand to the parking lot and locked himself in his truck.
The pair had been suspected for some time. reports cryptically refer to a 2021 tournament where for some reason lie detector tests were used on Runyon and Cominsky. Cominsky initially failed his before passing a second time. The exposure of the cheating seemed expected by many in the crowd, and jeremiads were shouted about refunding prize money, as much as $306,000, and giving back boats the pair had won as professional anglers. It’s expected that sponsors will speak out about the scandal now that the story has gone viral. It may even be grounds to recover the endorsement money paid to the pair much as the U.S. Postal Service recovered much of the endorsement money they paid to serial cycling cheat Lance Armstrong.
According to reports, Runyan and Cominsky would have netted about $29,000 in tournament winnings if the foul fish hadn’t been discovered. The pair won the last three Trail events this year, including tournaments in Ashtabula in July and Geneva in September, winning tens of thousands of dollars. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which enforces fishing regulations in the state, and Cleveland police are investigating the incident.
We’ll have more on this and the chess scandal here and on Jay Flemma Sports Report on iHeartRadio. In the meantime, cue the memes: “Dear Fishing Cheats: Aren’t you guys a little low-fi? Signed, Hans Niemann…
