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No less than the New York Times reported this weekend on a scandal in Cleveland that has rocked the angling world.
A two-man team team competing in the championship event of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament Friday, held at Gordon Park / E. 72nd Street fishing area, was discovered to have inserted lead weights into the fish they caught.
The tournament judge, Jason Fischer, estimated that the five fish in question should have weighed about four pounds each, or twenty total. When they came in at 34 pounds, he suspected foul play and cut them open, discovering lead balls inside.
The two competitors, Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, would have finished in first place had the weights not been discovered, nabbing a grand prize of $30,000.
According to the Toledo Blade, Runyan and Cominsky had won the three previous Lake Erie Walleye Trail qualifying tournaments in June, July and September. They'd secured thousands of dollars in the other regional fishing tournaments as well. They were immediately disqualified from the Lake Erie Walleye Trail competition.
The moment the weights were discovered was captured on video and has circulated on social media in the competitive fishing world.
"We got weights in fish!" Fischer declared, then screaming at Runyan to "get the fuck outta here."
The cascading outrage is really something to behold. Video below.
Don't cheat.
***Y’all know I like fishing, well…this pisses me off!
— DannyBTalks (Daniel Baldwin) (@DannyBTalks) October 1, 2022
Meet Jake Runyan and Chase Cominsky, AKA big cheaters.
They recently were caught cheating in the last tournament of the year of a major walleye fishing tournament trail.
They were even going to be crowned team of the year. pic.twitter.com/Bw7hf96q4z
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