Fishy Fraud

 If anyone has never said "Where there's money to be won, there's cheating!" .....

Suspicions Confirmed

.... then someone should have done.

Because in proof positive that its a truth .... in a fishy tale, a scandal has broken out in the USA after two competitive fishermen were found to have cheated, by stuffing lead weights inside the dead fish before the weigh in. Now you might think 'So What?' After all fishermen and exaggerations about the size and weight of fish caught or nearly caught are as old as the hills.

But fishing is big business these days, with prize money and sponsorships worth hundreds of thousands of dollars .... in this case reports suggest that the prize being fought for was $5,000 for first place (or even worth $30,000 including sponsorships? depending on reports), at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship (LEWT) - 'walleye' are a type of fish, in September 2022. 

The Internet Branded Them ....

The men accused of cheating were Chase Cominsky of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, and Jake Runyon of Cleveland, Ohio ... men about suspicions of cheating had been raised before. The weigh in was not at the lake, and therefore fish were dead (a practise frowned upon at many tournaments, where live catch and release, is now the conservation minded norm) ... which meant weight stuffing of fish was possible. 

Cominsky and Runyan had been leading the Lake Erie Walleye Tour all season, and only needed to finish 10th or better to win the title. But the weigh in was conducted a police officer (and keen fisherman), LEWT tournament director Jason Fischer, and he decided to gut the fish after becoming suspicious about the small length, but excessive weight of the fish being handed over by the two men.

Fischer told The Sharon Herald, that walleye typically caught in Lake Erie in late September/October, weigh 4 to 5 pounds. When the fish caught by Cominsky and Runyan weighed in at 7.9 pounds ... he squeezed the fish and and felt something hard inside. Fischer told the newspaper, “I thought ‘ no way.'”

You're Out Of Here

He was right, as the first fish was gutted only to find two lead weights inside ... he announced this with the immortal words "We got weights in Fish! There we go!" .... he then turned on the pair and wound up his arm, yelling, “You’re out of here.” 

The pair were were caught hook, line and sinker as each of their fish was found to contain lead weights or fillets of other fish stuffed down their gullets. Mr Cominsky promptly took off, before the stunned crowd reacted, but Mr Runyon was not quick enough and took the brunt of the angry fishermen's abuse ... the language was choice and to the point. One described it as “fucking theft”, while another yelled at Runyon that he “should be in jail.” Other calls for the police were made, but in the end both men got away without being physically hurt ... however they possibly face a number of civil lawsuits from tournament holders and sponsors. 

Their Previous Wins Are Now In Doubt

As I mentioned, the pairs reputation had taken a fall in the past, after they scored the top catch in last year's Lake Erie Fall Brawl, but were then disqualified when they attempted to claim the $100,000 prize, because one of them failed a polygraph test. At the time, Runyon denied they were guilty of any wrongdoing .... in another tournament in the past, the Rossford Walleye Roundup in Ohio, several competitors shared their suspicions that the pair's fish 'looked old,' and may have been stashed away in nets under water, prior to the start of the event. The organisers were donating all the walleye caught to a charity feeding the homeless. The only team to refuse was Cominsky and Runyon, who would not let them take their fish ... this should have raised red flags.

Neither men  has publicly commented yet on the fresh allegations .... but effectively they are ruined as competitive fishermen, as the story went viral in the USA.