Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament Cheating Controversy: On Friday in Ohio, the team that seemed to have won a fishing tournament on Lake Erie was accused of cheating when weights were found inside the fish they caught
This weekend was supposed to be the last tournament in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail series, but chaos broke out at the championship weigh-in on Friday in Cleveland. Then, Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky were named winners of the tournament until the organiser cut into their walleye and found heavy lead weights.
Lake Erie Walleye Trail Fishing Tournament Ohio 2022 Winner Caught Cheating As Controversy Drama Video Goes Viral
What Did The Online Viral Video Show About Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament Controversy?
Online videos show the organiser, Jason Fischer, cutting open one fish after another to find more lead weights and what looks like more fish fillets stuffed inside.
Serious Controversy in Pro fishing tournament as multiple-time winners caught stuffing lead weights and other fish filets in their fish to have the heaviest catch to win hundreds of thousands in prizes. pic.twitter.com/Sxqeo2XC0K
— Billy (@Billyhottakes) October 1, 2022
At the same time, other fishermen started to yell, “Get the f*** out of here!” and “You should be in jail!”
Fischer talked about what happened on the tournament’s Facebook page on Friday. He said that many people in the community were “disgusted”. And that he was sorry that the “cheating” hadn’t been found sooner.
What Did Jason Fitcher Say About The Lake Erie Walleye Incident?
Fischer told a local news station, WKYC, “I just really care about running a fair tournament, and anglers on Lake Erie deserve it.”
Runyan and Cominsky were kicked out of the competition, and new winners were chosen. The Toledo Blade said that since the two have won tournaments before. Including the same one last year, it is not clear how the situation will be handled. Because the team has won before, if the organisers of past tournaments go to court, there could be a lot of money on the line.
Prize money at Lake Erie Walleye fishing tournaments can be well over $100,000. And big items like boats are sometimes given out as prizes as well. Legal experts told The Blade that it could be fraud to cheat to win such prizes.
A criminal defence lawyer and an angler also told WKYC. That the two people accused of cheating might be charged with a crime. They called it “theft by deception.”
It’s not clear why the Lake Erie Walleye tournament organiser cut into the walleye on Friday. But The Blade said that Runyan and Cominsky had been accused of cheating before.
Runyan and Cominsky have not been accused of a crime, and could not be reached. Runyon refused to talk to The Blade about it.