‘Weights in fish!’ Pro anglers narrowly avoid getting filleted for cheating in Lake Erie walleye tournament

Caught red-handed

Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament director Jason Fischer, left, angrily confront contestant Jacob Runyan, right, after the former discovered lead weights in his catch on Friday. (Via Facebook)

Two champion walleye anglers were caught red-handed on Saturday for cheating in a Lake Erie walleye tournament in Cleveland. In a video of the event posted online, tournament director, Jason Fischer, cut open the winning fish and abruptly announced: “We’ve got weights in fish!”

“I knew right away that something was very wrong with those walleye,” Fischer told Cleveland.com in a telephone interview.

Fischer proceeded to pull many large, 12-oz lead weights from the bellies of four walleye, which in total weighed more than 33 pounds—more than enough for Jacob Runyan, of Ohio, and his partner, Chase Cominsky, of Pennsylvania, to win the tournament.

Runyan watched silently as Fischer filleted his fish, jostled by a crowd of angry anglers who shouted for him to be thrown in jail, among other things. Runyan’s fishing partner, Chase Cominsky, of Pennsylvania, had locked himself into his truck, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

This isn’t the first time Runyan has faced cheating accusations.

“Disgusted guys and gals, I’m sorry for letting you down for so long and I’m glad I caught cheating taking place in YOUR LEWT at the same time,” Fischer later posted on the tournament’s Facebook page, referring to the Lake Erie Walleye Trail, or LEWT.

Runyan and Cominsky were removed from tournament standings, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported.

Steve Featherstone covers the outdoors for The Post-Standard, syracuse.com and NYUP.com. Contact him at sfeatherstone@syracuse.com or on Twitter @featheroutdoors. You can also follow along with all of our outdoors content at newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/ or follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/upstatenyoutdoors.

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