CHAMPIONSHIP ANGLERS CAUGHT USING WEIGHTS TO REEL IN $5,000 PRIZE
Chase Cominsky and
Jake Runyon got caught stuffing lead inside their catch to win a $5,000 tournament prize based on total weight!
Competing in the
Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship, the duo triggered suspicions when the five biggest fish in their catch weighed in at 33 pounds, nearly double the total of their closest rivals.
The huge gap in comparative weight led tournament director Jason Fischer to order Cominsky and Runyon’s fish gutted and inspected.
Shockingly, the postmortem revealed lead balls added weight that enabled the anglers to win the cash and the tournament!
“We got weights in fish!” Fischer announced to an
outraged crowd.
Besides the weights, chunks from other fish had also been crammed down the throats and into the guts of the catch.
Fischer later posted on the tournament’s Facebook page: “Disgusted guys and gals, I’m sorry for letting you down for so long and I’m glad I caught cheating taking place.” He also noted one of the anglers had flunked a polygraph test!
Meanwhile, Runyon insisted
they caught their fish fair and square, were innocent of the charges and threatened to hire a lawyer and sue for the winnings.
But the duo have officially been branded “cheaters” on the tournament’s records and will be barred from upcoming competitions.
Now suspicions are clouding their wins at other tournaments.
The awful anglers were previously disqualified when they tried to score a $100,000 top prize at the Lake Erie Fall Brawl last year. At Ohio’s Rossford Walleye Roundup, the pair were also suspected of cheating by other competitors who claimed their catch “looked old” and may have been secretly hidden away before the event began.
Curiously, the duo refused to donate their fish to a local food bank as many of the other competitors did.