Months of suspicion erupted into full-throated fury at a professional fishing tournament in Ohio, where two anglers were allegedly caught with egg-shaped weights in their catch — an edge of more than 7 pounds that would have ensured a lucrative championship.
“We got weights in fish!” declared Jason Fischer, director of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament, in a video posted to social media.
Fischer had just cut open one of five fish submitted by Jake Runyan and Chase Cominsky, who had defied poor conditions to dominate the tournament that launched out of Cleveland’s Gordon Park. For a moment, it seemed their winning catch had also secured team-of-the-year honors.
But in a dramatic turn of events that was captured in multiple videos, Runyan went from grinning at news of his victory to staring stone-faced at evidence of apparent cheating. It played out in front of a chorus of fishermen whose grumbles of doubt and frustration transformed into shouts of outrage and profanity.
The family, fishermen all, have been talking about this. They’re disgusted by the whole thing.
Tournament judges know much a walleye weighs within a few pounds just by looking at it. The perps might have gotten away with a pound or two but these guys added 10!
-------------------------------- Life is short. Play with your dog.
After Jacob Runyan, 42, of Ashtabula, Ohio, and Chase Cominsky, 35, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, were accused of cheating during a fishing tournament on Lake Erie, a Cleveland grand jury indicted them on fifth-degree felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft and possessing criminal tools. In addition, the two have been served with the first-degree misdemeanor charge of unlawful ownership of wild animals.
