30,000 dollars were on the line on Saturday October 1st. The Lake Erie Walleye Trail is a series of 10 walleye tournaments where anglers compete to bring in the best five fish at the end of the given tournament day.

Nationwide, outrage strucj as Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky were caught stuffing one pound lead weights and filets of other walleye into the stomach of walleye during a professional walleye tournament on The Lake Erie Walleye Trail.

During weigh-ins at the end of the two day LEWT championship Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky weighed in 33 pounds with 5 fish. A solid bag considering the two pros only needed 16 pound of fish to beat out the runner ups. However, something seemed a bit fishy.

Tournament director and LEWT Owner Jason Fischer is quite familiar with how fish look in comparison to their weight.
Fischer gave a quote to Ross Robertson on his Bigwater Podcast stating “I’m fairly accurate with my weights … I see a lot of fish go across the scales … I’m usually within a pound or so. So I’m watching them put their fish in the basket and I’m thinking there’s a 4 pounder and I’m thinking okay this is a 20-plus pound bag. You know you have a 4 pound average. You got 5 fish. That’s 20 pounds. You know if it’s a 4.2 or a 4.3 you’re going to go over 20 pounds. So I’m expecting that. And the scale jumps to like 33.9 almost a 34 pound bag. And to me that’s better than a 6- or 6 1/4-pound average. You’re almost looking at a 7-pound average to get to 35 pounds. I’m just like there’s just no way. There’s zero chance that those fish weighed that.”

Fischer proceeded to cut open the stomach of the five walleye and found one-pound lead weights along with filets of fish inside.

Fischer disqualified the two men on the spot as outrage emerged from tournament goers. The pair will be facing criminal charges for fraudulent activities, as well as animal cruelty.

Fishermen can be quite rowdy when provoked, and these tournament goers had great reason to be angry. So much so that two police officers had to protect the cheaters from the crowd.

One could only imagine how many other times the Ohio fishermen had stuffed fish and ran off with a paycheck.
Neither of the men have spoken on the matter.