Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky caught cheating at Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship
UPDATE: The Sharon Herald reports that the tournament director, Jason Fischer, says walleye out of Lake Erie in late September usually weigh around 4 to 5 pounds. The fish Cominksy and Runyan had caught were weighing in around 7.9 pounds, which was what first tipped Fischer off that something wasn’t right. That was when Fischer decided to squeeze the fish and felt something hard inside them. When he cut the fish open to see what was inside, that was when he found the two 12-ounce weights inside the fish.
According to the New York Times, Jason Fischer is also a police sergeant in Ohio, who turn over all evidence to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, and the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office is investigating this case further.
Original Story - CLEVELAND, OHIO: Two fishermen were disqualified from the Lake Eric Walleye Trail Championship this past Friday, September 30th, after they were caught cheating during the weigh-in. A video emerged over the weekend that shows Pennsylvania angler Chase Cominsky and his fishing partner, Jake Runyon of Ohio, at the weigh-in for the Lake Erie Walleye Tournament. While at the weigh-in, tournament director Jason Fischer is seen inspecting one of their fish and then cutting the fish open to find several items, including large lead weights, in the pair’s fish in order to increase the overall poundage of the fish. When Fischer inspected their other fish, they found other walleye fish fillets stuffed inside a couple of fish. In the video above, you can see Fischer yell, “we’ve got weights in fish,” promptly kicking the two out and disqualifying them from the event. As soon as the crowd realizes what has happened, they then add their additional explicit context to the stunning turn of events. The two men were later escorted out of the event by police.
Fischer would later put out a statement on Facebook saying, “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 wrote. "I hope you know now that when I say 'you built this LEWT and I will defend its integrity at all costs,' I mean it. You all deserve the best.”
Cominsky and Runyon were leading in the season standings leading up to this event and were said to be the team of the year. The teams of Steve Tsczyko and Christopher ended up being the winners of the event, with Steve Hendricks and Brian Ulmer winning team of the year following Cominsky and Runyon’s disqualification.
This is not the first time Cominksy and Runyon have run into this situation. Back in 2021, the pair was also disqualified from the Lake Erie Fall Brawl fishing event after they had won the event. One of the two had failed a polygraph test, which later prompted their disqualification from the event, thus losing the prize. Polygraphing the winners of a fishing tournament is commonly done in fishing tournaments to try and prevent lying and cheating. Some of the things they are looking and testing for are anglers who might have fished in out-of-bounds waters or entered a fish that might have been caught ahead of time.
Both spectators and officials had suspected the two had been cheating, which later led to the tournament director inspecting their fish further. Now their recent winnings over the past year are all coming into question. Additional charges could be sought, including fraud, but local officials have not commented on the story yet about any additional charges.
Screen shot from another closer video showing several large lead weights that were cut out of the fish from Cominksy and Runyon