Outrage Rocking Pro-Fishing World As Winners Busted Stuffing Fish With Weights
Outrage is rocking the competitive fishing world after the winners of a huge Ohio fishing tournament were caught stuffing their fish with pieces of other fish and lead weights to score cash prizes.
The team of two competitors in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament was about to take home $30,000 in winnings Friday when the tournament's director, Jason Fischer, thought something was up.
For the winners, Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, their weigh-in of five walleyes came up to 34 pounds total - nearly double the typical weight for five walleyes of around 20 pounds.
So, Fischer cut open one fish's stomach and found walleye filets and lead balls that had been stuffed down the fish's throat, he said. He found the same in one of the other fish.
"We got weights in fish!" Fischer screamed so everyone else knew they had been cheated out of the $30,000 in prize money.
“He needs to be arrested, he needs to be prosecuted!” one of the crowd members yelled, while another shouted, “Call the f—king cops!”
Runyan and Cominsky have made more than $100,000 in their competitive career.
No word on what the punishment has been for the fisherman yet, other than the loss of their win and prize money from this tournament.
The two have won multiple other cash prizes this year, but the legitimacy of those wins has been called into question, and any tournament they've won is being investigated internally.
Many said it was suspicious that the two never donated their fish to a food pantry like the rest of the participants in the competitions, and now it makes sense why.
Memes are starting to trickle out of the incident.
Check out the full video of the weigh-in here, where you can hear the announcer explain, "You just have to somehow beat 16lbs, let's see how you do. 33! We have a winner!"
From what we can tell, just since June, the duo has won at least $50,000.