Posted on 10/04/2022 11:29:05 AM PDT by Red Badger
The walleye that swim in the cold, murky depths of Lake Erie are the waters’ apex predator, sleek torpedoes of teeth that dine on shad, minnow and any other fish smaller than themselves. They do not, as far as marine science has determined, dine on lead pellets the size of golf balls or precisely-trimmed fillets of other walleye. So when Jason Fischer, director of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament series, pulled handfuls of lead sinkers and fillets from the bellies of some prize-winning fish, he knew he had a hell of a problem in his hands.
There’s nibble-around-the-edges, cut-the-corners cheating, like going five miles an hour over the speed limit or faking sick to get out of work. This is a story about the other kind: whole-hog, all-in cheating where plausible deniability doesn’t exist. It begins in Cleveland’s Gordon Park, on the shores of Lake Erie, where the Lake Erie Walleye Trail was wrapping up its championship event on Saturday.
Fischer – yes, that’s his real surname – was looking forward to the end of a long tournament season, working his way through the catches of the 30 elite two-angler teams. He weighed the fish of angler after angler, picking up their fish and setting them on a scale. Late in the proceedings, the anglers of boat No. 12, Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyan, brought their five-fish catch up for weighing. They needed to beat 16.89 total pounds to claim Team of the Year honors and $30,000 in various prizes.
Their catch’s weight: 33.91 pounds.
The silence that greeted Fischer’s announcement was the first sign that something was very much amiss. No applause, no cheers, just silence. And then the muttering started.
“Damn,” one man said in disbelief, “thirty-three?”
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
People get murdered for $50.
Wait, so now Dominion is rigging fishing tourneys?
As an avid recreational angler these clowns should be banned from ever competing in any fishing tournament for the rest of their lives.
L
More like these ya-hoos work for Dominion.
Which is why bass tournaments require live catches at weigh in....makes cheating that much more difficult.
The fish stories keep getting better
murky depths of Lake Erie
last I was there you could stand in water to your chin and count yer toes
steelhead trout and coho salmon are running now
There was a similar cheating attempt at the Destin Fishing Rodeo several years back.
The cheaters tried to bring in a previously frozen fish that they had caught months before.......
Now officials use a special meter that tests the fish flesh for firmness.
Previously froze fish is not as firm as fresh.................
Comes in threes these days...chess allegations, poker, and now fishing
Didn’t Lake Erie catch fire once, it was so polluted?..........................
Cuyahoga River, Cleveland.
They can't be stupid enough to think that fish weighing twice their normal weight wouldn't be noticed...
Well, no one remembered Shoeless Joe Jackson the week after - this will blow over too. /s
was polluted but never on fire
caught fire twice! now its clean
The muskellunge community takes exception with that remark.
I’m not much into fishing. A fishing judge should be able to eyeball the size of a fish and know about how much the fish should weigh. Fish do not take steroids and work out. When size vs. weight is way out of proportion, investigation should begin. These guys should have been caught a long time ago.
Fraudsters Runyan and Cominsky are the “Biden and Harris” of the fishing tournament world.
The fish stuffed with lead weights are the equivalent of voting machines stuffed with 80 million votes.
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