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 ...
Cheaters can rot in hell. But a good democrat would have waited until they knew what they needed to beat. In this case just a few of the sinkers would have done the truck. They misjudged the weight and added over 10#.
81,000 votes... right???
belay that... 81,000,000
I was going to post also, it hasn’t been murky (except for storms and spring heavy runoff) about for 30 years. The zebra mussels cleared it up, to the detriment of some species. Grew up on the Detroit River at the mouth of Lake Erie so have about 50 years seeing the river change.
Don’t get out much do you?
I think it is safe to say these two will need to find another line of work or weekend hobby...
Give this a shot......you’ll crack up
Check this out on Amazon
The Bugspit Chronicles https://a.co/d/bLsAPvH
They only had to finish in the top 11 to claim the prize. I could understand 1-12oz weight but 4-5 per fish! Plus it sounds like their fish would have one without the added weights.
F’them and feed the fish heads! I hope they go to jail for several years
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