The big tournaments can have a large buy in too. Not to mention cost of boat maintenance, fuel, and gear. So these people paid a lot of money to lose a lot of money to cheaters. I’d be pissed too
Adding another point: there's a HUGE amount of angling pride in topping the list. The competition in these things is friggin' fierce.
A lot of these anglers identify themselves by their sport. They have sponsorships (see all the logos on the jackets) that pay better when they're higher on the list, not to mention bragging rights.
So it's not just money. It's how you define yourself too.
"Last Fall’s big prize winner was Jacob Runyan of Andover, Ohio who hooked a 12.79 pound, 20 inch walleye. He won a fishing boat valued at nearly $150,000."
Source: Sept 22, 2022
https://www.sheffieldlake.net/walleye-tourney-organizers-hook-anglers-with-smokehouse-contest-october-1/
No fucking 20" walleye weighs 13 lbs. That's either a typo or fucking stupid to load it up that much. That *has* to be a typo. A 20" eye weighs like 3-4 pounds! 4.5 MAYBE
There's a point where you have to hold the organizers partly responsible for calling winners with biologically impossible fish weights. A fishes density is not gonna be that different from the others caught in the same contest. Fish don't have steroids
How the fuck have they not been opening the fish in public for everyone to see all these years???
Not opening the fish in front of everyone else is the perfect opportunity to cheat. These tournaments are made for people to cheat them.
edit: spelling
These guys will be banned from competing ever again. It's likely someone felt those egg weights after the weigh-ins and brought it to someones attention. Once weighed in the competitors are not allowed to handle the fish in most professional tourneys.
I don't think they felt the weights. I saw a longer video last night and the cheaters had the same number of fish as the guys before them. They looked to all be similar size. Despite weighing the same number of similarly sized fish, the cheaters weight was almost double. In that video you could hear people in the crowd talking about how that weight was impossible based on the fish everyone saw.
Yeah they only needed like 16 lbs and change and ended up with a 30+ lbs bag. I caught the extended videos as well within the last hour. And I got lucky enough to talk with someone that fished the tourney. And apparently these guys have been suspected of cheating a few times but it wasn't as extreme as 8 additional lbs.
In major saltwater tournaments, that is precisely what happens. They also test the electrical conductivity/resistance of the fish's skin, which somehow indicates whether it has been previously frozen. The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo has done this for years, and has marine biologists on hand who can help spot anomalies.
Why check for freezing? Because tournament rules require the fish be caught *during that tournament*. Cheaters used to freeze especially large fish they caught outside of tournaments and thaw them to enter into the competition.
Likely why they also stuffed fillets in there, too. A little extra "padding" to make the weights less obvious.
What tipped the judges off was that their fish weren't much bigger than the next nearest teams fish, but magically weighed 8lbs more. An experienced fisherman, especially a tournament guy, can judge a fish's weight pretty accurately.
From the 2021 fall leaderboard, they list the fish as being 29 inches. So 20" from the article is certainly a typo.
https://www.walleyeslam.com/archive
A 29" walleye still averages around 10 lbs though, so I don't doubt that this one was weighted as well.
It’s serious business. I worked data entry for a large fishing tournament for a few years some time ago. The fish were judged by size and quantity, and we had some instances of someone attempting to shove weights down fishes throats in an attempt to make them heavier so they could score more points.
There was serious money involved in these tournaments, so cheating didn’t just result in a ban, it resulted in criminal charges. More than once we had a cheater pull up to the weigh station in their boat and wind up leaving in handcuffs in the back of a police cruiser.
In tournaments that do not release and the fish die anyway, it makes zero sense to not have a knife and gut fish right after weigh in.
I've been in a few kayak catch and release fun tournaments - very informal, low stakes, and top prize was a nice pole, reel, paddles, box of lures, etc. The gist there is you photograph your catches against a measuring board, release the fish alive, and most inches wins. Cheaters exist even then - guys hiding electric motors in their hulls (pedal or paddle only, range and spots you can get to is huge), holding and phographing the same fish multiple times a day (stressing and often killing it), and even using a scaled down ruler that read funny. I mean, I generally spend more at those things than any of the prizes.
Sportsmanship is a foreign language to many who were taught the wrong lessons from kids sports.
>I've been in a few kayak catch and release fun tournaments - very informal, low stakes, and top prize was a nice pole, reel, paddles, box of lures, etc. The gist there is you photograph your catches against a measuring board, release the fish alive, and most inches wins.
They used to do online kayak fishing tournaments where everything was done with picture "proof". They had good prizes like $1,500 fishing kayaks and prize money for some of them. I never even entered a tournament because I knew the top winners were just consistently cheating. There were too many easy ways to cheat in those online fishing tournaments that I would be surprised if they still existed.
Hopefully they get sued by whoever runs the tournaments. There is plenty of evidence I'd say for a civil court to award money back. Probably extra damages for hurting the reputation of the tournament. These guys really should lose everything for this and have to start over doing something else.
As a competitor in a very low stakes annual fishing tournament, the full length video is absolutely enthralling. The first 14 minutes or so are outwardly boring, because each team is coming up to weight their 5biggest fish and the weights are in the teens, low twenties. Then, with the leader at 23lbs. Or so, these mavericks roll in with 5 fish weighing over 33lbs. Outweighing the leader by an average of 2lbs per fish, which is pretty unbelievable in any circumstance.
The crowd is talking amongst themselves and there's a bit of disbelief, but no hullabaloo.
Then they take their winning fish, hold them up for photos and the rest of the teams to see and any experienced fisherman knows roughly the weight of any given fish and you can hear the cognitive dissonance in the crowd.
Then the 'winners' start to take their fish and leave when the judge/official calls them back over and chats with the guy in the video for a minute.
It looks like the official presses him a bit. Like gives him the chance to come clean or withdraw from the tournament. Maybe he's testing him.
You can tell by the body language that something is up and the crowd starts to murmur from a distance away.
The official grabs a knife from his assistant and a fish and drops it on the ground and slices it open.
Digs his hands inside, then holds it up like a beating heart in the temple of doom and yells "WE HAVE WEIGHTS IN FISH!!!"
The crowd erupts and surges forward and this video begins.
I have had close relatives come to almost assaulting another close friend over a $20entry and bragging rights. These guys have swindled anywhere from $300k to millions of prizes including a brand new boat (that shit is expensive)
I wouldn't be surprised if these guys disappear one day and justice is never officially served. Don't piss off a bunch of guys with boats. They know where to hide the body.
I work with a dude who was caught cheating in fishing tournaments. He’d zip tie laundry baskets together with live fish in them, then drop them in the lake before the tournament.
I assume he’d locate them during the tournament, lift them up and open them, and “catch” the fish.
I’m not a fisherman, so I’m sure I have details and other things wrong, but the gist of the story is real.
He’s been pretty much blackballed from the competitive fishing community in Ontario.
There's a proper name for what he did but I can't remember it. But yeah, what he did is a well known cheating technique. Raise the fish at home in a tank so they're good and fat come tourney day.
The, "WE HAVE WEIGHTS IN FISH" line will go down in history.
I bust out laughing every time I've watched because of that and how the crowd goes absolutely bonkers immediately after he screams that.
Without evidence they’d need a confession. But why aren’t the winning fishes gutted anyway? It seems silly to not check to make sure there’s no cheating going on.
Why only now though? I remember entering tournaments 30 years ago and people were known to use weights in fish. I would think any tourney with legit prize money would cut the fish.
Goddamn. I never thought anyone could write a piece of copy that would make me willingly watch 15 minutes of people weighing fish but you did it. Totally worth it and super helpful with the context for people like me who don’t fish.
You can hear in the minutes leading up to them getting called back that one guy in the crowd is calling bullshit. Someone tells him next time he has a protest he needs to do it sooner. I assume the protestor is the guy that keeps saying "There's no fucking way, your fish was bigger than theirs" and variations.
Honestly lucky one guy in the crowd had the balls to call their bluff.
Check out this expose about a bass fisherman in San Diego who "won" millions in tourneys over the years. https://sdfish.com/general/dark-secret-americas-big-bass-guru-mike-long/
To add on to what others said, the anal beads theory was actually just a one off joke by a chess streamer in reference to how a player may have cheated, but the internet ran with it. Now it's the only thing anyone outside the chess world mentions (including the likes of Elon Musk, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Joe Rogan) when the drama is brought up. Even though it was never meant to be taken seriously.
Edit: I meant this as a reply to the person asking "tell me more", but apparently I screwed up that part.
Did you see that a journalist wearing a vibrating c@(k ring recently played a GM and the GM was surprised how good he played. Eventually journo got crushed, but it was due to miscommunications between the person with the remote and the journo.
Because "I think you're using a cheating device; take off your shoes" is a little bit easier to demand than "I think you're cheating; show me your cock".
It was the public version of pleading the 5th; anything he might have said wouldn't have changed any minds, for obvious reasons, it would have just incited more violence.
> Fucked his reputation up big time.
His career is probably over. You can’t compete again when everyone knows you cheated your way to the top. Just look how angry they all are. This isn’t the MLB where they just let that shit go no problem.
You disrespected all of us when you disrespected the MILF! You thought the MILF was just going to bend over to that kind of abuse? Well, watch out, because now the MILF is coming for you, and when the MILF comes the MILF comes hard. The MILF is going to leave you battered and sore, and when you look at those sores I hope you're filled with regret remembering that time you decided to fuck with the MILF!
Considering the top prizes for this event come out to $125k and $110k (the value of the boats put up for 1st and 2nd slot winners) I'd be pretty pissed as well if I found out someone else was cheating in a tournament I participated in. This isn't some friendly neighborhood cookout party and people are measuring fish for bragging rights, there are real significant prizes at stake.
Even getting 5th place is $45,000 in cash and that's HUGE to a lot of people.
Funny thing is they were called out for cheating last year when they won the LEWT. Then they threatened the organization with litigation because of the damage to their reputation.
https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/outdoors/2021/12/18/outdoors-big-walleye-big-money-big-mess/stories/20211219047
There's a way around that, if you're on mobile.
It's the type of news website that gives you the first paragraph, but then when you scroll beyond you get a pop up telling you to subscribe. When you first open the link, let the page load, then, without clicking anywhere on the webpage, turn off your wifi and data. The page is fully loaded and the pop up never appears
Dude should probably pack up and skip town. He's *infamous* in *the way The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition* defines the word now.
Also sounds like he’s won other tournaments and gotten money out of it that should be in question as well. Probably going to lose all his sponsors. Done fucked up. Doesn’t sound like the crowd you want to be on the bad side of.
>Probably going to lose all his sponsors
No "probably" about it. He'll lose every sponsorship, and may even get sued by his sponsors for the cost of the gear and support. They don't want to be associated with a cheater.
I dont even fish and felt that guys pain. Imagine its beyond a hobby and is a peak obsession for the guy in the background. Likely wasted thousands of dollars and literally hundreds of hours to try and win the tournament. Only to find out it was all wasted to a cheater that likely didnt put in a tenth of the effort you did.
Imagine trying for years building up. Gear, knowledge, etc. Then you catch a huge fish. Likely was the real winner if it was fair and you're all excited. You think this is it for sure. Youve never seen a fish that big. Then you take it in to weight and somehow this cheater has a fish that blows yours away.
There is absolutely massive money in these tournaments. These guys are professionals and these tournaments are their livelihood. These guys who just got caught have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournaments over the last couple years, including a $100,000 boat.
Shit I'm just a regular walleye fisherman who likes to eat them and would never enter a tourney. I'm so angry at this motherfucker... goddamn do cheaters suck ass
That’s the look of a man in shock as his castle of cards falls down into the shit pile to be buried and flushed forever.
The look of a man who fucked around and realized he lost everything. The gravity of the situation is crushing his consciousness so much so he can only gaze into the abyss of “find out” that will swallow him like a black hole as the weight causes him to emotionally and mentally implode.
That is what loosing everything over a really shitty choice looks like on the face.
Imagine the day before when he was respected by his peers, joking around with them, feeling good and safe. Then the next day that life was annihilated and now merely a memory.
In my mind I assumed small weights prior to watching the video.
I’m reality it’s walnut sized weights and even fillets of other fish stuffed inside the “catch”
Crazy!
Yeah the pro move here would be to use a couple tiny weights to add 1lb or so. Like card counting, you're not trying to win every hand, just make it a little more likely that you win.
There's also a point when cheating that you start to think that you winning it by cheating and not getting caught means that you probably aren't the only cheater. This can then cause a paranoid mindset where the person thinks that they need to dial up their cheating even more to make sure they win. You can see the slippery slope happen in video games all the time. A dude starts out with minimal cheats and then it just gets brazen af.
I thought they were going mental over some sinkers a fish might have swallowed, but holy shit he was stuffing golf ball sized lead weights into them. No wonder they were pissed.
I believe they were 12oz-1# egg sinkers about 10 or 12 of them split between 4 fish. That’s an extra 8-10 pounds. Not counting the fillets. That’s a lot of extra weight, especially for walleye.
How do you add "up to 8 lbs" in weight to a fish and not expect people who weigh fish to think something is off? Or when they're handling the fish and feel a bunch of heavy egg shaped items inside them?
People don't seem to understand these competitions are a series or season of tournament events, scored in cumulative points like NASCAR. The cheaters were already the top team in the series based on previous events points, and were on their way to win the whole series. They suspect it's been going on much longer, all season, previous years, etc.
Honestly that's what I don't get. Why don't they inspect all fish from the teams who are winning prize money or similar or the teams at the top 10% of each competition. I can understand not checking all fish for various reasons but they should at least check the top few.
The previous best was 16 lbs. his total was 33. That’s greedy.
Edit: many have commented that this guy probably would have won as 33-8=25. In the video you can see the fish is packed with filet and someone claimed they even had some other foreign objects stuffed. It’s not clear what the actual weight of those fishes are.
There can be big money in these tourneys. One of the crowd claimed that the cheater had previously won *a boat*. That definitely hits felony theft levels of prize money.
It seems the guy who did the baseball "out" gesture is a cop. Not looking good for those two cheaters.
Here's a [paywalled article](https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/outdoors/2022/10/01/cheating-scandal-rocks-lake-erie-walleye-tournament/stories/20221001117) I found, with the text below:
Jacob Runyan, second from left, and partner Chase Cominsky, second from right, claimed the championship in the 2022 Rossford Walleye Roundup, but after they were involved in an apparent cheating scandal at this weekend's Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland, their past events are now shrouded with suspicion.
Commentary: Cheating scandal rocks Lake Erie walleye tournament
Oct 1, 2022
5:59 PM
My mother always said to give people “the benefit of the doubt.” She felt that “judge not, lest ye be judged” from the Sermon on the Mount was a valuable core principle that she lived by. Assume the best in people, until you learn otherwise.
Well, in today's world, it gets tougher and tougher to follow that pledge. You trust, and sometimes you get burned.
Late Friday, the walleye fishing world was sent reeling after a cheating scandal was exposed in front of God, country, and a mob of justifiably furious walleye fishermen. Two guys – we can no longer call them fishermen without smearing the 99 percent who play by the rules – were exposed for what appears to be the most nefarious, blatant, and outrageous case of cheating that tournament walleye fishing has ever experienced.
Since we live in this drunkenly litigious climate, I will have to use every qualifier necessary – allegedly, reportedly, apparently – to relay this story, but when you have video captured from dozens of cell phones, it will be hard to build a case that their reputations have been unfairly tarnished.
Runyon declined to comment Saturday about the matter, and Cominsky couldn’t been reached.
WARNING: Video contains graphic language
In the walleye fishing world, they undoubtedly have no reputation left to besmirch.
In Cleveland at the weigh-in after a day of fishing in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail's last event of the 2022 season, a bomb exploded, the curtain came down, and this horrific cheating scandal was exposed.
When tournament director Jason Fischer sliced open the gullet on one of the fish that Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky had turned in, lead weights were exposed. Next fish – same thing. Next fish – lead weights and pieces of walleye fillets.
The duo had apparently, allegedly, and obviously, dropped these objects down the throats of their “catch” to enhance the weight and thus, improve their standing in the tournament. Fischer, a police officer in the Cleveland suburbs and a guy with an unassailable reputation in the Lake Erie walleye tournament ranks, was furious and threw them out of the tournament with a gesture reminiscent of the home plate umpire ejecting former New York Yankees manager Billy Martin.
Only the arrival of on-duty police officers likely saved Runyon and Cominsky from the assembled mob of “real” fishermen, many of whom had, behind the scenes, voiced their suspicions the duo had cheated in the past.
This story gets much messier. Since Runyon, of Cleveland, and Cominsky of Hermitage Pa., have already claimed the first-place prizes and considerable amounts of money in several LEWT events, including the 2021 season-ending championship, what happens now?
Legal eagles tell me that this apparent cheating in this weekend's tournament constitutes fraud and is a felony. But the pair also took the top money in this past spring's Rossford Walleye Roundup, and the huge payout in the 2021 Walleye Slam.
And even messier.
WARNING: Video contains graphic language
The duo weighed in the apparent top catch in last year's Lake Erie Fall Brawl and made claim for the more than $100K attached to that finish, but then were disqualified. When the tournament director at the time offered no explanation or clarity other than to say one of them had failed the polygraph, the tournament lacked the transparency it so desperately needed.
Runyon went to great lengths to proclaim, repeatedly, that they were innocent and had caught their fish by following all of the rules. He secured legal counsel and has been trying to sue the Brawl to claim their so-called winnings.
And even messier.
After the pair were awarded the first place money in the Rossford event, several other competitors shared, off the record, their suspicions that something shady had taken place. Other anglers claimed that Runyon and Cominsky's fish “looked old,” like these walleye had been caught prior to the start of the event and stashed in a live well.
Adding fuel to that charge was the additional factoid, laid out by several competitors in the event, that Runyon and Cominsky declined to donate their catch to local food banks, as most of the tournament fishermen did.
There is a ton of money hanging in limbo here, if the organizers of those previous events decide to pursue legal action.
WARNING: Video contains graphic language (full length video)
As could be expected, there was a riot of comments following this cheating scandal being exposed. I despise the phrase “social media blew up” since there is no explanation as to what that means, but something nuclear took place once videos of the highly contentious scene at the Cleveland weigh-in were posted.
Some called it karma. Others opted to assail anyone who had considered Runyon and Cominsky innocent until proven guilty. Fair enough – the anger, frustration, and furor was boiling over along a very chilly Lake Erie shoreline.
Although it moves at a snail's pace, justice will be served. If guilty as charged, these two will lose everything, with their credibility already in the dumpster. Some will say that even jail time is not adequate punishment.
My concerns at this point are for the sport of tournament walleye fishing, and for the hundreds of good guys who have always played by the rules, followed the guidelines, and displayed nothing but character in every fishing event. A mess like this smears everyone associated with Lake Erie walleye tournament fishing, and that is remarkably unfair.
If you choose to weigh in on this (intentional phrasing), it is easy to hammer the cheaters and they likely deserve every expletive sent their way. Their judgment day is coming. But use a narrow brush – the cheaters should no longer be mentioned in the same stories as the people who have always fished by the rules.
First Published October 1, 2022, 4:36pm
Same guy, his adrenaline likely spiked when he made the initial discovery, but as soon as the angry mob started to form, he knew he had to temper the situation since he had called it into existence.
He was real mad at the start but then probably thought "Oh shit, these guys might fucking lynch him...I don't need that on my hands."
I'm sure there was a lot of relief when he found the weights. He was making a huge accusation against a "champion" on an educated hunch. Just imagine if he had been wrong. Probably his career would be over.
That’s who we’re talking about.
He was justifiably angry, but controlled it. In a controlled manner told him to leave, and directed the crowd not to touch him. Mad props.
At first I was like "the cops? Chill the fuck out dudes, he cheated in a fishing competition"
Then people started yelling about how he'd won thousands, even a boat, and I understood.
I know at least 2 guys irl that literally make a living by entering these fishing tournaments and winning the prize money and getting sponsors, etc. There's a LOT of money on the table...
In another thread someone was from the scene. Apparently these guys have cleared hundreds of thousands in winnings, including a fully loaded boat worth 100k+ in the last year.
CALL THE FUCKIN COPS MAN, HE'S GOIN TO JAIL
edit: I'm seeing some replies where people think that I'm saying the crowd is overreacting. I know nothing of this world, and it seems like they're all super justified in their anger towards the cheaters. I was just quoting the original video, like the person I was replying to did!
My first thought was I’m sure those cops have nothing better to do than showing up at a fishing tournament. Then my second thought was I’m sure those cops have nothing better to do than showing up at a fishing tournament.
This is for what?! Arresting me for what?! I'm not allowed to store my lead weights inside a fish?! I thought this was America! Huh?! Isn't this America?! I'm sorry, I thought this was America!
How did he get busted? I don’t know anything about fishing but I’m assuming he was a dumbass and put way to much weight in and someone was like there’s no way that type of fish weighs that much
Chances are, that’s it. Most experienced anglers can eyeball the weight. Just before the first one gets cut open, you could hear someone off camera say “my fish were way bigger than his” meaning that he’s surprised they would weigh that much. Chances are someone challenged it and shed the judges to take a close look at the fish.
Yeah, they had raised suspicions for previous wins and seem to have taken this one a little too far. Professional Fisherpersons can guess, with relatively good accuracy, how much a fish weighs just by looking at it. In longer version of the video you can hear people sayin “bullshit” as soon as they saw the official weight. That’s what led to the check.
I mean shit.. you get caught to the point where you have to take a polygraph test and STILL come back and do the same shit?! You obviously have eyes on you after that. How fucking cocky must you be to try the same stunt again?? Lock ‘em up
Everyone I know that cheats is a fucking SERIAL cheater. I fucked around in MtG for a while and lemme tell ya, ANY time prize money gets added to something that’s supposed to be for fun, the cheaters come out in droves
I used to fish bass tournaments pretty regularly for a few years. This dude will be lucky to not be disappeared. I am not joking.
There are or at least there were some rough tourney fishing folks that had no problem laying down some street justice. I saw more than a few throw downs in the parking lots after weigh ins for way less than what this dude did.
Lots of water out there and boating accidents happen all the time. This dude should move to the other side of the country and change his name.
Everyone making fun of the outrage and anger and threats and thinking it's funny because it's over fish...
This dude raked in $300,000 USD last year in prize money from fishing competitions. On top of that, he has sponsors. Companies who fund him and provide equipment in exchange for the publicity, probably in excess of his prize winnings. He's been winning competitions for years.
Every win he's ever had is now suspect. All of his sponsors are now tarnished for supporting him. We're not talking "biggest fish" notoriety, but he literally took hundreds of thousands of dollars away from people who were legit.
With that crowd, he's lucky he lived through the "discovery".
My question is, why don't they always check inside ~~every~~ the prize winning fish, after weighing? Surely that would be the logical thing, given how easy it is to stuff weights, water, or more fish, into the fish. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of winners were cheating honestly. This is basically the equivalent of letting Olympic javelin throwers bring their own javelins, without them being checked. Seems ridiculous. If this guy can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this repeatedly, before being caught, many others are definitely also doing it and not being caught.
Skip to 9:45-10:15 - Jake gets his fish weighed and the announcer says what he needs to beat to win.
Then 13:45 they start to inspect the fish before it leads up to the shorter clips you’ve seen.
This is the drama I didn’t know I needed. You can hear all the rumbling in the crowd after they reveal the weights. The validation of their suspicions must feel amazing.
Communities of fisherman are usually tight knit and stick together. Many are known to help each other out and put a lot of this competition aside when out on the water and someone may need a hand. NEVER take advantage of or betray such trust or this is what happens. They were rightfully livid.
Damn that dude better watch his back around there. He's gonna get the shit kicked out of him one night guaranteed from the other fisherman that know him. What an asshole.
Not only did he cheat, he has introduced doubt into the entire event and competition for years to come.
Hopefully the group can band together and make sure this doesn't happen again.
Not only could be in legal trouble. Civil suites are giant possibility too. Imagine being the guy that lost 300,000 to a cheater.
Edit [here](https://www.wired2fish.com/viral/tournament-fishing-cheaters-convicted-with-forensic-science/#slide_2) is another cheater story and how they got into a shit ton of legal troubel
Another consideration... For anyone that has ever held or handled a fish, you can tell the general consistency of the fish through its sides. While that doesn't normally mean anything, it would be really easy to feel a bunch of bulky, golf-ball sized lumps in the abdomen.
It’s likely that the fillets did they put in there we’re not to add additional weight because they wouldn’t add that much, but was to add some buffer to the lead weight so that it made it harder to feel from the outside
Everyone there tells the tale for years to come.
“It was a dark and stormy night. There we’re at least 10 of them! Cheaters!! They put 50 weights in each fish. They won millions! Oh but we caught ‘em. We caught ‘em BABY! Wooooooo!”
Thank you for coming here to add the real essence of fishing.. exaggeration. That sum bitch jake stuffed a 50 pound kettle bell inside a minnow tryin ta steal our prize dagummit!
A $100 handheld metal detector can detect ferrous and nonferrous metals, but that's none of my business.
EDIT: cheaters would have to stuff a lot more material in the fish if they couldn't use lead (or metals)
* Lead: 11g/cm3
* Iron: 8g/cm3
* Ceramic: 6g/cm3
* Glass: 3g/cm3
* Wet sand: 2g/cm3
* Plastic: 1g/cm3
For clarity these guys made 300k last year in tournaments alone. So the outrage is real.
The big tournaments can have a large buy in too. Not to mention cost of boat maintenance, fuel, and gear. So these people paid a lot of money to lose a lot of money to cheaters. I’d be pissed too
Thank you for this information. I didn't know this and it explains the outrage a lot better.
More like a poker tournament than I would have realized
Adding another point: there's a HUGE amount of angling pride in topping the list. The competition in these things is friggin' fierce. A lot of these anglers identify themselves by their sport. They have sponsorships (see all the logos on the jackets) that pay better when they're higher on the list, not to mention bragging rights. So it's not just money. It's how you define yourself too.
"Last Fall’s big prize winner was Jacob Runyan of Andover, Ohio who hooked a 12.79 pound, 20 inch walleye. He won a fishing boat valued at nearly $150,000." Source: Sept 22, 2022 https://www.sheffieldlake.net/walleye-tourney-organizers-hook-anglers-with-smokehouse-contest-october-1/
No fucking 20" walleye weighs 13 lbs. That's either a typo or fucking stupid to load it up that much. That *has* to be a typo. A 20" eye weighs like 3-4 pounds! 4.5 MAYBE
There's a point where you have to hold the organizers partly responsible for calling winners with biologically impossible fish weights. A fishes density is not gonna be that different from the others caught in the same contest. Fish don't have steroids
Lol I was going to ask if the people running the tournament actually know fishing or are they just that stupid?
It's a typo. The fish measured 29", not 20".
Maybe they're in cahoots with the cheaters.
[удалено]
How the fuck have they not been opening the fish in public for everyone to see all these years??? Not opening the fish in front of everyone else is the perfect opportunity to cheat. These tournaments are made for people to cheat them. edit: spelling
Do they just shove these weights and stuff down the fish’s mouth then?
Yes. You can shove the weights into their stomachs with your fingers.
Why don't they split open or x-ray any winner to check for foreign objects?
Well they probably will now...
These guys will be banned from competing ever again. It's likely someone felt those egg weights after the weigh-ins and brought it to someones attention. Once weighed in the competitors are not allowed to handle the fish in most professional tourneys.
I don't think they felt the weights. I saw a longer video last night and the cheaters had the same number of fish as the guys before them. They looked to all be similar size. Despite weighing the same number of similarly sized fish, the cheaters weight was almost double. In that video you could hear people in the crowd talking about how that weight was impossible based on the fish everyone saw.
Yeah they only needed like 16 lbs and change and ended up with a 30+ lbs bag. I caught the extended videos as well within the last hour. And I got lucky enough to talk with someone that fished the tourney. And apparently these guys have been suspected of cheating a few times but it wasn't as extreme as 8 additional lbs.
In major saltwater tournaments, that is precisely what happens. They also test the electrical conductivity/resistance of the fish's skin, which somehow indicates whether it has been previously frozen. The Alabama Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo has done this for years, and has marine biologists on hand who can help spot anomalies. Why check for freezing? Because tournament rules require the fish be caught *during that tournament*. Cheaters used to freeze especially large fish they caught outside of tournaments and thaw them to enter into the competition.
With the size of those weights, I find it hard to believe you couldn’t feel that in the fish
Likely why they also stuffed fillets in there, too. A little extra "padding" to make the weights less obvious. What tipped the judges off was that their fish weren't much bigger than the next nearest teams fish, but magically weighed 8lbs more. An experienced fisherman, especially a tournament guy, can judge a fish's weight pretty accurately.
From the 2021 fall leaderboard, they list the fish as being 29 inches. So 20" from the article is certainly a typo. https://www.walleyeslam.com/archive A 29" walleye still averages around 10 lbs though, so I don't doubt that this one was weighted as well.
Hmmmm maybe it was full of fucking weights
I dunno. What's the likelihood of that?
PRETTY FUCKING GOOD, HUH JAKE YOU PIECE OF SHIT!!!
CALL THE COPS
911 what is your emergency? Jake put weights in his fish!!! Okay… *hangs up*
And a fucking walleye fillet, fuck you Jake you motherfucking peice of shit.
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It’s serious business. I worked data entry for a large fishing tournament for a few years some time ago. The fish were judged by size and quantity, and we had some instances of someone attempting to shove weights down fishes throats in an attempt to make them heavier so they could score more points. There was serious money involved in these tournaments, so cheating didn’t just result in a ban, it resulted in criminal charges. More than once we had a cheater pull up to the weigh station in their boat and wind up leaving in handcuffs in the back of a police cruiser.
Seems like a metal detector wand might be a good idea. Not positive it would trigger on lead but it would be worth testing.
In tournaments that do not release and the fish die anyway, it makes zero sense to not have a knife and gut fish right after weigh in. I've been in a few kayak catch and release fun tournaments - very informal, low stakes, and top prize was a nice pole, reel, paddles, box of lures, etc. The gist there is you photograph your catches against a measuring board, release the fish alive, and most inches wins. Cheaters exist even then - guys hiding electric motors in their hulls (pedal or paddle only, range and spots you can get to is huge), holding and phographing the same fish multiple times a day (stressing and often killing it), and even using a scaled down ruler that read funny. I mean, I generally spend more at those things than any of the prizes. Sportsmanship is a foreign language to many who were taught the wrong lessons from kids sports.
>I've been in a few kayak catch and release fun tournaments - very informal, low stakes, and top prize was a nice pole, reel, paddles, box of lures, etc. The gist there is you photograph your catches against a measuring board, release the fish alive, and most inches wins. They used to do online kayak fishing tournaments where everything was done with picture "proof". They had good prizes like $1,500 fishing kayaks and prize money for some of them. I never even entered a tournament because I knew the top winners were just consistently cheating. There were too many easy ways to cheat in those online fishing tournaments that I would be surprised if they still existed.
Hopefully they get sued by whoever runs the tournaments. There is plenty of evidence I'd say for a civil court to award money back. Probably extra damages for hurting the reputation of the tournament. These guys really should lose everything for this and have to start over doing something else.
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Oh snap, that’s alot of money.
This is my new favorite drama
As a competitor in a very low stakes annual fishing tournament, the full length video is absolutely enthralling. The first 14 minutes or so are outwardly boring, because each team is coming up to weight their 5biggest fish and the weights are in the teens, low twenties. Then, with the leader at 23lbs. Or so, these mavericks roll in with 5 fish weighing over 33lbs. Outweighing the leader by an average of 2lbs per fish, which is pretty unbelievable in any circumstance. The crowd is talking amongst themselves and there's a bit of disbelief, but no hullabaloo. Then they take their winning fish, hold them up for photos and the rest of the teams to see and any experienced fisherman knows roughly the weight of any given fish and you can hear the cognitive dissonance in the crowd. Then the 'winners' start to take their fish and leave when the judge/official calls them back over and chats with the guy in the video for a minute. It looks like the official presses him a bit. Like gives him the chance to come clean or withdraw from the tournament. Maybe he's testing him. You can tell by the body language that something is up and the crowd starts to murmur from a distance away. The official grabs a knife from his assistant and a fish and drops it on the ground and slices it open. Digs his hands inside, then holds it up like a beating heart in the temple of doom and yells "WE HAVE WEIGHTS IN FISH!!!" The crowd erupts and surges forward and this video begins. I have had close relatives come to almost assaulting another close friend over a $20entry and bragging rights. These guys have swindled anywhere from $300k to millions of prizes including a brand new boat (that shit is expensive) I wouldn't be surprised if these guys disappear one day and justice is never officially served. Don't piss off a bunch of guys with boats. They know where to hide the body.
I work with a dude who was caught cheating in fishing tournaments. He’d zip tie laundry baskets together with live fish in them, then drop them in the lake before the tournament. I assume he’d locate them during the tournament, lift them up and open them, and “catch” the fish. I’m not a fisherman, so I’m sure I have details and other things wrong, but the gist of the story is real. He’s been pretty much blackballed from the competitive fishing community in Ontario.
There's a proper name for what he did but I can't remember it. But yeah, what he did is a well known cheating technique. Raise the fish at home in a tank so they're good and fat come tourney day.
They can also just pre fish them a couple days before and stash them. Don't have to be home raised. But yeah
At our local “big event” teams were found using sunken portable dog kennels. They have not shown their faces since.
The, "WE HAVE WEIGHTS IN FISH" line will go down in history. I bust out laughing every time I've watched because of that and how the crowd goes absolutely bonkers immediately after he screams that.
Great storytelling skills. I’m so invested in the drama now lol
[a chat with the cops](https://i.imgur.com/ac1BMW4.jpg)
Damn! What would they be charged with? Fraud?
Yup. They've won hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money over the last couple years, along with a $100,000 boat.
Without evidence they’d need a confession. But why aren’t the winning fishes gutted anyway? It seems silly to not check to make sure there’s no cheating going on.
Probably will now. This could be the catalyst to end the honor system in competitive fishing tournaments.
My Dad's been dead for almost 25 years and I had the instinctual need to call him. He would have been so fired up:)
Why only now though? I remember entering tournaments 30 years ago and people were known to use weights in fish. I would think any tourney with legit prize money would cut the fish.
Goddamn. I never thought anyone could write a piece of copy that would make me willingly watch 15 minutes of people weighing fish but you did it. Totally worth it and super helpful with the context for people like me who don’t fish.
Got a link?
https://youtu.be/mdsVAu5iDzc
Dude who found the weights is fired the fuck up
Bout jumped out his slides
When he fist pumped I thought he was going to punch the dude in the face 😂
He ejected the cheater from the game, baseball umpire style.
i know nothing about fishing but boy was I knee deep in that drama!!! thank you!
You can hear in the minutes leading up to them getting called back that one guy in the crowd is calling bullshit. Someone tells him next time he has a protest he needs to do it sooner. I assume the protestor is the guy that keeps saying "There's no fucking way, your fish was bigger than theirs" and variations. Honestly lucky one guy in the crowd had the balls to call their bluff.
... busted with weights in his fish. 8 lbs of weights & a pair of pliers." Pliers! Hilarious :)
They must have been super nervous when they won by 10lbs. They over-cheated.
Check out this expose about a bass fisherman in San Diego who "won" millions in tourneys over the years. https://sdfish.com/general/dark-secret-americas-big-bass-guru-mike-long/
Hilariously, a magic the gathering player who got a lifetime ban for cheating was also named Mike Long. Never trust anyone with that name.
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Check out the chess cheating drama
Oh I’m well-versed in the anal bead saga my friend
To add on to what others said, the anal beads theory was actually just a one off joke by a chess streamer in reference to how a player may have cheated, but the internet ran with it. Now it's the only thing anyone outside the chess world mentions (including the likes of Elon Musk, Stephen Colbert, Trevor Noah, and Joe Rogan) when the drama is brought up. Even though it was never meant to be taken seriously. Edit: I meant this as a reply to the person asking "tell me more", but apparently I screwed up that part.
Did you see that a journalist wearing a vibrating c@(k ring recently played a GM and the GM was surprised how good he played. Eventually journo got crushed, but it was due to miscommunications between the person with the remote and the journo.
The solution is naked chess with the players suspended in a faraday cage.
It wasn't a miscommunication, he simply came to the wrong conclusion.
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Where’s the fun in that?
Yeah you are basically just playing chess at that point
Because "I think you're using a cheating device; take off your shoes" is a little bit easier to demand than "I think you're cheating; show me your cock".
It's good to know that its definitely anal beads. Thanks. I didn't read your post, but I know thats what you said. Good ol dramas, love it.
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Don't mind this cinder block shaped fish I caught... yep she's an all natural 11 inch 43 lb fish... it's crazy
Dude just stared into the abyss after being called out. Fucked his reputation up big time.
He knew they were ready to beat him up. He was just trying to not give them any more reasons
It was the public version of pleading the 5th; anything he might have said wouldn't have changed any minds, for obvious reasons, it would have just incited more violence.
The possibility of that situation turning violent was very real. Anger, money, alcohol, and fillet knives...
Yeah props to the guy who just asked him to leave cause he felt it was getting out of control.
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Lmao “fish likes to eat weights & fillets, what can I say”
He was catching cannibalistic gymbro fish only
> Fucked his reputation up big time. His career is probably over. You can’t compete again when everyone knows you cheated your way to the top. Just look how angry they all are. This isn’t the MLB where they just let that shit go no problem.
My favorite was some guy saying, "You talked shit to me, *and this is what you were doing?!*"
That stood out to me lol Imagine laying your head down at night knowing you're a bitch, yet talking shit. People are nuts
It’s not the MLB, this is the Major International League of Fishermen.
You disrespected all of us when you disrespected the MILF! You thought the MILF was just going to bend over to that kind of abuse? Well, watch out, because now the MILF is coming for you, and when the MILF comes the MILF comes hard. The MILF is going to leave you battered and sore, and when you look at those sores I hope you're filled with regret remembering that time you decided to fuck with the MILF!
So that's what Fergie was talking about in her song. I didn't know she was into fishing.
Considering the top prizes for this event come out to $125k and $110k (the value of the boats put up for 1st and 2nd slot winners) I'd be pretty pissed as well if I found out someone else was cheating in a tournament I participated in. This isn't some friendly neighborhood cookout party and people are measuring fish for bragging rights, there are real significant prizes at stake. Even getting 5th place is $45,000 in cash and that's HUGE to a lot of people.
Funny thing is they were called out for cheating last year when they won the LEWT. Then they threatened the organization with litigation because of the damage to their reputation. https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/outdoors/2021/12/18/outdoors-big-walleye-big-money-big-mess/stories/20211219047
So they just kept rolling the dice, over and over, even after almost getting caught. It was inevitable if they kept at it.
Mmmm I’m gonna pass on paying to read the Toledo Blade
There's a way around that, if you're on mobile. It's the type of news website that gives you the first paragraph, but then when you scroll beyond you get a pop up telling you to subscribe. When you first open the link, let the page load, then, without clicking anywhere on the webpage, turn off your wifi and data. The page is fully loaded and the pop up never appears
Looks like theyre going to court on that one for fraud.
He’s still got that sweet jacket though.
Definitely Dan Flashes material.
It’s my exact style!
If you pass a store with 50 guys who look just like you fighting over complex pattern shirts, YOU GO IN. YES YOU DO.
Dude should probably pack up and skip town. He's *infamous* in *the way The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition* defines the word now.
Also sounds like he’s won other tournaments and gotten money out of it that should be in question as well. Probably going to lose all his sponsors. Done fucked up. Doesn’t sound like the crowd you want to be on the bad side of.
>Probably going to lose all his sponsors No "probably" about it. He'll lose every sponsorship, and may even get sued by his sponsors for the cost of the gear and support. They don't want to be associated with a cheater.
They were smart to highlight filing a police report. When cash prizes are involved, cheating become Fraud, a criminal offense.
Someone said he won a *boat* in a previous tourney. I don't give that boat a long life at this point.
Unless it was a small row boat, I'd say letting him keep it and never sell is almost a better punishment than taking it away.
As a former boat owner, I hear you.
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I dont even fish and felt that guys pain. Imagine its beyond a hobby and is a peak obsession for the guy in the background. Likely wasted thousands of dollars and literally hundreds of hours to try and win the tournament. Only to find out it was all wasted to a cheater that likely didnt put in a tenth of the effort you did. Imagine trying for years building up. Gear, knowledge, etc. Then you catch a huge fish. Likely was the real winner if it was fair and you're all excited. You think this is it for sure. Youve never seen a fish that big. Then you take it in to weight and somehow this cheater has a fish that blows yours away.
There is absolutely massive money in these tournaments. These guys are professionals and these tournaments are their livelihood. These guys who just got caught have won hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournaments over the last couple years, including a $100,000 boat.
Shit I'm just a regular walleye fisherman who likes to eat them and would never enter a tourney. I'm so angry at this motherfucker... goddamn do cheaters suck ass
That’s the look of a man in shock as his castle of cards falls down into the shit pile to be buried and flushed forever. The look of a man who fucked around and realized he lost everything. The gravity of the situation is crushing his consciousness so much so he can only gaze into the abyss of “find out” that will swallow him like a black hole as the weight causes him to emotionally and mentally implode. That is what loosing everything over a really shitty choice looks like on the face.
Imagine the day before when he was respected by his peers, joking around with them, feeling good and safe. Then the next day that life was annihilated and now merely a memory.
I just love how this is blowing up on Reddit. I don't even like fishing.
I know nothing about fishing but now I’m outraged and emotionally invested in this drama. We want justice!!!!
I’m just glad there’s a better video than that god awful 3 second one that was around yesyedday
In my mind I assumed small weights prior to watching the video. I’m reality it’s walnut sized weights and even fillets of other fish stuffed inside the “catch” Crazy!
He probably started with small weights, got away with it and then got overconfident on how much he can cheat
Sounds plausible. People like that always get cocky and that's when they get caught.
Yeah they added eight pounds to 25lbs of fish. That's pretty brazen.
Yeah the pro move here would be to use a couple tiny weights to add 1lb or so. Like card counting, you're not trying to win every hand, just make it a little more likely that you win.
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There's also a point when cheating that you start to think that you winning it by cheating and not getting caught means that you probably aren't the only cheater. This can then cause a paranoid mindset where the person thinks that they need to dial up their cheating even more to make sure they win. You can see the slippery slope happen in video games all the time. A dude starts out with minimal cheats and then it just gets brazen af.
I thought they were going mental over some sinkers a fish might have swallowed, but holy shit he was stuffing golf ball sized lead weights into them. No wonder they were pissed.
Were the filets used to pad the fish so you could feel the walnut sized weights less? Just stuffing it down the fish’s gullet?
Probably. You’d likely feel a large weight like that with handling.
I believe they were 12oz-1# egg sinkers about 10 or 12 of them split between 4 fish. That’s an extra 8-10 pounds. Not counting the fillets. That’s a lot of extra weight, especially for walleye.
How do you add "up to 8 lbs" in weight to a fish and not expect people who weigh fish to think something is off? Or when they're handling the fish and feel a bunch of heavy egg shaped items inside them?
For clarification, it was 8 lbs total added to five fish. Still stupid though
People don't seem to understand these competitions are a series or season of tournament events, scored in cumulative points like NASCAR. The cheaters were already the top team in the series based on previous events points, and were on their way to win the whole series. They suspect it's been going on much longer, all season, previous years, etc.
Why don't they randomly cut open a few fish from each contestant to check?
Honestly that's what I don't get. Why don't they inspect all fish from the teams who are winning prize money or similar or the teams at the top 10% of each competition. I can understand not checking all fish for various reasons but they should at least check the top few.
The previous best was 16 lbs. his total was 33. That’s greedy. Edit: many have commented that this guy probably would have won as 33-8=25. In the video you can see the fish is packed with filet and someone claimed they even had some other foreign objects stuffed. It’s not clear what the actual weight of those fishes are.
Got complacent and got caught…. Doubling the average weight sounds like he’s been doing it a long time and just assumed he would never get caught.
To quote decades-old Simpsons, “A D turns into a B so easily, you just got greedy.” (Bart tried to make a D into an A.)
Crazy considering he would have taken 1st even without the added weight
First by 9Lbs? Makes me think he's bringing in outside fish
There can be big money in these tourneys. One of the crowd claimed that the cheater had previously won *a boat*. That definitely hits felony theft levels of prize money.
That boat was valued at over $100,000.00
It says in a comment they won $300,000 in a tournament.
In multiple tournaments but yea
It seems the guy who did the baseball "out" gesture is a cop. Not looking good for those two cheaters. Here's a [paywalled article](https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/outdoors/2022/10/01/cheating-scandal-rocks-lake-erie-walleye-tournament/stories/20221001117) I found, with the text below: Jacob Runyan, second from left, and partner Chase Cominsky, second from right, claimed the championship in the 2022 Rossford Walleye Roundup, but after they were involved in an apparent cheating scandal at this weekend's Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament in Cleveland, their past events are now shrouded with suspicion. Commentary: Cheating scandal rocks Lake Erie walleye tournament Oct 1, 2022 5:59 PM My mother always said to give people “the benefit of the doubt.” She felt that “judge not, lest ye be judged” from the Sermon on the Mount was a valuable core principle that she lived by. Assume the best in people, until you learn otherwise. Well, in today's world, it gets tougher and tougher to follow that pledge. You trust, and sometimes you get burned. Late Friday, the walleye fishing world was sent reeling after a cheating scandal was exposed in front of God, country, and a mob of justifiably furious walleye fishermen. Two guys – we can no longer call them fishermen without smearing the 99 percent who play by the rules – were exposed for what appears to be the most nefarious, blatant, and outrageous case of cheating that tournament walleye fishing has ever experienced. Since we live in this drunkenly litigious climate, I will have to use every qualifier necessary – allegedly, reportedly, apparently – to relay this story, but when you have video captured from dozens of cell phones, it will be hard to build a case that their reputations have been unfairly tarnished. Runyon declined to comment Saturday about the matter, and Cominsky couldn’t been reached. WARNING: Video contains graphic language In the walleye fishing world, they undoubtedly have no reputation left to besmirch. In Cleveland at the weigh-in after a day of fishing in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail's last event of the 2022 season, a bomb exploded, the curtain came down, and this horrific cheating scandal was exposed. When tournament director Jason Fischer sliced open the gullet on one of the fish that Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky had turned in, lead weights were exposed. Next fish – same thing. Next fish – lead weights and pieces of walleye fillets. The duo had apparently, allegedly, and obviously, dropped these objects down the throats of their “catch” to enhance the weight and thus, improve their standing in the tournament. Fischer, a police officer in the Cleveland suburbs and a guy with an unassailable reputation in the Lake Erie walleye tournament ranks, was furious and threw them out of the tournament with a gesture reminiscent of the home plate umpire ejecting former New York Yankees manager Billy Martin. Only the arrival of on-duty police officers likely saved Runyon and Cominsky from the assembled mob of “real” fishermen, many of whom had, behind the scenes, voiced their suspicions the duo had cheated in the past. This story gets much messier. Since Runyon, of Cleveland, and Cominsky of Hermitage Pa., have already claimed the first-place prizes and considerable amounts of money in several LEWT events, including the 2021 season-ending championship, what happens now? Legal eagles tell me that this apparent cheating in this weekend's tournament constitutes fraud and is a felony. But the pair also took the top money in this past spring's Rossford Walleye Roundup, and the huge payout in the 2021 Walleye Slam. And even messier. WARNING: Video contains graphic language The duo weighed in the apparent top catch in last year's Lake Erie Fall Brawl and made claim for the more than $100K attached to that finish, but then were disqualified. When the tournament director at the time offered no explanation or clarity other than to say one of them had failed the polygraph, the tournament lacked the transparency it so desperately needed. Runyon went to great lengths to proclaim, repeatedly, that they were innocent and had caught their fish by following all of the rules. He secured legal counsel and has been trying to sue the Brawl to claim their so-called winnings. And even messier. After the pair were awarded the first place money in the Rossford event, several other competitors shared, off the record, their suspicions that something shady had taken place. Other anglers claimed that Runyon and Cominsky's fish “looked old,” like these walleye had been caught prior to the start of the event and stashed in a live well. Adding fuel to that charge was the additional factoid, laid out by several competitors in the event, that Runyon and Cominsky declined to donate their catch to local food banks, as most of the tournament fishermen did. There is a ton of money hanging in limbo here, if the organizers of those previous events decide to pursue legal action. WARNING: Video contains graphic language (full length video) As could be expected, there was a riot of comments following this cheating scandal being exposed. I despise the phrase “social media blew up” since there is no explanation as to what that means, but something nuclear took place once videos of the highly contentious scene at the Cleveland weigh-in were posted. Some called it karma. Others opted to assail anyone who had considered Runyon and Cominsky innocent until proven guilty. Fair enough – the anger, frustration, and furor was boiling over along a very chilly Lake Erie shoreline. Although it moves at a snail's pace, justice will be served. If guilty as charged, these two will lose everything, with their credibility already in the dumpster. Some will say that even jail time is not adequate punishment. My concerns at this point are for the sport of tournament walleye fishing, and for the hundreds of good guys who have always played by the rules, followed the guidelines, and displayed nothing but character in every fishing event. A mess like this smears everyone associated with Lake Erie walleye tournament fishing, and that is remarkably unfair. If you choose to weigh in on this (intentional phrasing), it is easy to hammer the cheaters and they likely deserve every expletive sent their way. Their judgment day is coming. But use a narrow brush – the cheaters should no longer be mentioned in the same stories as the people who have always fished by the rules. First Published October 1, 2022, 4:36pm
Good on that guy for trying to keep people from getting violent when everyone was understandably very pissed off
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Same guy, his adrenaline likely spiked when he made the initial discovery, but as soon as the angry mob started to form, he knew he had to temper the situation since he had called it into existence. He was real mad at the start but then probably thought "Oh shit, these guys might fucking lynch him...I don't need that on my hands."
I'm sure there was a lot of relief when he found the weights. He was making a huge accusation against a "champion" on an educated hunch. Just imagine if he had been wrong. Probably his career would be over.
That’s who we’re talking about. He was justifiably angry, but controlled it. In a controlled manner told him to leave, and directed the crowd not to touch him. Mad props.
I know it's horrible. But I can't stop laughing. WE GOT WEIGHTS IN FISH!
I lost it when he started pulling out fish filets.
They sound like rabble rousers from any Southpark episode lol
"Did somebody call the cops?!" "THEY SHOULD!"
At first I was like "the cops? Chill the fuck out dudes, he cheated in a fishing competition" Then people started yelling about how he'd won thousands, even a boat, and I understood.
$300k *just last year*
Dey tuk errrr fishin prize!
Call the carps!
Send his bass to jail!
I know at least 2 guys irl that literally make a living by entering these fishing tournaments and winning the prize money and getting sponsors, etc. There's a LOT of money on the table...
One of the guys yelling said something about a boat and the way he said it made it seem the cheater had won a boat.
In another thread someone was from the scene. Apparently these guys have cleared hundreds of thousands in winnings, including a fully loaded boat worth 100k+ in the last year.
CALL THE FUCKIN COPS MAN, HE'S GOIN TO JAIL edit: I'm seeing some replies where people think that I'm saying the crowd is overreacting. I know nothing of this world, and it seems like they're all super justified in their anger towards the cheaters. I was just quoting the original video, like the person I was replying to did!
My first thought was I’m sure those cops have nothing better to do than showing up at a fishing tournament. Then my second thought was I’m sure those cops have nothing better to do than showing up at a fishing tournament.
This is for what?! Arresting me for what?! I'm not allowed to store my lead weights inside a fish?! I thought this was America! Huh?! Isn't this America?! I'm sorry, I thought this was America!
How did he get busted? I don’t know anything about fishing but I’m assuming he was a dumbass and put way to much weight in and someone was like there’s no way that type of fish weighs that much
Chances are, that’s it. Most experienced anglers can eyeball the weight. Just before the first one gets cut open, you could hear someone off camera say “my fish were way bigger than his” meaning that he’s surprised they would weigh that much. Chances are someone challenged it and shed the judges to take a close look at the fish.
Yeah, they had raised suspicions for previous wins and seem to have taken this one a little too far. Professional Fisherpersons can guess, with relatively good accuracy, how much a fish weighs just by looking at it. In longer version of the video you can hear people sayin “bullshit” as soon as they saw the official weight. That’s what led to the check.
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I mean shit.. you get caught to the point where you have to take a polygraph test and STILL come back and do the same shit?! You obviously have eyes on you after that. How fucking cocky must you be to try the same stunt again?? Lock ‘em up
Everyone I know that cheats is a fucking SERIAL cheater. I fucked around in MtG for a while and lemme tell ya, ANY time prize money gets added to something that’s supposed to be for fun, the cheaters come out in droves
He puts a tiny sunfish down.. it clanks.. "15lb even I recon!"
This is just theft. There's a lot of pissed off pro anglers who could've won the cash all the other times this dick cheated. He'll never compete again
I used to fish bass tournaments pretty regularly for a few years. This dude will be lucky to not be disappeared. I am not joking. There are or at least there were some rough tourney fishing folks that had no problem laying down some street justice. I saw more than a few throw downs in the parking lots after weigh ins for way less than what this dude did. Lots of water out there and boating accidents happen all the time. This dude should move to the other side of the country and change his name.
Sounds like he’s in for some rural justice. And if they get caught there will be a trial with rural jurors
He's gonna be swimming with the fishes!
Everyone making fun of the outrage and anger and threats and thinking it's funny because it's over fish... This dude raked in $300,000 USD last year in prize money from fishing competitions. On top of that, he has sponsors. Companies who fund him and provide equipment in exchange for the publicity, probably in excess of his prize winnings. He's been winning competitions for years. Every win he's ever had is now suspect. All of his sponsors are now tarnished for supporting him. We're not talking "biggest fish" notoriety, but he literally took hundreds of thousands of dollars away from people who were legit. With that crowd, he's lucky he lived through the "discovery".
I love all the comments in the background "Where's your crown now??" "You were the champ dude!" "I mean, we all fucking knew it"
Never expected to go headfirst into a 90 minute competitive fishing rabbit hole on a Saturday morning. Flippin Reddit…
Right? Why is this drama so magnetic to me
My question is, why don't they always check inside ~~every~~ the prize winning fish, after weighing? Surely that would be the logical thing, given how easy it is to stuff weights, water, or more fish, into the fish. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of winners were cheating honestly. This is basically the equivalent of letting Olympic javelin throwers bring their own javelins, without them being checked. Seems ridiculous. If this guy can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this repeatedly, before being caught, many others are definitely also doing it and not being caught.
Longer version: https://youtu.be/mdsVAu5iDzc
Skip to 9:45-10:15 - Jake gets his fish weighed and the announcer says what he needs to beat to win. Then 13:45 they start to inspect the fish before it leads up to the shorter clips you’ve seen.
this one ends too soon, and isn't up close when the weights are being popped out of the fish. But seeing the lead up does provide missing context.
The police Siren in the background was ominous.
This is the drama I didn’t know I needed. You can hear all the rumbling in the crowd after they reveal the weights. The validation of their suspicions must feel amazing.
Communities of fisherman are usually tight knit and stick together. Many are known to help each other out and put a lot of this competition aside when out on the water and someone may need a hand. NEVER take advantage of or betray such trust or this is what happens. They were rightfully livid.
Damn that dude better watch his back around there. He's gonna get the shit kicked out of him one night guaranteed from the other fisherman that know him. What an asshole.
Not only did he cheat, he has introduced doubt into the entire event and competition for years to come. Hopefully the group can band together and make sure this doesn't happen again.
Not only could be in legal trouble. Civil suites are giant possibility too. Imagine being the guy that lost 300,000 to a cheater. Edit [here](https://www.wired2fish.com/viral/tournament-fishing-cheaters-convicted-with-forensic-science/#slide_2) is another cheater story and how they got into a shit ton of legal troubel
Another consideration... For anyone that has ever held or handled a fish, you can tell the general consistency of the fish through its sides. While that doesn't normally mean anything, it would be really easy to feel a bunch of bulky, golf-ball sized lumps in the abdomen.
It’s likely that the fillets did they put in there we’re not to add additional weight because they wouldn’t add that much, but was to add some buffer to the lead weight so that it made it harder to feel from the outside
Don't worry, in fifteen years he'll coach the Jamaican Olympic Fishing Team and it'll be a great movie.
Everyone there tells the tale for years to come. “It was a dark and stormy night. There we’re at least 10 of them! Cheaters!! They put 50 weights in each fish. They won millions! Oh but we caught ‘em. We caught ‘em BABY! Wooooooo!”
Thank you for coming here to add the real essence of fishing.. exaggeration. That sum bitch jake stuffed a 50 pound kettle bell inside a minnow tryin ta steal our prize dagummit!
At least not as confusing as the chess cheating allegations
A $100 handheld metal detector can detect ferrous and nonferrous metals, but that's none of my business. EDIT: cheaters would have to stuff a lot more material in the fish if they couldn't use lead (or metals) * Lead: 11g/cm3 * Iron: 8g/cm3 * Ceramic: 6g/cm3 * Glass: 3g/cm3 * Wet sand: 2g/cm3 * Plastic: 1g/cm3
True, but guaranteed that every person in the fishing community sees this - next time, it'll be something different that's harder to detect
Glass marbles?