The Cleveland fishing tournament cheating scandal was perpetrated by 43-year-old Jacob Runyan of Ashtabula, Ohio and 36-year-old Chase Cominsky of Hermitage, Pennsylvania,[1] who were found cheating with lead weights and fish fillets stuffed inside of their fish at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament. The scandal was met with outrage in the fishing community, with many fishing-related content creators denouncing them as "cheaters". The fishing tournament inspectors now use metal detectors for any foul play.[2] Many videos of the exposure that were uploaded to social medias like Twitter and TikTok became viral videos and led the story to many local and international news outlets, including CNN, Today, NBC News, and YouTube commentary outlets like penguinz0.
Context edit
On September 30th, 2022[3] at Gordon Park,[4] Cominsky and Runyan won the grand prize of $29,000[5] at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail walleye fishing tournament for their five 7.9 lb walleye fish. Inspector John Fischer wanted the winners to stick around and take photos with the fish, he then asked to inspect the fish which they accepted.[6] As he was checking the fish, he noticed something off about the texture of its belly and asked for a knife to look further into it. He cut inside the fish where he found lead weights and fish fillets.
References edit
- ^ "2 fishermen caught cheating at Ohio tournament sentenced to 10-day jail terms and forfeit of $100k boat". NBC News. 2023-05-12. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ "2 fishermen caught cheating at Ohio tournament sentenced to 10-day jail terms, forfeit of $100k boat". WBNS 10 TV.
and from now on the tournament will be using metal detectors to check fish when they're weighed.
- ^ Runyan: "I wish I could go back to September 30th...." Men charged in Cleveland fishing tournament cheating scandal apologize at sentencing, retrieved 2024-01-26
- ^ Cory Shaffer, cleveland com (2023-05-11). "Fishermen who cheated at Lake Erie walleye tournament in Cleveland get jail time". cleveland. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ "2 men sentenced to jail in Lake Erie walleye fishing tournament scandal". Akron Beacon Journal. Retrieved 2024-01-26.
- ^ Chappell, Bill (October 3, 2022). "The scales turn against 2 fishermen after weights are found in fish at a tournament". NPR.