Ohio Walleye Fishing Pro Disgraced With Fishing Fiasco at Lake Erie Event
By now, you've probably seen some of the videos, or at least hear whisperings of the "Fishing Fiasco" heard round the the Midwest. And it happened in *checks notes* ... of course, Ohio.
This might be the dumbest thing to cheat at. Honestly, it1 wouldn't be a big deal to us if it were just some "state fair" fishing tournament, but the guy they popped for weighting his fish is (or was) a Pro Fisherman, who has won THOUSANDS of dollars, and holds DOZENS of endorsements. And naturally, something this eccentric had to make the rounds on social media.
Jacob Runyan is a native of Cleveland. He had been fishing with a buddy, Chase Cominsky, from Pennsylvania for the past couple months as a team at multiple tournaments. They seemed to be the hottest team in the Great Lakes, and even won the top Walleye Trophies across Lake Erie for the past few years.
But something was suspicious about his fish this past week at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship in Cleveland Harbor.
Runyan's five Walleye came in at a whopping 33 pounds, which was far more than any other competitor in the competition.
Per Cleveland.com, an interview with the tournament's director, Jason Fischer, detailed the moments leading up to Runyan's betrayal to the fishing community.
"I knew right away that something was very wrong with those walleye. When I felt something hard in the belly of their first fish, and their limit of five walleye seemed excessively heavy... for their length, I called for a fillet knife."
As Fischer cut open the first fish, a massive sinker weight practically fell out of the fish's belly with no aid.
The TikTok below shows parts of the initial findings, and Fischer yelling at the crowd, "We've got Weights in the Fish!"
(Be warned, the language in this video is very NSFW... apparently Fisherman take this VERY seriously)
@kbboutdoors2.0 Walleye Fishing Cheater Exposed in Tournament! #EndlessJourney #fishing #MadeWithKeurigContest #viral #cheating #fishtournament #cheater #cheat #idaho #fyp ♬ BILLIE EILISH. - Armani White
In fact, several weights, coming in to almost 8 pounds, and, Runyan had been stuffing his catches with additional fillets cut from other Walleye he likely caught on the lake - underweight - cut up, and threw back. You can see Fischer cutting out the weights, and filets in the TikToks below.
@top.flight.69 pro fisherman gets cuaght cheating #fishing #pro #cheater #cuaghtcheating #walleye #angler ♬ original sound - Securityy
@joebokarfishing #lakeerie #walleye #cheaters #cheatersgettingcaught #weightsinfish #trash ♬ original sound - Joe Bokar
This is seriously the dumbest thing you could cheat at... FISHING! IT'S FISHING!!!
You catch the fish, you put it on the scale, and that's that. Of course, I never thought someone would cheat at Chess on a pro level with anal beads either, but... that's the world we live in apparently.
Runyan apparently has been doing this for some time, and took, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars from other fishermen. The police were called, but it was unclear if any charges were actually filed against Runyan.