Dead Weight: Cheating Scandal Hits Walleye Fishing Tournament

Look out, folks. We might have ourselves the biggest scandal to hit the fishing world since the movie The Cove was released.

How do you cheat in a fishing contest? The only way I could think of was to stop at Whole Foods on your way to the lake and buy a prize-worthy fish.

Two competitors in an Ohio walleye fishing competition may have found another way to do it: they're accused of cramming weight inside their catches.

Two fishermen — Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyon — were allegedly caught putting bits of metal and even pieces of other fish inside their walleyes. It appears to have been an elaborate ruse to juice up their catch's weights, but as you'll soon see, it's frowned upon by their fellow fisherman.

Unfortunately for them, there appears to be video evidence of their tactics.

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So apparently, these two dudes were frequent fishing tournament winners. One irate fisherman even yelled that they had won thousands of dollars and even a boat in various tournaments.

Tough to talk your way out of that jam. You could make the flimsy argument that the fish ate those metal weights on their own, but I don't know anyone who would buy the fact that those walleye were filleting their brethren,

All of those wins are going to be called into question. Who knows how long this kind of this has been going on? From the sounds of all the yelling, probably a long time.

Cominsky and Runyon were reportedly in the lead of the tournament when they were caught cheating in a way that a Saturday morning cartoon character would.

For real. I'd be stunned if Dick Dastardly didn't do this exact thing at some point in an episode of Wacky Races.

This is the fishing world's version of steroids or a corked bat. Yeah, the crowds would love seeing a 16-inch fish somehow tip the scales at 45 pounds, but at what cost?

The integrity of the sport; that's the cost.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle