Walleye Fishermen Accused Of Cheating Say Weight Just A Darn Minute, Plead Not Guilty

Two walleye fishermen who were accused of stuffing their catches with weights and parts of other fish appeared in a Cleveland courtroom on Wednesday.

Despite the video showing the two watching in stunned silence as tournament organizers cut open their fish and exposed weights and parts of other fish, they've decided to plead not guilty.

The two anglers at the center of this scandal are Jacob Runyan, 42, and Chase Cominsky, 35. They've now officially been indicted by a grand journey on several charges. Those include felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, and possessing criminal tools.

The two also face a misdemeanor for unlawful ownership of wild animals.

Runyan hails from Ohio while his co-defendant, Cominsky, is a Keystone State-er. These two were on the verge of winning the fishing tournament prize worth nearly $30,000 thanks to a pair of seven-pound walleye.

However, that dream came crashing down when they were caught stuffing their catch.

According to TMZ, other fishermen already had suspicions that the two were up to something. Once the discovery has been made, the other fishermen tried to convince the tournament organizers to file a police report.

Obviously — since the two just showed up in a courtroom — they did.

We'll have to wait and see how this one pans out. Seems like it would be tough to talk their way out of the charges given the video of them getting caught.

Coming up with a plan for how to fight the charges isn't something we have to worry about. We can leave that to their defense team.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle

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Matt is a University of Central Florida graduate and a long-suffering Philadelphia Flyers fan living in Orlando, Florida. He can usually be heard playing guitar, shoe-horning obscure quotes from The Simpsons into conversations, or giving dissertations to captive audiences on why Iron Maiden is the greatest band of all time.