The New York Times, Fox News, TMZ and most every news outlet has picked up on this story, but I’ve had 6 days to stew on this and it still does not sit right with me or most every other tournament angler (or human for that matter).
The walleye tournament duo of Jake Runyan and Chase Cominski have been fishing the Lake Erie pro trails for a few years now. They wanted to be famous, get sponsors, make plenty of money, and have the respect of everyone in the walleye circuit. Over the last few years, they have checked almost all of those boxes. Over the last week, they have gotten more famous than they ever dreamed of and lost all the respect they thought they gained.
These two fine fellas won over $300,000 last year. Just in one walleye circuit, they won 7 out of 11 tournaments; and they cashed a check in all but one. Smells a little fishy right off the bat, no pun intended. Fellow anglers were starting to question their integrity and the rumors began to fly. This type of dominance just does not happen.
Last weekend, the Lake Erie Walleye Trail (LEWT) had their final tournament of the season. Jake and Chase were leading Angler Team of the Year and knew they needed a top 10 finish to secure the money and the trophy. Most every team weighed in bags that averaged in the 3-4-pound range; the walleye this time of year are pretty consistent in that size as best I can tell. Jake and Chase were sitting pretty and needed to weigh in 16 pounds to win the tournament and angler team of the year. They threw their sack on the scales and it lit up to an unbelievable 33.9 pounds.
One of the fellow tournament anglers protested their weight, and the tournament director noticed something was not right. He inspected the fish after the weigh in and felt hard objects in the bellies. He asked for a knife and began cutting them open. The director’s worst nightmare came true as he pulled out multiple lead weights and walleye filets out of each fish. Altogether, he pulled out over 8 pounds of foreign weights out of these fish.
If you google “walleye cheaters”, you can see for yourself the fiasco that ensued. I will warn you, there is VERY strong language in the videos.
Being a tournament angler and a human with a conscience, I have some thoughts on this.
This puts a huge black cloud over all competitive tournaments and anglers. These guys had accumulated sponsors, money, won boats over the years and it now appears they were just a bunch of posers. As far as I’m concerned, these people are bottom of the barrel thieves, and I cannot stand a thief.
Unfortunately, cheating will be around, as long as mankind is walking this earth. I’ve personally seen it in the tournament trails a few times. I’ve seen a guy dominate the crappie series, only to be caught weighing in fish that he caught on other lakes that were not part of the tourney. I’ve seen people stuff weights in crappie, and this seems to be a method that is more popular than we would like to admit. We have to bring in seven crappie and forego a “live check” to make sure they are all alive. I’m not sure how to shove lead weights in a fish and keep them alive, nor will I ever try, but according to the people who filet the stressed or dead fish after the weigh in, they find weights in some of them.
Bass fishing has seen their fair of these cheating scandals as well. People have gone so far to install hidden live wells in their boat to keep fish they caught in practice or had stored at their home aquariums. Stuffing with weights has been going on forever in this series as well. Snagging fish on the beds has been the demise to tournament anglers too. I’ve seen crawfish bags with the bottom corner cut out on stumps in Lake D’arbonne after tournaments. I assume this is an effort to “chum” up the bass in a certain area.
I could go on and on about this subject and am getting fired up just typing this. Bottom line, there is no place for cheaters in this sport … or any sport for that matter. As sportsmen and women, it’s part of our duty to have integrity. Yes, the good grossly outweigh the bad, but when there is a huge cheating scandal, it casts such a bad light and that’s the opposite of our goal. If you are doing the right thing, keep on keeping on. If not, you really need to have a chat with your mama and the Big Man upstairs. As they say, what goes around, comes around.
As far as Jake and Chase are concerned, congratulations you are finally famous! The case has been handed over to the authorities and they will be tried for attempted felony theft from the County Prosecutor’s Office. The Ohio DNR will handle the rest. I hope both agencies throw the book at them.
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Dusty McGehee is a native of Downsville and a 2006 graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a bachelors in wildlife conservation. He is currently employed by WestRock and serves as an environmental engineer at the Hodge Mill. Dusty is an avid hunter and crappie fisherman, fishing crappie tournaments with his son when he is not in the woods. He and his wife Rachel have three young outdoorsmen/women: Anders, Ridge, and Mae. If you have a story idea or question about the great outdoors, you can reach Dusty at dusty.mcgehee@westrock.com.
