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Hermitage angler at center of fishing cheating scandal

In a scandal rocking the competitive fishing world, a Hermitage-based angler and his partner are accused of illegally putting weights in the fish they caught Friday during the Lake Erie Walleye Trail.

A Hermitage-based angler and his partner are accused of illegally putting weights in the fish they caught Friday.
A Hermitage-based angler and his partner are accused of illegally putting weights in the fish they caught Friday.Read moreYouTube
    by Eric Poole, Tribune News Service
    Published 

In a scandal rocking the competitive fishing world, a Hermitage-based angler and his partner are accused of illegally putting weights in the fish they caught Friday during the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship event.

Multiple media outlets, including the Toledo (Ohio) Blade, have reported that Hermitage resident Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyon, of Cleveland, had been the event’s apparent winners until a tournament official cut open one of the fish they caught, as seen in a YouTube video (WARNING: The video contains explicit language), and produced weights, which would have increased the poundage of their catch.

Heading into the season-culminating championship event, Cominsky and Runyon had led the season standings for team of the year.

Lake Erie Walleye Trail director Jason Fischer did not return a phone call seeking comment Saturday. However, he made a Facebook statement through the circuit's page apologizing to fans and competitors of the event.

"Disgusted guys and gals, I'm sorry for letting you down for so long and I'm glad I caught cheating taking place in YOUR LEWT at the same time," Fischer wrote. "I hope you know now that when I say 'you built this LEWT and I will defend its integrity at all costs,' I mean it. You all deserve the best."

Fischer also congratulated the teams of Steve Tsczyko and Christopher for winning the event and team of year winners Steve Hendricks and Brian Ulmer in the statement.

Observers and officials had suspected Cominsky and Runyon as long ago as last year — the YouTube video was titled, in part, "Lake Erie Walleye Trail Cheater Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyan finally got caught."

In 2021, the Toledo Blade reported that Cominsky and Runyan were disqualified from the Fall Brawl fishing event, after they had apparently won, because one of them had failed a polygraph test.

The Fall Brawl offered more than $500,000 in cash and prizes, according to the 2021 Blade article. Runyon told the Blade that both he and Cominsky had passed a subsequent polygraph test following another tournament.