Earlier this month, the pro fishing world was rocked by scandal after an angler and his partner appeared to be caught cheating, stuffing the fish they caught with extra weight at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail event in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. The two faced prison time for their actions, and it appears they intend to fight the charges – even though they appeared to be caught red-handed.
According to TMZ Sports, Chase Cominsky and his partner, Jake Runyon were both indicted by a grand jury on felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, and possessing criminal tools. But despite plenty of eyewitness accounts and video evidence against them, the pair entered a “not guilty” plea to all of the charges.
The fisherman seemingly won the event by catching two seven-pound walleyes at the event in September and would have won a prize reportedly worth $28,760. However, the controversy struck when event organizers cut open their fish revealing several lead weights and fish fillets stuffed inside their catch to artificially add weight.
This wasn’t the first time Cominsky and Runyon were accused of cheating as both were also disqualified from a previous fishing event after one of them had failed a polygraph test following their apparent victory.
