A pair of fishermen admitted this week that they cheated at a tournament in Ohio last year, in a scandal that rocked the world of sport fishing.
“This plea is the first step in teaching these crooks two basic life lessons,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said Monday in a statement. “Thou shall not steal, and crime does not pay.”
Runyan, who lives in Ashtabula, Ohio, and Cominsky, of Hermitage, Pa., did not respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post. Runyan’s attorney, Gregory Gentile, also did not respond. While Cominsky’s lawyer, Kevin Spellacy, could not be reached at a listed office number, he told Cleveland.com that his client accepts responsibility for cheating.
“He’s extremely remorseful and looks forward to moving on with his life,” Spellacy said.
The convictions resulted from the Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament’s final contest in September, when about 65 two-person teams spent eight hours trying to pull five of the heaviest walleyes out of the Great Lake. Runyan and Cominsky, who made up one of the teams, appeared to have won the event in Cleveland, having entered five fish that weighed in just shy of 34 pounds. That entry also would have bagged team-of-the-year honors — and nearly $29,000 — since they’d won three other tournament events over the previous four months.
But tournament director Jason Fischer told The Post last fall that he grew suspicious when Runyan and Cominsky’s entry topped 30 pounds. Looking at their catch, he had estimated the five fish weighed around 20 pounds.
“It just kind of deflated me, because I just knew it wasn’t right,” he said.
On a hunch, Fischer grabbed one of the fish and felt something hard in its stomach. He sliced open the dead walleye and discovered what he’d feared.
“We got weights in fish!” he shouted, pulling out one of 10 weights totaling seven pounds that would be found in Runyan and Cominsky’s entry. He also dug out several walleye filets — flesh from other fish used to bulk up the catch. Authorities later found additional filets on Cominsky’s boat, which led to the unlawful ownership of wild animals charge, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office said in October.
As Runyan stood just feet away, Fischer disqualified him and Cominsky, according to a video from the Sept. 30 event that Fischer shared with The Post.
“Get out of here!” the tournament director yelled, throwing his hand in the air and using a curse word to punctuate the send-off.
In a video posted to the tournament’s Facebook page four days after the event, Fischer told viewers he was repulsed by what he discovered, describing it as one of the most “dishonest acts that the fishing world has ever seen in live time.”
“I personally have never seen anything quite like this in competitive fishing,” Fischer said, adding: “The individuals involved here appear to have put greed and ego in front of anything else, forever tainting our sport.”
Runyan and Cominsky in April 2022 were accused of cheating at another Ohio fishing tournament, the Associated Press reported in October. Police investigated, but a local prosecutor decided there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them, according to the AP.
Outside Monday’s hearing, O’Malley, the prosecutor, told WKYC he thinks the convictions and eventual punishment of Runyan and Cominsky will deter others who might otherwise think about putting their thumbs on the scale.
“Cheating has no place,” he told the station, “and I think that the message will be sent loud.”
