The weighted fish at the Lake Erie tournament
Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 2022
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
The Lake Erie Walleye Trail is a circuit of walleye fishing tournaments contested by two-person teams on the Ohio shore of Lake Erie, with prizes that can run to tens of thousands of dollars. Since 2021, the team of Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky had been winning almost everything, with weights far above their rivals, and suspicion was growing among the other anglers, even though the two had passed polygraph tests that season.
On September 30, 2022, in the circuit final at the Gordon Park boat ramp in Cleveland, the team weighed 33.91 pounds (about 15.4 kg) across five fish and was set to collect close to $30,000. The tournament director, Jason Fischer, found that the fish looked smaller than the weight suggested, squeezed one, felt a hard lump and cut it open with a knife: a sinker fell into his hand. In all, the fish held ten sinkers and pieces of fillet from other walleyes, which added up to about seven pounds. The scene was streamed live and went around the world; the team was disqualified on the spot.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Erie_Walleye_Trail_cheating_scandal
- usatoday.com/story/sports/outdoors/2023/05/11/walleye-tournament-cheaters-sentenced-for-putting-weights-in-fish/70208393007/
- nytimes.com/2022/10/02/us/fishing-tournament-cheating-scandal-lake-erie.html
- alleghenyfront.org/not-just-another-fish-story-the-lake-erie-walleye-cheating-scandal/
In the game
Dead Weight
Cleveland, Friday, September 30, 2022, 5 pm. In the weigh-in tent at the east marina, on the shore of Lake Erie, five walleyes rest in a sealed plastic bag beside the scale.
In October 2022, the two were indicted on charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, possession of criminal tools and illegal possession of wild animals. In March 2023 they pleaded guilty to cheating and to illegal possession of wildlife; in May they received 10 days in jail, a $2,500 fine, three years without a fishing license and the loss of their boat, valued at $100,000 and later auctioned by the state of Ohio. The circuit began opening the fish of the top finishers and using metal detectors at the weigh-ins.
