When two fishermen were disqualified for allegedly cheating in an effort to win a Lake Erie walleye tournament this fall, it became the area's biggest outdoors story of the year, the quinquennial, and likely the decade.
Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, who have been charged with a trio of felonies in the case, allegedly used large lead weights and chunks of fish flesh stuffed inside the walleye they submitted at the tournament's official weigh-in to enhance the weight of their catch.
When the tournament director suspected something was amiss and sliced open the bellies of the walleye, lead weights tumbled out and hit the deck with a thud. The reverberations bounced across the globe since a multitude of cell phone cameras were recording the moment, the highly-animated reaction of the tournament official, and the rain of profanities coming from the assembled mob of angry and agitated competitors.
How large and widespread was the reaction to the story, the videos, and the apparent brazen attempt by this duo to win a fishing tournament by cheating?
The story splashed across all boundaries in the news world and attracted unprecedented interest on The Blade website.
Within 48 hours, sports-talk radio programs, podcasts, and television programs from around the U.S. emailed and called wanting extensive details on the incident, the significance of the growing scandal, and the history of tournament walleye fishing on Lake Erie. Even the New York Times ran multiple lengthy stories on the scandal.
News-talk radio stations from British Columbia and Australia aired full-length live interviews on what had transpired. The very popular nationally syndicated Dan Patrick Show was persistent in its pursuit of an on-air interview covering the length and breadth of the messy affair, spreading the story even deeper into all corners of the country. A syndicated Christian radio broadcast covered the story in the context of what it might say about the overall moral fabric of the country. Sony Music Entertainment is developing an hour-long podcast on the cheating scandal.
Runyan, 42, of the Cleveland suburb of Broadview Heights, and his fishing partner Cominsky, 35, of Hermitage, Pa., were indicted in October by a Cleveland grand jury on charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, and possessing criminal tools, all fifth-degree felonies. The pair were also charged with the unlawful ownership of wild animals, a fourth-degree misdemeanor, for using walleye fillets to add weight and baffle the lead inside their fish. The duo entered not-guilty pleas and their case currently is plodding its way through the court system.
This wasn't just a simple case of a couple of guys allegedly cheating to win a trophy and some fishing gear.
They stood to gain close to $30,000 for winning the tournament where the lead weights were exposed, and they had claimed close to $300,000 in cash, prizes, and sponsorship considerations at previous events, with those earlier tournament “wins” all coming under intense scrutiny in the wake of the felony indictments.
While issuing the charges against the pair, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley made it clear this was no insignificant fishy matter.
“I take all crime very seriously, and I believe what these two individuals attempted to do was not only dishonorable, but also criminal,” he said.
Law enforcement officials from Ohio and Pennsylvania would seize the expensive boat and trailer registered to Cominsky as evidence since those items were allegedly used in the cheating incident.
The fallout from the walleye tournament cheating scandal continues to cascade across the area, and the tournament fishing community.
Veteran angler and Toledoan Joe Whitten, who has fished more than 50 professional fishing tournaments, said the explosive video from the Cleveland tournament simply certified what many in the ranks had suspected.
“There were multiple signs that something was going on,” Whitten said. “I decided that I'm done fishing these tournaments until they fix this.”
On a much more positive front, “The Biggest Week in American Birding” returned to an in-person format in May after two years of pandemic-related limitations. What started out just over a decade ago as a small local festival has experienced exponential growth that has brought birders young and old, experienced and novice, to Northwest Ohio, an area known in birding ranks as the Warbler Capital of the World.
As hundreds of thousands of tiny, colorful, and melodic warblers migrate through the area en route from wintering grounds in the warmer climes to their nesting grounds in the forests of the north, they gather in the woodlots and marshes along Lake Erie to rest and feed. It is here that upwards of 90,000 humans from all across the country, the continent, and the globe converge to take in that phenomenon and be part of the Biggest Week celebration.
Back in full form for 2022, the festival and its legions of devoted birders brought an estimated $40 million economic impact to the region.
The region will also remember 2022 for providing what was likely the best walleye fishing on Lake Erie in more than 30 years. After a series of strong hatches, the lake's trove of walleye has grown to the point where limit catches are no longer a lofty goal for a day on the lake — they are the expectation.
Veteran Lake Erie charter captain Mike McCroskey calls the estimated 150 million adult walleye swimming in the lake “the mother lode” and he bangs the drum at every opportunity to sing the praises of that vast cache of these prized gamefish.
"With all of those fish right here, right in our backyard, we are the envy of every walleye fisherman in the country," McCroskey said.
An announcement late in 2022 revealed that the area would lose the Rossford Walleye Roundup, a popular spring tournament, for the coming year after primary sponsor Bass Pro Shops withdrew its support for the event. Tournament officials expressed hope to bring the tournament back in 2024.
Access to the paradise that is the Lake Erie Islands became easier and more efficient in 2022 when the Miller Boat Line added the state-of-the-art Mary Ann Market to its fleet. The new ferry is longer, at 140 feet, as well as faster, and more efficient than the other four boats in the Miller operation.
The Mary Ann Market will enable Miller to move more passengers, freight, and larger trucks, while also offering more indoor and outdoor seating, and a special cabin for mobility-challenged individuals located on the first-floor deck.
First Published December 31, 2022, 1:00 p.m.
