大象传媒

Two well-known fishermen in the competitive circuit in the US, Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyon, have been accused of stuffing their catches with lead weights in order to win a tournament held on Lake Erie in Ohio and a cash prize reportedly worth $30,000.

The moment of discovery was caught in an expletive-strewn viral video, when the director of the Lake Erie Walleye trail tournament, Jason Fischer, sliced open the fish and extracted lead weights and extra fish fillets. In the footage, the crowd could be heard shouting at Runyon - who remained silent as the alleged ruse was discovered.

Having won several of the tournament鈥檚 other competitions over the past few months, the pair would have also bagged the Lake Erie Walleye Trail鈥檚 overall prize, which Fischer described as 鈥渁n MVP award.鈥� Instead, their disqualification brought their previous wins into question. Local media report that the pair were disqualified as winners at an event last year, because one of them failed a polygraph test. At the time, Runyon denied they were guilty of any wrongdoing.

Matthew Ghoult from Vice news has been following the story and says that cheating in fishing is by no means unheard of: "Hiding lead weights in fishes is as old as weighing fish as a means for determining who wins a fishing tournament."

(Photo: Portrait of huge walleye fish in an angler's hand. Credit: Getty Images)

Show less