A cut to a walleye stomach immediately showed a large barrel sinker rolling out, then another and another.
“We’ve got weights in the fish,” said Fischer, who’s a Cleveland area police sergeant.
The crowd witnessing the weigh-in and the revelation of nearly a dozen heavy lead sinkers in the walleyes, immediately went bonkers. Many people were accusing the cheating pair of theft and calling for police intervention.
Sinkers had been wrapped with walleye fillets when stuffed inside the whole fish to help conceal the hard-surface of the lead inside, photos and videos show.
Obscenities were yelled at the two fishermen from other tournament participants and spectators, many of whom were videoing the scene with cell phone cameras. Video footage of the incident has been splashed all over social media, with written stories detailing the event even appearing in the New York Times (NYT).
Fischer told Runyan to leave the area fearing what may have resulted from the increasingly enraged anglers on the scene. Cominsky had already left, locking himself in a vehicle nearby.
Fischer reported to the NYT that he’d contacted Ohio’s DNR about the incident and said, “Everything was turned over to law enforcement.”