The late luchador, Eddie Guerrero, once said, “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying.”

I’m not sure how one cheats in professional wrestling. However, that sentiment has been echoed among competitors across a number of sports. So it is no shock that the latest, hottest duo to hit the Lake Erie Walleye Trail has been busted for eschewing any semblance of angling ethics.

The pair, who had been winning tournament after tournament, was finally caught following a September 30th weigh-in. For the uninitiated, a weigh-in is the point in the competition when the empirical rubber hits the road. How much do each team’s fish weigh. Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky were in the business of tipping scales, so it was no surprise their sack of walleye was heavy. What was a surprise, however, was the rigid innards of one of their fish.

Tournament fishing certainly has its fair share of criticisms. Whether it is big bass tours, high-dollar billfishing, or humble fly-only events, there are always concerns about the treatment of the fish, the ecosystem, and even the purity of the sport. Anglers, even those content to keep, kill, and eat, have debated the potential problems. Yet, it is also a slippery slope. What is the difference between a group of friends comparing a day’s catch for bragging rights and a slightly larger assemblage doing the same for a modest cash prize? Is aggressive, catch-measure-and-release still catch and release?

In fly fishing, the pace is slower. The fish are smaller. The participants can’t fish well if followed by a camera team. Those are all reasons why pro-fly tournaments haven’t achieved anything close to the status of the conventional crowd. What’s more,  the economic footprint of fly fishing is miniscule compared to the bass, inshore, and certainly blue-water communities. Sponsors and advertisers make things happen.

It was those happening things that, presumably, led the team of  Runyan and Cominsky to cheat. They shoved heavy egg sinkers into their walleye. Then, in a feeble attempt to pass a rudimentary perusal, they stacked fish filets on top of the weights. But they overplayed their live well when their fellow competitors wondered why seemingly smaller fish weighed so much. A sidewalk autopsy  revealed the lead-hard truth.

You can watch the video here. Things get intense at around the 14:30 mark. Language is quite salty, too.

The other folks on the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament did not take kindly to the shenanigans of the offending pair. Plenty of others have chimed in to question the legitimacy of tournament fishing practices in general. (Apparently using a polygraph to verify winners is not uncommon!) And the constant skeptics, who wonder if fishing tournaments should even be a thing, are happy to point this out as the latest malfeasance in a crooked operation.

Wherever one falls on this issue, it is worth considering where that might be –  and why. With all the talk of tactics and techniques, it is probably good to give some thought to ethics and their implications. At the very least, why it isn’t right to stuff fish with weights and more  fish.