Chase Cominsky is an $800,000 net worth American professional fisherman from Hermitage, Pennsylvania. Chase and his partner, Jake Runyan, were recently accused of stuffing their fish with weights to make them heavier during a competition filmed and shared on Twitter and other social media sites.
The final 2022 Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship was won by Cominsky and Runyan until the organizer chopped into their walleye and discovered hefty lead weights. However, in the aftermath of the cheating scandal, these victories are being called into question.
While the two have not yet been charged with a felony, they may be in the coming days because the tournaments feature $100,000 in prizes, including boats.
What is Chase Cominsky’s Net Worth?
| Net Worth | $800 Thousand |
| Name | Chase Cominsky |
| Age | 35 Years Old |
| Height | 1.81M |
| Profession | Fisherman |
| Annual Salary | $250 Thousand Per Year |
| Last Updated | 2023 |
What were Cominsky and Runyan’s winnings?
Cominsky and his teammate Runyan had already won multiple competitions, including the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship in December 2021, after winning the Blaster Walleye Fall Brawl and the Walleye Slam.
In addition to the title, the pair got a stunning $306,000 in prize money. Cominsky and Runyan were about to win a $28,760 prize and nearly $29,000 in an Ohio fishing tournament until they were disqualified.
Cominsky and Runyan were both disqualified.
After one of the fishermen failed a polygraph test, Cominsky and Runyan were disqualified from the Fall Brawl fishing event in 2021. Their disqualification cost them the grand prize of $100,000.
Cominsky and Runyan have cheated on numerous occasions to win luxury fishing boats in the Fall Brawl and Walleye Slam fishing tournaments in 2021, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in walleye contests.
The two had inserted filleted walleye flesh into the enormous 12-ounce egg sinkers. Fischer requested that Runyan leave because he was receiving threats from the audience, and Cominsky had already locked himself in his truck in the parking lot.
In the 2022 Cheating Controversy, what action did Jason Fitcher take against Cominsky and Runyan?
Cominsky and Runyan were knocked out of the tournament, and new champions were chosen. Because the team has previously won, it is unknown how the situation will be solved, as it was last year.
Hermitage Man Accused In Fishing Scandal
In the last couple of years, Jacob Runyan of Cleveland and his tournament fishing companion, Chase Cominsky of Hermitage, Pa., appeared to be the best walleye fisherman to ever probe the huge waters of Lake Erie for money-winning monster walleye. All of that came to an end on Saturday afternoon, when the pair weighed a limit of five walleye on a tournament stage set up in Gordon Park’s parking lot in the Cleveland Metroparks.
On a windy day in Cleveland Harbor, an elite field of 30 two-angler teams competed for $30,000 in various prizes in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship.
Runyan and Cominsky’s series of walleye competition victories was legendary, but this time Tournament Director Jason Fischer wanted his hands on the dead walleye in their weigh-in bag.
https://twitter.com/GrammyC4Zone/status/1576999257952980999
“I recognized immediately away that something was really wrong with those walleye,” Fischer stated over the phone.
One of the other tournament regulars claimed that Runyan informed him that the other contenders should just go home because Runyan and Cominsky couldn’t be beaten.
“I called for a fillet knife when I felt something hard in the belly of their first fish and their limit of five walleye seemed unreasonably hefty, at more than 33 pounds for their length,” said Fischer, who also works as a law enforcement officer in the Cleveland region.
Fisher’s video shows one of the huge sinkers falling from the walleye’s body cavity practically immediately after the first slice exposed the body cavity.
“We have weights in the fish!” Fischer addressed the throng gathered around the weigh-in stage, many of whom were equipped with cell phone video cameras. Approximately ten sinkers were eventually taken from the five walleye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlGf5Hi8bVQ
It didn’t take much to enrage the weigh-in audience, which had suspected Cominsky and Runyan of cheating on a regular basis in order to win expensive fishing boats in the Fall Brawl and Walleye Slam fishing derbies in 2021, as well as tens of thousands of dollars in walleye tournaments.
The two had stuffed the heavy 12-ounce egg sinkers into their walleye and padded them with filleted walleye flesh to keep the sinkers from bumping into each other and making noise.
Due to threats from another fisherman, Fischer ordered that Runyan, who was weighing the fish, leave immediately. In the parking lot, Cominsky had already locked himself in his truck.
Fisher phoned the police and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources right away.
While cheating in fishing tournaments is uncommon, those who have attempted it have been heavily penalized and even imprisoned. A fraudulent angler becomes a pariah in tournament fishing circles, where competitors rely on their reputations and sympathetic sponsors for expense money and fishing tackle.
Fischer, the popular Lake Erie WalleyeTrail tournament director and new owner of the Fall Brawl Lake Erie Walleye Derby, apologized on the LEWT’s Facebook Page on Saturday evening and promptly withdrew Runyan and Cominsky from the standings.
Steve Tyszko and Chris French were declared the Ohio State Big Water Walleye Champions after gale-force winds cut the two-day competition to just Saturday.
Steve Hendricks and Brian Ulmer won the 2022 Team of the Year award. Team of the Year runner-ups were Ryan Buddie and Jason Knopf.