Two competitors, Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky, accused of attempting to cheat in an Ohio fishing tournament, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a number of felony charges.

The two men were charged earlier this month with felony cheating, attempted grand theft, possession of criminal tools, and misdemeanour counts of illegally owning wild animals following allegations that they stuffed walleye with lead weights and fillets at a Lake Erie fishing tournament in September.

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At Gordon Park in Cleveland, an irate crowd watched Mr. Fischer cut open the walleye and reveal there were weights and fish fillets inside of them. The fish were taken away as evidence by a department of natural resources officer from Ohio.

The five walleye contained the fish fillets and a total of eight 0.34 kilogramme lead weights and two 0.23 kilogramme weights, according to search warrant affidavits.

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Who are Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky?

Jacob Runyan is an American professional fisherman from Ohio Cleveland. He was born in 1980. Runyan is 42 years old.

In a viral video shared on Twitter, Tiktok, and other social media sites, Runyan and his partner Chase Cominsky were accused of stuffing their fish with weights to make them heavier during a competition.

Chase Cominsky is an American professional fisherman from Hermitage, Pennsylvania. He was born in 1987. He is 35 years old. 

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The two have previously won a number of championships, including the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship in December 2021 after taking first place in the Walleye Slam and Blaster Walleye Fall Brawl.

Runyan and Cominsky won the final 2022 Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship until the organizer cut into their walleye and found heavy lead weights.

Runyan reportedly has a net worth of $800. 

After one of the competitors in the Fall Brawl fishing competition in 2021 failed a polygraph test, Runyan and Cominsky were disqualified from the competition. They forfeited the top prize of $100,000 due to their disqualification.