More to the most notorious fish tournament cheating story in recent memory surfaced before two disgraced pro walleye fishermen were handcuffed to start a 10-day jail sentence at the end of their sentencing hearing May 11.

The Ranger boat used by owner Jacob Cominsky of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, and his tournament partner, Jacob Runyan of Ashtabula, Ohio, was a “criminal tool” with a built-in secret compartment. Also, the boat apparently was purchased with money from prior illegally won tournaments, according to the prosecution.

Cayuhoga County, Ohio, Assistant Prosecutor James Gallagher said, “When the ODNR (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) law enforcement executed a warrant and seized their boat and photographed that boat, they found a compartment on that boat that literally smelled fishy. And (the compartment) was sort of a customized to have a secret compartment that would help these defendants to conceal – whether it be fish that they caught the day before or the lead weights that would allow them to potentially pass a boat inspection.”

Then Gallagher showed photos of the evidence – a metal faceplate under the Ranger’s console. Officials reported the screws had been removed, which meant the compartment no longer was watertight.

“It smelled particularly foul when they opened it up,” the assistant prosecutor said in an Outdoor Life magazine story posted May 11.

Judge Steven E. Gall announced the men’s punishment in the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court of Ohio to bring an end to the highly publicized saga that started when the cheaters were caught red-handed on Sept. 30, 2022, at a Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament out of Gordan Park along the edge of Lake Erie in Cleveland Harbor. Lead weights and fillets from other fish were found stuffed in the stomachs of their bogus winning catch.

A grand jury charged Cominsky and Runyan on Oct. 12 with felony charges of cheating, attempted grand theft, possessing criminal tools and unlawful ownership of wild animals (the walleye fillets).

Gall initially handed down a 30-day jail sentence but suspended it. After their 10-day jail time is served, Cominsky and Runyan will be released on probation for 1 ½ years but any probation violation will result in a 12-month sentence.

The cheaters also were fined $2,500, half of which the judge said would be suspended if the two men made charitable contributions to a children’s fishing nonprofit such as the Cast for Kids Foundation and the Ike Foundation. They received the maximum three-year suspension of their fishing licenses.

Cominsky’s Ranger boat and trailer were forfeited.

The men entered a guilty plea April 3 to cheating and unlawful ownership of wild animals moments before jury selection April 3 for their trial in Cleveland. The charges of attempted grand theft and possessing criminal tools were dismissed that day.

The three principal characters from that fateful day Sept. 30 were in the courtroom May 11. Cominsky and Runyan were joined by Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament director Jason Fischer. Fischer was weighmaster that day when he noticed something very much amiss with some very normal looking walleyes weighed by the team that stood to win a total of $28,000, including Team of the Year.

The tournament director weighed the suspects’ fish, then went about his business while asking the apparent winning team to set the walleyes aside, ostensibly for a photo session. Later, as people gathered to watch, he took the fish out of a basket one by one and sliced the belly of each one revealing 10 lead weights – eight weighing 12 ounces and two weighing 8 ounces, along with walleye fillets inserted to keep the lead weighed from banging together.

In a scene that went viral on social media, the tournament director shouted, “We’ve got weights in fish!” The angry reaction from the crowd of tournament fishermen was instantaneous.

Fischer spoke at the sentencing hearing in his victim impact statement and said, “I’ve run approximately 19 events (since 2019). The defendants in this case have won nine of those events, and 11 top finishes total. So over 50 percent of my events they’ve done well in. And I read a statistic somewhere that somebody who steals or is a thief gets caught approximately one out of 48 times.

“I treated them as friends, I worked on their boats, I talked to them, I called them, I defended them many times against my own friends.”

The cheaters’ defense attorney, Gregory Gentile, said Cominsky and Runyan have suffered “seemingly endless negative public humiliation” since the cheating scandal but still accept full responsibility.

Referring to the three-year suspension of their fishing licenses, Gentile said the repercussions already have created what is “effectively a lifetime suspension for them. They’re never going to fish a tournament again. When they go on a date, apply for a job, this case is going to come up.”

Cominsky said, “I just want to apologize to you, Your Honor, apologize to my family, my friends, the fishing community.”

Speaking directly to Fischer, he said, “I feel embarrassed. Super embarrassed. It was a bad action that we made … I will live with it for the rest of my life, and it’s something that my kids will probably end up seeing while growing up. It really hurts. I wish I could take it back.”

Runyan, who also extended an apology to Fischer and the community, said, “This is embarrassing. I’m ashamed. Most ignorant decision I’ve ever made in my life.”

Before announcing the 10-day jail sentence to conclude the hearing, Gall told the two men, “I do genuinely believe that you gentlemen are remorseful. But there is a consideration for deterrence, which I think is also (an) equally important consideration.”

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.