I spent 2 summers working on a charter fishing boat out of Westport, Washington. Around the 4th of July each year, there was a salmon derby with prizes for each day and the person that caught the biggest fish in the derby winning a new pickup. A few years before I started someone tried the same thing, lead weights in a fish. After that, the fish had to be cleaned prior to the weigh in.
Even though I was working on the boat, I always kept poles in the water for me and the boat captain. The fish caught on these poles either went to those that didn’t catch anything or if everyone caught their limit, they were sold to a local cannery. One day during the derby we had a good day and everyone got their 3 fish limit. We stayed out for a while and bottom fished too. By the time we got into port, it was about 5:30 pm. I had all the fish cleaned and bagged for the customers, all I had left to do was clean the boat. When I finished I took the 6 fish I caught to the cannery. A very large King came in at 72 pounds cleaned. But it was too late to enter in in the derby, fish had to be weighed in by 6. The winning fish for that day in the derby was 55 pounds. The winner of the truck had a 64 pound King. Ah, what should have been.
Not a fisherperson myself, were these fish dead? I assume they must be given what happened with the lead weights, but I always thought that in competitions (in the UK anyway) fish were kept in keep nets before weighing and then being released.
Unlike bass tournaments, where the fish are weighed live and returned to the water (with penalties for dead fish), these fish all die as part of the catching process. This time of year Walleye on Lake Erie are caught near the bottom in 60 -70 feet of water. When fish are brought up from those depths, their swim bladders can’t equalize the pressure fast enough and their bladder expands, literally coming out their throat. Even if you released these fish they would die.
I live near Cleveland’s Lake Erie shore, so I’ve seen a lot of discussion of some local Lake Erie and Walleye fishing Facebbok groups. In those discussions I learned that the tournament fish do not go to waste, but the competitor teams almost universally donated their catch to local food banks and soup kitchens. Alledgedly, the cheaters never donated their catch, leading to suspicion that they’ve been allegedly stuffing fish for a while.
The NPR article on this said they had been stripped of previous winnings because they failed a polygraph test, and added, “Lie-detector tests have become commonplace for winners at fishing tournaments.” I mean, I get it, but all the same, if you prohibit fishermen from lying about the fish they’ve caught, can they really still be called fishermen?
That might be part of it to make the extra weight look realistic. But it also just might be a convenient way to keep those weights from rolling out of the gullet at an inopportune time. Push lead weights into stomach, stuff a filet in on top that a.) looks like normal meat at a quick glance down the throat and b.) keeps everything packed up tight.
And to make the lead weights harder to feel. I’ve gotten rather oddly interested in this story - fishing is about as exciting as competitive cornhole, to me - and I’ve watched a few videos about the scandal.
The two cheaters are facing some serious legal problems, now. They’ve been indicted and arrested, on charges of cheating, possession of criminal tools, and attempted grand theft, each if which are felonies. They’re also looking at misdemeanor charges of illegally owning wild animals - that’s for the fish fillets. Last week, Ohio DNR investigators seized Cominsky’s boat as evidence. He may lose it to forfeiture, if convicted. And I imagine that every tournament these two have ever won will be suing to get their prize money back.
