Whether you follow "fishing TikTok" or not, it seems everyone caught at least a small glimpse of the now viral "Fishing Tournament Cheaters" that blew up over the weekend. The tournament was held in Cleveland over the weekend for the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament. Everything was going fine until Jacob Runyan and his teammate, Chase Cominsky, showed up to weigh in their last round of fish.

Lake Erie Walleye Trail
Lake Erie Walleye Trail
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The tournament allows anglers to weigh in their 5 biggest fish caught for the day. As Runyan and Cominsky weighed in their 5 fish, tournament director Jason Fischer was in shock when the fish weighed in at almost 34 pounds. Fisher claimed that he estimated them to be 5 pounds each, nowhere near what they actually weighed in at. With that suspicion, Fischer decided to inspect the fish the two men had just weighed in. As he felt the first fish, he felt a hard object in its belly. Walleye don't eat hard objects, so Fischer decided to cut into the fish he was inspecting. Upon slicing the fish open, Fischer revealed a giant lead "sinker" weight inside of the fish. That's when all hell broke loose.

We got weights in fish!

Fischer held up the first weight like Simba on the Lion King. Suddenly the crowd which was mostly calm but suspicious as well, crowded around Fischer as he began to pull more weights from the rest of the fish.  It was also discovered that the fish had been stuffed with actual Walleye filets assuming to hide the weights.

The prize the men won before the weights were discovered, was $30,000 for first place. They were, of course, disqualified after the weights were discovered. Evidence was taken by the local police department and wildlife and fisheries.

This wasn't the first time the team won a tournament. They were named "Team of the Year" after winning the previous tournaments this year in the series. Those winnings were in the tens of thousands of dollars and they reportedly had won tournaments in other areas as well. The case is under investigation and the men have not been charged with anything at this time during the investigation.

LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state

Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.

Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.

 

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