Outdoors: Walleye tournaments could make one angler $300K richer
Dec. 7—When two of the most financially rewarding walleye fishing tournaments in the world ended at the same hour on the same day recently, the most important person involved in these mega-buck affairs was not one of the anglers, a sponsor, a tackle company representative, or any of the tournament organizers.
Before the big checks are written and the close to $700,000 in prizes and cash are awarded, before the IRS gets an official notice of the financial windfall experienced by some very fortunate Lake Erie anglers, and before the champagne corks legitimately can fly, everyone needed to wait on the polygraph examiner.
There was just so much money on the line — the winner of this year's Fall Brawl stood to take home a fully-rigged $125,000 Ranger boat, while the winner of The National Fishing Expos Walleye Slam would claim a new Warrior boat worth $151,670 — and the cash kept flowing down through the top five places in the Brawl, and the top 10 in the Slam.
So the promoters of both events, which peculiarly ran with the same dates — Oct. 15 through on Nov. 28 — hit pause once the final day passed.
They needed some time to sit the winners and top finishers down, strap the electronic sensors on them, and have a lie detector technician closely monitor their breathing, pulse, blood pressure, and other physiological indicators while the fishermen were quizzed about their catch.
Everything — meaning the expensive boats and the fat checks — is put on hold until the polygraph results match the fishermen's accounts of where, when, and how they caught their monster walleye.
Everything is "pending" or "unofficial" until the lie detector tech gives his nod of approval.
There is good reason for the extensive safeguards. A few years ago, one angler was listed for weeks in the top spot of the standings of the Brawl, with a fish that was slightly bigger than the eventual winner, but his name and his fish vaporized before the results went official. Another one of the fish listed in the top five also disappeared when the final, official standings were released. Organizers had no comment on what happened, but Lake Erie anglers correctly surmised that hanky and his evil cohort panky were involved.
More recently, a failure to acquire proper registration for his boat knocked another angler out of the big money.
With two tournaments this year and relatively low entry fees for both events — $35 for the Slam and $30 for the Brawl — many anglers entered both tournaments. The Slam drew 7,355 entries in its first year, while the decade-old Brawl had 10,574 anglers entered.
The opportunity existed for one fisherman who caught a huge fall walleye on Lake Erie to win in excess of a quarter of a million dollars by taking part in the Brawl and the Slam.
And that is exactly what appears to have happened.
Jacob Runyon of Cleveland weighed in a Lake Erie walleye on Nov. 23 in the Fall Brawl that weighed 12.770 pounds and measured 29 inches. The official weigh-in site for the Brawl was the Cabela's store in Avon, a suburb to the east of Cleveland.
Since he had entered both events, Runyon weighed the same fish in at Erie Outfitters, a bait and tackle shop in nearby Sheffield Lake that served as the weigh-master for the Walleye Slam. It weighed 12.79 on the Slam scale.
If all of the polygraphs go well, everything will be official soon and Runyon will be more than $300,000 richer. If not, he could be bounced from the events and come out with zero.
If Runyon wins, he is expected to share the bounty with his tournament fishing partner, Chase Cominsky of Hermitage Pa., who was fishing with Runyon when the big money walleye went into the net. Cominsky currently has the No. 10 fish in the Slam with an 11.18 pounder that will pay $5,000 once the results are official.
The winner of this year's Brawl gets a $125,000 Ranger boat, and the opportunity to win additional cash through numerous bonuses. Second place lands a $115,000 Ranger, with cash payouts of $65,000 for third place, $55,000 for fourth, and $45,000 for finishing fifth. The top five prizes in the Brawl are valued at more than $405,000.
In the Walleye Slam, the biggest fish wins the angler a new Warrior boat worth $151,670, while finishing second is worth $50,000. The Slam pays out to the top 10 finishers, with nearly $300,000 cash and prizes in that award pool.
Last year's Brawl winner was Mitch Dougherty, a charter captain from Port Clinton who registered a 12.855-pound walleye he caught on Thanksgiving Day of 2020. The 2019 Brawl was won by James Atkinson of Streetsboro with a 12.395-pound walleye he caught on Black Friday.
First Published December 6, 2021, 11:17am
