Walleye Stuffing Cheater Now Accused of Poaching Deer

Chase Cominsky sits and talks with police after he and his teammate Jake Runyon have been caught dishonest in a event
in September 2022. Zach Callahan / Fb

One of many disgraced professional fishermen who was convicted of a number of felonies for stuffing walleyes with lead weights at a event on Lake Erie final yr has now been accused of poaching deer in Pennsylvania. On Oct. 23, Chase Cominsky was charged with eight counts of wildlife crimes, based on Mercer County Courtroom data. These expenses stem from accusations that Cominsky killed a number of whitetail bucks whereas searching with out a license, after authorized hours, and out of season, The Herald experiences.

A legal grievance filed by the Pennsylvania Recreation Fee Northwest and secured by The Herald says that recreation wardens have been contacted on Nov. 25, 2022, by somebody who knew Cominsky. They reported that Cominsky had harvested a number of deer illegally between 2013 and 2021.

Wardens adopted up on these accusations and searched Cominsky’s house in Hermitage, Pennsylvania. They found 5 mounted bucks that had both been tagged in one other individual’s identify or killed at evening throughout that timeframe, based on NBC-4. All 5 of the deer would have been deemed unlawful harvests anyhow as a result of, as wildlife officers identified within the legal grievance, Cominsky has been banned from searching in Pennsylvania since 2008 as a consequence of prior game-law violations.

Cominsky is scheduled to be arraigned in Mercery County Courtroom on Nov. 14.

The poaching case solely provides to Cominsky’s pile of authorized woes, as they arrive on the heels of forgery expenses that have been filed towards him in February. Based on the legal grievance in that case, which remains to be ongoing, Cominsky and his 18-year-old son tried passing off counterfeit payments at a bowling alley in Hermitage.

These forgery expenses made an even bigger splash than they’d have in any other case as a result of Cominksy was already within the highlight for his function in a extremely publicized dishonest scandal that rocked the skilled fishing world in October 2022. On Sept. 30 of that yr, he and his teammate Jacob Runyan have been caught red-handed stuffing their walleyes with lead weights to extend their general bag weight.

Learn Subsequent: Skilled Walleye Anglers Caught Stuffing Fish with Weights Throughout a Match on Lake Erie

Video footage from that day reveals the outrage that ensued. The 2 anglers have been on observe to win the event, and so they probably would have been named Workforce of the Yr on the Lake Erie Walleye Path after having what event administrators referred to as a “curiously unprecedented run of success.”

Cominsky and Runyan pled responsible in Could to felony expenses of dishonest, tried grand theft, possessing legal instruments, and illegal possession of untamed animals. Their final fall from grace culminated in a Cuyahoga County courtroom, the place they have been handcuffed and brought to jail to serve 10-day sentences. The 2 males have been additionally fined, placed on probation, and had their fishing privileges suspended for 3 years.