There is something fishy going on in the competitive fishing world.   

  The would-be winners of nearly $29,000 in an Ohio fishing tournament were disqualified Friday after it was discovered their fish were stuffed with lead weights and fish fillets.   

  Jason Fisher, director of the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament, told CNN he was immediately suspicious when one team’s fish weighed nearly twice what he expected them to weigh in the Cleveland tournament.   

  The walleye in the bucket looked like they should weigh about 4 pounds each, but the total weight showed they should be at least 7 pounds each, he said.   

  “I thought, there’s just no way,” he said.  “I could also hear the crowd moaning, like ‘no way, no way.’  ”   

  “I physically felt the fish, I could feel hard objects inside the fish,” he said.   

  The moment Fisher discovered the alleged fraud was documented in several videos posted on social media, which showed Fisher, surrounded by competitors, cutting open the fish with a knife and removing what he said was a lead ball.  Jacob Runyan, a member of the two-person team that allegedly cheated, stood silently watching a video Fischer shared with CNN.   

  “We got weights on the fish,” Fisher shouted.  The crowd hurled insults at Runyan.   

  “You just lost everything,” one person is heard telling the fisherman.  The video also shows Fischer telling Runyan to leave and telling the crowd not to touch him.   

  Runyan and his teammate, Chase Kominsky, were set to win a $28,760 prize, Fisher told CNN.  The prize money in each tournament it hosts comes from the entry fee each angler pays to compete.   

  Fisher hosts about eight tournaments during the year, drawing competitors from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, he said.  Contestants go head-to-head to see who can achieve the highest total weight for a bucket of five walleyes caught in Lake Erie.   

  Neither Runyan nor Cominsky responded to CNN’s request for comment.   

  Fisher said tournament officials are in contact with local authorities.   

  Stephanie O’Grady, media and outreach specialist for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, told CNN the department collected evidence Friday and is preparing a report for the Cuyahoga County District Attorney’s Office.   

  “As this is an open investigation, we have no further comment at this time,” he wrote in an email to CNN.   

  Fisher was “disgusted” when he discovered the alleged fraud, he said.  “This is a family atmosphere,” he said.  “We are all proud of this sport.”   

  “Everybody sacrifices so much” to play and compete in tournaments, he said.   

  Orchestrating the big event takes valuable time away from his family, he added.  “For someone to essentially cheat them not just out of money but out of family time, I can’t believe they would do that.”   

  Fischer said he knew Runyan and Cominsky from other tournaments, noting that they had won several tournaments in the past.   

  But he said they won’t be competing in the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament again anytime soon.   

  “They could never fish in mine,” he said.