Well I got a schooling in the infamous walleye today. Along with quit a few other people! We left the ramp at 0 dark thirty after meeting alot of new friends and some old ones.
My fishing partner (in my case today fishing teacher) and I started hunting for bass which proved to be unsuccessful. So we moved to the all elusive-eye! And I gotta say I thought that was going to end up the same way as the couple hours of bass! But school was now in session Phil proceeded to show me how to bottom bounce for the eyes. We both started out missing a couple hits and then he pulled in a slightly small one that "accidently" fell back in the water without a tape getting put on it. Weird. Well after that he couldnt keep from pulling them in. I could though. I managed to rip a few lips right off of them fish, and two of my hits were freight trains! Massive fish, that I needed to pull the hook away from for some reason. After pulling up everything from the small unmeasured one to some 20 inchers we decided to go try the bass out again. And again couldnt find any that wanted to play with us.
All in all I learned TONS about the eyes and made a great new fishing buddy!
We handed out about 1500 buck in cash to the winners and tried to hand out some rod discounts but no one wanted them apparently.
The winning man walked with close to 800 bucks I believe. I would like to see everyone elses pictures so i can put a few up on the website too. Here is a few of mine.
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Shaun Searle won overall. Boated 3 walleye over 20 inches! He also won Longest Walleye for 22.5 inches.
Second place was Jay Johnson.
Third was Phil Blair.
David Oyler won longest Bass at 16 inches.
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Right on Ratstar!!! Now we can get back to Yuba and get me a Pike!! haha No but really, good work. Those pics are awesome.
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Fun tourney I learned a lot as well. Crankem is a very generous teacher. I owe any success on the day to him, never caught walleye on a bouncer till a few days ago pre fishing. It was awesome!!! to learn a new technique since all I have up my sleeve is jigs. Was a great day compared to the last few days wind wise but the fishing was hit and miss for me. I think we boated 21 fish today all walleye. lost a couple missed a bunch. I know we were not the only ones who had that kind of a scenario.
My total 3 walleyes were 17.5, 17.5, 18.5. Crankems smallest tied my biggest he beat me good but that is what would be expected. I didn't even bother turning in any photos but I do wonder how I would have compared in the overall. I had not bass today either.
That was good stuff today I am glad I did it. I liked that you got a cool sunrise pic. And a sweet pic of my back.lol..... It is my better side I am told.
It was great meeting everybody........................... Thanks again
Special thanks from me to Roger for all his hospitality, lessons on catching and the spot in your boat. [fishon][fishon]
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Hey guys. I've been looking at this site for a while but I figured it's about time that I started posting. I was actually the guy that got lucky and won the tournament. It was a blast! I'm amazed that I won simply because I only boated 4 total fish. My step father was with me and he only boated 1 eye and 1 brown. Needless to say he was a little upset haha.
Seeing how many fish everyone else caught it's amazing that I came out on top. Lucky day indeed. I ended up boating 2 by the inlet where everyone headed out, my first one was 21 inches and the second was 17 1/2. My dad ended up boating one eye over there at 18 1/2 and a nice brown. It was a little crowded over there as everyone can attest to so we decided to try a spot where we caught quite a few eyes last year. We fished just beyond the bridge along the cliffs. We didn't go as far as the other inlet just hit one spot where it drops down to 50' and up to 15-16' then back down to 35' or so. (Sorry I don't know any names). Over there is where I boated my last 2 eyes. The first one we caught just about an hour after we got there and that was the biggest one of the day at 22 1/2". A couple hours later I boated another at 21 1/2". After that we tried to find some bass but I don't have the patience or desire to fish for bass.
We headed in about 3:15 and awaited the results. It was a great day out there. I'm a little jealous that we didn't catch as many as some other people, but I can't complain considering the results[
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Look forward to fishing with you guys again. Thanks for the excellent posts on here by the way. I've lived on this site for the past year and thrive on all the reports. I will attach pictures of the fish. Oh, and FYI, we were both using bottom bouncers w/ silver flashers and red or green beads.
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Congrats on winning the tournement. I was the guy with the 18 foot tundra who didn't have a partner so I had to just fun fish. I didn't get anything that would have beaten you though, so good on you. I have a question though. When they were announcing the results I was filleting my fish. I thought they announced you got $600 ??, I thought they said $647 for winning. Maybe it is just my lousy hearing but could you tell me how much you got for winning? Don't count what you got for the biggest fish either. There were 48 entrants so your payout for 1st place should have been $877.50.
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It was 487 I think for 1st place? I can't remember the exact number. I don't remember how all the numbers worked out.
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Looks like you have had some successful tournaments. I am curious about a few things, however. Earlier in the year while asking about your tournaments/clubs you stated this:
"Anytime we are going to work to help restore/make any habitat better we will be working hand in hand with the DWR. I can assure you of that. And anything that is done for ANY of the above mentioned fish is done to help that population thrive and survive. This includes working on habitats for the baitfish of these said fishes, to keep their populations thriving. Also including working with DWR to help with the study of the population "crashes" in various waters. Basically we would like to help the DWR create a STABLE environment for these fish, so our children can have the same fun we have catching them.
Any more questions you'd like to shoot to me can be done anytime. But the basics of it are very simple. Work with DWR and offer our suggestions about these fish, to help these fish. Cause no one else is going to."
Now you've had two tournaments and sounds like you've handed out some cash to winners, good for you. How much have you donated in a "conservation fund" to give back to the waters you've profited off of?
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Now you've had two tournaments and sounds like you've handed out some cash to winners, good for you. How much have you donated in a "conservation fund" to give back to the waters you've profited off of?[/quote]
Right now we've got a few hundred bucks saved away for those waters. And do not think that myself or my co-founder have profited off any of this. If you knew the work involved vs what either of us have won (seeing as we put 100% of the tournament entry fee's back out there to the anglers) All of the money that we get for the habitats is strictly donated for the time being.
As far as getting DWR to let us do something with that money still has not been worked out but it will get there and be posted on our website. And here most likely.
Any more questions?
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I was under the impression that your tournaments was not to kill the fish, but to take down the measurements and release them????
But if you read above and by some pictures it doesn't look that way...
Whats up???
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Ratstar, thanks for taking all the time and pain in the rear to host these tourneys. I got my boat on the water Friday (DC) but it was so windy I couldn't open it up to see if the motor fix worked or not. Hopefully I'll get a chance to fish one of your tourney's.
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As tournament directors, and our club, we ADVISE people to catch and release but under state law they can keep whatever the law allows them. Our tournament rules arent quite as strict on things like all the big yuppies out there.
After reading some of the walleye tournament rules and such it seems as though ours is just a bunch of guys who want to go fish together and throw some money in a hat to win. And that is pretty much what we want.
97 percent of the fish from this tournament were catch and release from this particular. Yes I counted.
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We actually ended up with 40 total entries We had more sign up but only 40. Which brought the tournament cash to 2000. We pay 75% out that day then stick the other 25% in our year long tournament in which the Longest Bags and Longest Fish win.
Shaun won 487 for 1st place. Add another 225 for Longest Eye. Total was 712.
Jay won 375 for second
Phil took 263 for third
Oyler nabbed 150 for Longest Bass.
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We'll get you out there one of these days!
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Thanks for being up front with your answers. That is all I'm looking for, my intention is not to slander your tournaments. Perhaps profit was the incorrect word choice. Utilize would have been better.
Are you hosting a tiger musky tournament somewhere?
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Sounded like a good tournament, prior commitments prevented me from signing up, glad all went well. I should be spending the next 3 weekends there. Congrats to the winners.[fishin]
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We made the drive early fri morning (2-1/2 hrs) and were on the water at 7:30. Didn't fish the tourney but had a great time on the water. The wind was tough all day, I hope it backed off the next couple for all in the comp. We boated four walleye and I broke off a wall hanger. Not sure who the guy was that watched but yes I had nightmares the rest of the day. We got a good look at the eye as I thought we had her beat but in that last run she made under the boat the second hook (Mustad) broke at the barb. Rog, we swung by your place around 6 pm but you weren't around. "My best to all who participated".
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Thanks for all of your hard work Ratstar to put this tournament on for everyone. I think I speak for many when I say that yourself and Clint did a great job!
I also can't say enough about the quality of the guys who fished this tournament.....there wasn't one fisherman there that I would not hop in the boat with for a day. For any of you looking to learn more about walleye fishing, this group is very open and great bunch of guys to associate with. It certainly was a pleasure to meet all of you!
Dustin and Clint....keep up the good work! Your efforts are greatly appreciated!
Chad Miller
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Thanks its good to hear the kind words. I really appreciate them after doing this. I never thought it would be as much work to put these on as it is but I feel they are well worth the effort.
Like you said we've got a great bunch of guys and we're all here to share and learn from each other too. I'll be the first to admit that.
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