2016 Montana Circuit Tournament Results

 

2016 Tournament Results

2016 Tournament Results

2016 Wrap Up and Thank You to Our Sponsors

By Tammy and Don Pyrah, Montana Walleye Circuit Co-Directors

The 2016 Montana Walleye Circuit is now history and it was a great year. We are pleased to announce we will be working to increase sponsors for the Montana Walleye Circuit 2017. We have been in contact with some businesses that want to be sponsors this coming year! Overall, the majority of the sponsorship support went back into each of the 4 individual circuit tournaments which provided benefits to the greatest number of participants and the greatest exposure and promotion for the sponsors.

We had 700 individuals’ fish in at least one if not more of the circuit events this past year! The break down on those was 285 Adult Teams, 56 Mixed Couples, and 31 Adult/Child Teams. We are hoping to increase participation in both the Mixed Couples and Adult/Child divisions by targeting increased sponsors for those divisions.

Tammy started a Montana Walleye Circuit page on FACEBOOK this past spring. We currently have 250 plus people following on FACEBOOK. We put a link to each of your websites during the circuit season. If you have not checked us out on FACEBOOK please take a look and LIKE us on FACEBOOK as we are trying to keep all of you current with what’s going on with the circuit. We will continue this endeavor while preparing for the 2017 Montana Walleye Circuit Season.

The Circuit held 4 events in 2016:
Fresno Tournament, May 21/22 - 93 Teams
Tiber Tournament, June 10/11 - 91 Teams
Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival, June 25/26 - 142 Teams
Fenwick Fall Classic, August 6/7 - 48 Teams

We will have a circuit meeting the end of September and will be setting the schedule for the 2017 season at that time.

The 2016 Circuit Awards for Angler of the Year, Team of the Year, Top Lund, Top Adult/Child Teams, Top Mixed Couple Teams, etc. will be presented at the Walleyes Unlimited State meeting in Glasgow this coming spring. That date will also be determined at the meeting in Lewistown on September 24, 2016. We will let you know shortly after that meeting.

Angler of the Year –Ray Cole and Steve Thomas finished first this year with 290.226 points (Mercury/Warrior/GMC). Second place finish went to Bob Hickey and Jason Mundel with 279.49 points (Mercury/Lund/Ram). Third Place went to Tom and Roxanne Tubbs with 271.200 points (Honda/Crestliner/Chevy). All will be presented year end awards at the Montana Walleyes Unlimited annual meeting and banquet in Glasgow this spring.

One of the Top 15 Angler of the Year participants will be awarded a Ranger voucher from One Way Marine and Ranger Boats.

Top Lund Team of the Year – Bob Hickey and Jason Mundel were the Top Lund Team of the Year again this year.

Team of the Year --From Huk Performance Fishing. Ray Cole and Steve Thomas will receive twos Huk Foul Weather rain suit, which is probably the best rain gear being made today, and will continue as a Montana Walleye Circuit sponsor for 2017!

Top Adult/Child Team – Scott and Hunter Collinsworth placed first with 167.201 points (Mercury/Lund/Ram). Second Place went to Andy and Tim Rose with 100.918 points (Mercury/Lund/Ram). Third Place went to Michael and Tristan Dombrovski with 89.190 points (Mercury/Triton/Ford).

Top Mixed Couple Team – Tom and Roxanne Tubbs placed first with 271.20 points (Honda/Crestliner/Chevy). Second place went to Phil and Kim Kumm with 246.515 points (Mercury/Lund/Ram). Third place went to Gary and Margo Perleberg with 202.86 points (Johnson/Alumacraft/Ram).

Largest Walleye Caught and Released Award –Marvin and Debra Monroe released a 33.5 inch Walleye at the Canyon Ferry Tournament.

The 2nd largest Walleye Caught and Released—James Corne and Jerry Baracker released a 32.75 inch Walleye at the Tiber Tournament.

A big thank you to North 40 for assisting with our advertising needs including: boat boards, posters, banners, and weigh cards.

We also want to give special thanks to all of the other sponsors who provided other things that we needed and were able to then use at no additional cost to the circuit:

-Boat decals and bags from Townsend Marine and Lund
-K2 Laserworks, Todd Koessl for the end of the year plaques and dinosaur awards at each tournament
-Walleyes Unlimited web master Dave Sedlock for making timely updates to the tournament web page.
-Fish Tales Magazine for publishing the news and articles and sponsor thank you’s.

For the 2017 Montana Walleye Circuit we look forward to continued support from:

Boat Sponsors:
Lund/Townsend Marine
Ranger/One Way Marine
Cresliner/Western Trailers and Marine/One Way Marine
Warrior

Motor Sponsors:
Mercury Marine

Truck Sponsors:
Broadwater Ford/Ford Tilleman Motors/GMC
Snowy Mountain Motors/Ram
Pierce Chevrolet/Chevy

Tackle Sponsors:
Fenwick
Kit’s Tackle
Robert’s Bait and Tackle
Northland Tackle
Snappy’s Sport Senter
Mack’s Lures

Clothing/Other:
Huk Performance Fishing
Norht 40 Outfitters
K2 Laserworks
Town Pump
A to Z Tire
Scheels—Billings and Great Falls
Bob and Patti Hickey
Don’s
Gordy and Tanyna Matson
Tri-County Countertops
Ma’s Loma Café
Navionics
Lowrance
Minnkota

We are excited to be working for the sponsors and anglers for the Montana Walleye Circuit for 2017! We would like your feedback regarding the Montana Walleye Circuit. We also appreciate the Tournament Directors and the Angler Committee that has stepped up to help out with the circuit in 2016. Brian Olson-Fresno, Scott Achilles-Tiber, Matt Zeadow-Canyon Ferry, Don and Orrin Pyrah-Fenwick Fall Classic, Bob Hickey-Angler Committee, Mike McElvain-Angler Committee, and Todd Koessl-Angler Committee.

Tournament results and final circuit rankings will be posted on the Walleyes Unlimited tournament page at: http://montanawalleyesunlimited.net/tournaments.htm under the results tab.

Tammy and Don Pyrah, Montana Walleye Circuit Co-Directors

2016 Walleyes Unlimited of Montana Ft Peck Championship Series

By Steve Harada

The 2016 Angler and Team of the Year awards were unquestionably decided by stellar anglers Norm Sillerud & JR Rasmusan of Glasgow, Montana. These two nearing legendary fishermen from Glasgow started out by winning the Rock Creek Walleye tourney in early June and followed it up with another win in the prestigious Montana Governor’s Cup Walleye event, about a month later in areas of Ft Peck probably 30 -35 nautical miles apart. WOW!! By winning the first two of three events, this left other competitors vying for second place. Congrats Norm & JR for another phenomenal demonstration of walleye fishing expertise.

Their first two out of three dominance didn’t diminish the competition of excitement at the final event one bit. The legendary Hell Creek Walleye tournament had 69 teams who valiantly competed in the last episode. The young guns and stalwart team of Bobby McElvain of Billings and Breyden Rose from Huntley lead wire to wire to capture the first place crown and also won the Adult/Child competition for both the tournament and this year’s Ft Peck Championship Series. A great weekend of fishing was had by these awesome anglers by putting 27.24 pounds on their scorecard on Day 1 and followed it up with 26.0 pounds on Day 2 for a total of 53.24 pounds. Way to go Bobby and Breyden, Holy Cow! This victory also catapulted McElvain into second place overall in the Angler of the Year race with 193.00 points

The rest of the 2016 awards were captured by the following anglers, 3rd place Angler of the Year goes to Chris Grotjohn of Belgrade with 192.36 points. The dynamic duo of Mark Jones of Billings and Ken Schmidt of Glasgow finished in 2nd place for Team of Year with a 186.67 points. They were followed closely by another team who placed second place at Hell Creek and are almost always in the hunt for a top finish, Ron McNary of Williston, ND and Jerome Papineau of Miles City who ended up 186.07 points for the 3rd place spot. The second place Adult/Child spot was captured by Brady and Brandon Babb of Fort Peck. The mixed couple awards was won Monica and Jesse Reuter of Sidney who were 2nd place last year. This year’s runner’s up are Traci and Steve Harada from Wolf Point and 3rd place honors go out to Carly & Whit Rush, also from Wolf Point. Last but not least is the Largest Walleye Caught & Released by a qualifying team and the goes out to Rod Glasoe and Tyler Johnson of Nashua with a 13.69 pound toad that they landed in the Gov Cup. Incidentally, we watched them catch it as it right beside me and Traci! Congrats go out to all of these anglers and also a big thanks to the 552 different anglers who competed in the events. The awards for the Ft Peck Series will be given at the State Banquet next spring in Glasgow.

The overall fishing at the three events was excellent. A huge thanks to our 2016 sponsors – Ft Peck Marina, Rock Creek Marina, The Gateway Club, D & G Sports and Western, Hi Line Ford, J & M Distributing, Git-N-Go, Mon-Dak Marine, Paul’s Glass YETI coolers, and Wolf Point Walleyes Unlimited. We are looking forward to another exciting and fun filled experience for 2017.

Top 10 Montana Ft Peck Championship Series

TOP 10 Montana Circuit - ranked by tournament points. Below are the totals in weight

1st - JR Rasmusan (122.60) and Norman Sillerud (100.84)


2nd - Bobby McElvain - 111.64


3rd - Chris Grotjohn - 86.40


4th - Mark Jones and Ken Schmidt - 68.00


5th - Jerome Papineau (66.26) and Ronald McNary (98.46)


6th - Colby Tognetti - 89.20


7th - Todd Dooley - 100.45


8th - Wendi Ross - 85.78


9th - Tanner Roth - 81.53


10th - Breyden Rose (101.13) and Wayne Wilcox (94.35)


Click here for the top 50 finishers!

Top 10 Montana Circuit Anglers

TOP 10 Montana Circuit - ranked by totals in weight

1st - Ray Cole and Steve Thomas - 290.22


2nd - Bob Hickey and Jason Mundel - 279.24


3rd - Roxanne and Tom Tubbs - 271.20


4th - Lucky Bethel - 267.83


4th - Darrell Archey and Bob Sherer - 252.67


5th - Matt Fischer and Ty Hinderager - 252.21


6th - Kim and Phil Kumm - 246.51


7th - Jim Gillespie - 244.87


7th - Travis Scott and Kennie Williams - 244.80


8th - Greg Bouchard and Brian Olson - 242.44


9th - Scott Achielles and Darren Raney - 241.22


10th - Steve Kincaid - 240.57


10th - Cody Eisenbarth - 238.93


10th - Sam Cotterell and Patrick Slater - 235.31


Click here for complete top 100 results!

Top Mixed Couple and Adult Child

Adult Child
Mixed Couple

HellCreek Tournament

The 2016 Hell Creek Walleye Tournament marked the 30th year of this event. There was a total of 70 teams that competed this year. The first day of the tournament had a very calm take off but the winds didnt stay down, winds came up and blew most of the day at 20+ mph. This wind didnt stop the young team of Bobby McElvain and Breyden Rose from bringing in a 5 fish limit of 27.24 lbs to come in on top. Fred and Ryan Roberts had another good basket of 19.56 lbs to have them sitting in 2nd going into the final day. The mixed couple team of Bill Mitchell and Connie Nance brought in 19.48 lbs to round out the top three.

On Sunday the weather was very cooperative for the fisherman and boy did they take advantage of it. There was 13 teams that brought in a 5 fish limit over 20 lbs. The team of Kris Keller and Marty Oyloe had a great day and had the big basket of 29.91 lbs, while Casey Thomas and Jason Mundel had 28.72 lbs, and coming in with 28.26 lbs to round out the top 3 weights of the day was Cody Strohm and Chris Grotjohn. However the young guns coudnt be caught as they brought in another great weight with 26 lbs.

Bobby McElvain and Breyden Rose finished with a 2 day total of 53.24 lbs out fishing the 2nd place team by 11 lbs. Ron Mcnary and Jerome Papineau had a great 2nd day with a weight of 27.36 lbs pushing them into a second place finish with 42.32 lbs. While Tanner Roth and Jesse Obergfell brought in 27.1 lbs on the second day and boost them into a 3rd place finish with 42.09 lbs. Wendi Ross and Owen Wilcox had two solid days of fishing with a 18.38 lbs on day one and another 23.06 on day 2 bringing them a total of 41.44 lbs to take home fourth place. The team of Thomas and Mundel rounded out the top five with a two day total of 38.06.

Bill Mitchell and Connie Nance brought home the Mixed couple award of a gift card donated by Cabelas and a fishing rod donated by Dead Eye Fishing. The team that had it all figured out of McElvain and Rose took away the Adult Child award. They also received a gift card from Cabelas and a fishing rod from Dead Eye Fishing.

This year we had a very special award to honor a fisherman from Jordan that had done so much for the chapter here in Jordan and for Walleyes Unlimited. It is called the Big Bertha Award that is in honor of Jerry Johnston who passed away this past winter. This award has a walleye sculpture on top of a perpetual trophy that will get the team with the biggest walleye of the tournament engraved on it. This year the team of Colby and John Tognetti brought in a 31.25", 12.38 lb walleye to take the honor of this award.

I would like to that Joe Herbold for running the mic(voice) for the rules meeting and awards ceremony. He always does such a great job and keeps the fisherman entertained. Thanks to everyone from our chapter here in Jordan for all their hard work to keep this event going. A big shout out to our Patrol boats that do so much on the water to keep it all going with out them on the water in wouldnt be very easy to have this a catch and release tournament.

Congratulations to all participants in the 2016 HellCreek Tournament. Below are your top 5 finishers.

1st - B. McElvain and B. Rose - 53.24 lbs
2nd - R. McNary and J. Papineau - 42.32 lbs
3rd - T. Roth and J. Obergfell - 42.09 lbs
4th - W. Ross and O. Wilcox - 41.44 lbs
5th - C. Thomas and J. Mundel - 38.06 lbs

Click here for complete results!

Fenwick Fall Classic

The Fenwick Fall Classic was held on August 6 and August 7 at the Crooked Creek Marina. Thanks are due to Destry and Beth for their excellent hospitality and meals for the event! Thanks also go to the Crooked Creek Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, for the outstanding volunteer effort supporting the tournament. There was an outstanding turnout of teams that entered this year’s Fall Classic, that included 10 Adult/Child teams, 5 Mixed Couples teams, and 33 Adult Teams.

We want to thank our outstanding local support of sponsorships for the event as well. Chapter sponsorships came from the Crooked Creek Chapter, Flathead Chapter, Malta Chapter, and the Billings Chapter. Those generous sponsorships helped cover the expenses needed to hold the tournament. Thanks to all of your chapters!

Other sponsorships for this year’s Fenwick Fall Classic included: Fenwick, Judith Mountain Meats, Don’s, Midtown Market 2, Mike McElvain-State Farm Insurance, Rocky Mountain Rain Gutters, Thad’s Tackle Shop, Intermountain Distributing, Pourman’s Café, 4G’s Tire and Repair, Basin Electric-LLC, Mid-State Signs, Tammi’s Travel, Lewistown News-Argus, Crooked Creek Marina, GS Oil, Tire Rama, ASAT/Trophy Blend Scents, Ace Hardware, Sport Center, Deer Creek Dental, Bohemian Corner Café, and Lewistown Sports.

Thanks also go to the sponsors of the Montana Walleye Circuit for their support this year as well. Listed below are the results.

First Place Overall Adult Team—Ray Cole and Steve Thomas carded 51.5 pounds for the two days! In addition to purse money, they received two Aetos Fenwick Rods from Pure Fishing, top towing GMC from Tilleman Motors of Havre, and the Mack’s Lures award.

Second Place Overall Adult Team—Wayne Wilcox and Rob Seymour carded 41.71 pounds during the event. In addition to purse money, they received two Fenwick Elite Tech Rods from Pure Fishing, top Ranger award from One Way Marine, and the top towing Chevy from Pierce Chevy in Ronan.

Third Place Overall Adult Team—Luckie Bethel and Steve Kincaid carded 40.94 pounds during the event. In addition to purse money, they received two Fenwick Elite Tech Rods from Pure Fishing, top Lund award from Townsend Marine, top towing Ram from Snowy Mountain Motors in Lewistown, and two Fenwick HMG Rods for catching the biggest walleye of the weekend weighing in at 31.25”. They also received a Pfleuger Rod combo from the Sport Center in Lewistown for the largest Northern Pike of the weekend which measured 41.25”. As the angler with the most “seasons” in the tournament, Luckie also received the dinosaur award which included a plaque from K2 Laserworks of Billings, and a trolling rod and boat bag from Scheel’s.

Fourth Place Overall Adult Team—Cody Eisenbarth and Jacob Bernhardt teamed up and caught 37.78 pounds during the event. In addition to purse money, they received two Fenwick HMG Rods.

Fifth Place overall Adult Team—Randy Redfern and Kevin Anthony scored 37.32 pounds during the two day event. In addition to purse money, they received two Fenwick HMG Rods.

6th Place--Dave and Randy Snyder—35.22 pounds. They received the top Crestliner award sponsored by One Way Marine and Western Trailer and Marine in Havre.

7th Place—Mike and Bobby McElvain—35.08 pounds

8th Place—Bob Hickey and Jason Mundel—34.14 pounds

9th Place—Kennie Williams and Travis Scott—29.65 pounds

First Place Overall Mixed Couples—Ron and Phen Clausnitzer scored 21.64 pounds over the two day event. They received two Okuma trolling rods and jacket from Thad’s Tackle shop in Olney, a rod and boat bag from Scheel’s and plaques from Tri-County Countertops of Townsend.

Second Place Overall Mixed Couples—Wendi Ross and Justin Bechtold scored 19.41 pounds during the event. They also received plaques from Tri-County Countertops of Townsend.

Third Place Overall Mixed Couples—Eric and Dayle Stahl scored 18.06 pounds during the event.

Fenwick sponsored the Adult Child Division and provided additional purse money for that division. A local anonymous donor paid the entry fees for the child participant in each of those ten teams. Our local chapter supports youth fishing and appreciates these outstanding sponsorships.

First Place Overall Adult/Child—Shane and Aldon Fuchs caught 27.62 pounds. They also placed 10th overall during the tournament. In addition to purse money sponsored by Fenwick, they received money from Bob and Patti Hickey, plaques from Gordy and Tanya Matson, and a rod and boat bag from Scheel’s.

Second Place Overall Adult/Child—Bill Seidl and Julie McElvain caught 25.54 pounds. They received the A to Z tires Cool Under Pressure award moving 23 places from day one to day two. They also placed 12th overall during the tournament.

Third Place Overall Adult Child—Andy and Tim Rose caught 24.47 pounds during the event.

Other mentions: The” Traveler Award” sponsored by Town Pump went to Rocky Wenzel. The “Town Pump Pays” award went to Dustin Flack.

Angler Bags were provided to the anglers and were sponsored by: Mike McElvain-State Farm Insurance, Rocky Mountain Seamless Rain gutters—Andy and Sam Rose, Crooked Creek Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, Northland Tackle, Kit’s Tackle, Mack’s Lures, and Snappy’s Sport Senter.

We are looking forward to another great Fenwick Fall Classic on Fort Peck Lake next year!!



Click here for complete results!

2016 Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival

Congratulations to all participants in the 2016 Townsend Area Chamber of Commerce Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival. Below are your top 5 finishers.

1st - Ty Hinderager and Matt Fisher - 46.14 lbs
2nd - Jake Monroe and Jeff Ingram - 40.84 lbs
3rd - Whit Rush and Kris Kellar - 32.70 lbs
4th - Jim Gillespie and Jim Muscat - 30.50 lbs
5th - Jason Mundel and Bob Hickey - 30.42 lbs

Click here for complete results!

2016 Tiber Results

Congratulations to all participants in the 2016 Tiber Tournament. Below are your top 5 finishers

1st - Roger Terwilliger and Matt Zeadow - 44.72 lbs
2nd - Leonard McNee and kevin Hassell - 30.14 lbs
3rd - Ray Cole and Steve Thomas - 28.68 lbs
4th - Jason Mundel and Bob Hickey - 27.22 lbs
5th - Chad and Scott Sundstrom - 25.66 lbs

Click here for complete results!

TIBER TOURNAMENT 2016 by Scott Achilles

The 2016 Tiber Tournament was held June 11th and 12th on beautiful Tiber Reservoir 10 miles south of Chester Montana. Mother Nature provided some entertainment Friday evening for the rules meeting with a torrential down pour and lightning show. We moved to the pavilion where we awarded free entries to all four adult/child teams. Townsend Marine sponsored three teams and Great Falls Walleye Unlimited picked up the tab on the Fourth. What a great way to get things going! A big thanks to Brian at Townsend Marine, and Great Falls Walleyes for sponsoring this. I think this is a HUGE deal.

The thunderstorms finally cleared about 6:20am Saturday and the takeoff went smooth. When everyone was done fishing, the talk off the camp was the big Day 1 weight from Roger Terwilleger and Matt Zeadow of 34.64 lbs. Included in their weight was the day 1 big walleye which was 31.75”/13.02lbs. The closest team to them was Kennie Williams and Travis Scott with 19.22 lbs. Tim Drier and Bob Jenson had the big northern for the day at 33.75”.

Day 2 brought clearer weather but a little slower fishing for most. The team of Chad and Scott Sundstrom were able to bring in the best weight of Day 2 at 19.07lbs. The big walleye of Day 2 was 32.75”/14.37lbs. caught by the team of James Corne and Jerry Baracker.

When everything was settled, Roger Terwilleger and Matt Zeadow held on to win the tournament with and overall weight of 44.72lbs. Taking home over $5500.00 in cash and prizes for their efforts. 2nd place was Leonard McNee and Kevin Hassell with 30.14lbs. Third place-Ray Coleand Steve Thomas, Fourth place-Jason Mundel and Bob Hickey, and rounding out the top five in fifth place was Chad and Scott Sundstrom.

Overall there were some very impressive weights and some very large fish caught. It speaks volumes about the fishery we have here at Tiber. 44.72 pounds in a June tournament is quite a feat. Congratulations to Roger and Matt!

I would like to thank all the sponsors of the Tiber Tournament. With their generous donations we are able to continue this 100% payback tournament. They are as follows: Great Falls Walleyes Unlimited, Townsend Marine, Max Stone Marble and Granite, Wallace Marine, Kenetrek Boots, Eagle Beverage/Bud Light, Superior Tire, Cascade Machine, Dick Headley, RU’s Tiber Marina, Tackle with Love, and the Grand Bar.

And a big thanks to all of the volunteers: Co-Director Ray Cole, Cherie and Katie Achilles, Cody, Terry, and Tracy Eisenbarth, Debbie and Rona Debolt, Claudia Lum, Bim Johnson, Darren Raney, Steve Thomas, Dennis Hanson. Circuit Directors and Scoring: Don and Tammy Pyrah.

The weigh boats. Without them, none of this is possible:
Conrad and Mary Langendorf with Russ McNee(22years!)
Gary Lum with Parker Johnson and Kennie Smith(2 years)
Don Pyrah with Stan Benes and Craig Clouatre(2 years)
Jody Marx with Dan Berner(1st Year)

Finally, thanks to all the anglers for participating in this event. I really appreciate your patience as we try to make this event better every year. Your sportsmanship is truly remarkable and makes my job easy. Tell all your friends and we will see you at Tiber 2017!

2016 Rock Creek Results

Congratulations to all participants in the 2016 Rock Creek . Below are your top 5 finishers

1st - Norman Sillerud and JR Rasmusan - 41.92 lbs
2nd - Todd Dooley and Sam Syth - 39.44 lbs
3rd - Rick and Colton Justice - 36.95 lbs
4th - Gary Cayko and Brandon Babb - 36.82 lbs
5th - Jamie Atkinson and Ron Laroche - 28.75 lbs

Click here for complete results!

2016 Rock Creek Recap by Steve Harada

The 2016 Rock Creek Walleye Tourney was held the first weekend in June. 96 Teams from across Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming gathered for two glorious days of 80 degree temps with light and variable winds. The fishing was great but catching was a bit tough for most anglers to put together two consistent days. Forty mile an hour winds stirred up the big reservoir on Friday and may have stirred up some of the patterns that folks pre-fishing had working earlier in the week.

The phenomenal fishing team of Norm Sillerud and JR Rasmusan from Glasgow were able to put together two solid days and won the tourney. This perennial duo are no strangers to the winner’s circle and continue to show their fishing prowess. Norm & JR are three time winners of this event with wins in 2006 and 2013, as well! Second place honors went out to Todd Dooley and Sam Syth of Sidney who were leading after day one with 27 pounds and were able to salvage a respectable 12.44 pounds on Day two to capture the Runner Up award with 39.44 pounds. Third place honors went out to a father/son team, Rick “Mingo” Justice from Dagmar and Colton Justice from Medicine Lake. These two big fish magnets also captured the big walleye award for both Saturday & Sunday with a 14.03 pound hog on day one and followed up with a 13+ pounder on Sunday. The team Justice had a total of 36.95 pounds.

The adult/child completion was captured by Bobby McElvain and Breydon Rose from Billings and Huntley with a 25th place finish. These young guns ended up with a very respectable 18.36 pounds and look to be a couple of anglers for years to come. The legacy of walleye fishing is in great hands with these fine young men. The mixed couple award was captured by Traci and Steve Harada from Wolf Point who finished 10th overall and 24.66 pounds. Traci caught all the fish but yours truly didn’t knock any off with the net.

Cool under pressure award went to Audie Simpson from Saco and Paul Dull from Hinsdale who advanced the most number of places from day 1 to day 2. Big Northern of the tourney was a 43 inch monster caught by brothers Justin and Jason Bechtold of Willard MT.

Rock Creek Marina did a great job hosting the event and Dennis & Sherry Young and all the patrol boat volunteers did a phenomenal job as always, taking care of the anglers and the fish. Our official scorekeeper Lee Ann Loucks continues to do an awesome job and keep us on track. Thanks to all of the volunteer staff and the other folks who helped with the cards and scoreboard! Congratulations to all of the top finishers and thanks to all of our sponsors. Our major sponsors for this year’s event were Budweiser, Nemont Beverage, Wolf Point Agalnd Co-Op, Wolf Point Walleyes, Big Sky Fire/Joe Moline, Rock Creek Marina, YETI coolers, Main Street Grocery and Bretz RV & Marine. Also a big thanks to all the anglers who fished the event and made it a great and friendly competition.

Fresno Challenge Tournament

Congratulations to all participants in the 2016 Fresno Challenge. Below are your top 5 finishers

1st - Phil and Kim Kumm - 26.11 lbs
2nd - Darrell Archey and Bob Sherer - 21.02 lbs
3rd - Destry Harris and Lucky Bethel - 16.72 lbs
4th - Shane Pursley and Pat Reardon - 16.53 lbs
5th - Tom and Roxanne Tubbs - 16.48 lbs

Click here for complete results!