For past years’ results please visit the Tournament Archive from the menu drop-down list or click here for Tournament Applications and a full listing of all Contests.
2020 Montana Circuit Results and Year Warp up
The Show did go on, and the 2020 season was great thanks to both anglers and sponsors!!
The 2020 Montana Walleye Circuit is now history and it was a good year. In spite of some set-backs due to COVID-19, we received continued support both from sponsors and anglers! As always, without the support of those groups, the Montana Walleye Circuit could not survive!
The Crooked Creek Classic scheduled for early May, was held in August. Unfortunately, the Fresno Challenge was not held this year and resulted in an overall angler number reduction that was due solely to the pandemic. Otherwise, we had 458 individuals’ fish in at least one if not more of the circuit events this past year! The break down on those was 157 Adult Teams, 41 Mixed Couples Teams, and 31 Adult/Child Teams. We continue our efforts towards gaining more sponsorship support for the Mixed Couples and Adult/Child divisions. We continue to target additional sponsors for those divisions which we feel are vital to the future of tournament angling.
The Montana Walleye Circuit Facebook page continues to be a huge success and our following has grown substantially. We routinely have over 15000 visits per month! We provided links to sponsor websites or sponsor FACEBOOK pages at least three times during the circuit season. Messaging through FACEBOOK has become a preferred method of contact for many individual communications. Be sure and see us on FACEBOOK soon!
We continue further venture into social media with some Instagram posts and FACEBOOK live videos. We continue to improve our multi-media outreach efforts each year.
The Circuit held 3 events in 2020:
Canyon Ferry Walleye Festival-June 27, 28
Tiber Tournament-July 25, 25
Crooked Creek Walleye Classic-August 15, 16
We will be meeting in October with the Angler Committee and Tournament directors to prepare for next year!
The 2020 Circuit Awards for Angler of the Year, Team of the Year, Top Lund, Top Adult/Child Teams, Top Mixed Couple Teams, etc. HOPEFULLY, will be presented at the Walleyes Unlimited State meeting this coming spring. IF not, we did do virtual presentations for some of the awards recipients through FB Live for 2019, and we may have to prepare to do that again this coming spring. Please stay tuned, and cross your fingers, for the banquet information.
Angler of the Year –With the cancelation of the Fresno Tournament, all three events counted towards the Angler of the Year for 2020. After the smoke cleared at Crooked Creek Dave Collinsworth and Kevin Corbitt (Ranger/Evinrude/ Chevy) topped the field with 255.33 points. A very close Second place finish went to Ziek Gordon and Owen Wilcox (Lund/Mercury/Ford) with 254.15 points. Third Place went to last year’s Third Place recipients, Steve Kincaid and Justin Baumgartner with 242.40 points (Mercury/Lund/Ram).
Top Lund Team of the Year – Ziek Gordon and Owen Wilcox will a receive the Top Lund Team of the Year for 2020.
Iron Team Award-was not awarded in 2020 due to cancellation of one tournament.
Top Adult/Child Team Majors –First Place went to Ziek Gordon and Owen Wilcox 191.854 points (Lund/Mercury/Ford). Second Place went to Kurt and Kodi Novak (Lund/Mercury/Chevy) with 149.601 points. Third place went to Marty McLean and Caed Melone Lund/Mercury/GMC) with 141.706 points.
Top Adult/Child Team Minors—First Place went to Kevin and Kolter Forbes (Lund/Mercury/Chevy) with 108.621 points. Second Place honors went to Josh Parrow and Daltyn Schmidt (Crestliner/Mercury/Ford) with 69.033 points. Third Place went to Dustin and Luke Flack (Lund/ Mercury/Ford) with 54.271 points.
Top Mixed Couple Team – Tom and Roxanne Tubbs placed first 197.863 (Mercury/Lund/Chevy). Brian and Savannah Mook placed second with 144.12 (Mercury/Lund/Ram). Rob and Brandi Mott placed third 132. (Mercury/Lund/Chevy).
Largest Walleye Caught and Released Award – The largest Walleye caught and released during tournament competition occurred at Crooked Creek. Scott Swanson, and Stuart Law recorded a 34.25” behemoth on Day 2 to capture the honors for the year.
We also want to give special thanks to all of our sponsors who provided support to the circuit in many ways
Tournament plaques, boat decals and bags from Townsend Marine and Lund
K2 Laserworks, Todd Koessl for year-end plaques.
Walleyes Unlimited web master Dave Sedlock for making timely updates to the tournament web page.
Fish Tales Magazine for publishing the circuits news and articles.
For the 2021 Montana Walleye Circuit we look forward to continued support from our current sponsors:
Boat Sponsors:
Lund/Townsend Marine
Western Trailers and Marine
Ranger/High Country Boats
Warrior/Wallace Marine
Motor Sponsors:
Mercury Marine
Tackle Sponsors:
Fenwick
Pflueger
Kit’s Tackle
Northland Tackle
Mack’s Lures
Scheel’s
Gage Gordon Construction
Clothing/Other:
North 40 Outfitters
Onyx Outdoors
Permafrost Coolers
The Deadeye Guys
K2 Laserworks
Interstate Battery Systems of Yellowstone
Montana Tire
Scheels—Billings and Great Falls
Fort Peck Marina
Enduro Boat Covers
Sport Center
Go Fish Installations
Gally’s Brewing Company
Bob and Patti Hickey
Gordy and Tanya Matson
Tri-County Countertops
Midtown Market II
Team Tubbs
Jeff and Cathy Ingram
Waylon’s Wildlife Taxidermy
We are excited to be working for the sponsors and anglers for the Montana Walleye Circuit for 2021! 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 for 2021. Steve Chvilicek-Fresno, Ray Cole-Tiber, Shawn Jacobs-Canyon Ferry, Slim Craig and Rick Mallo-Crooked Creek Walleye Classic, Steve Kincaid-Angler Committee, Kif Meier-Angler Committee, Jeff Ingram-Angler Committee. We are still searching for additional anglers willing to help us provide direction to the circuit.
A summary of boats and motor data:
97 Lund Boats
45 Ranger Boats
20 Crestliner Boats
13 Warrior Boats
9 Nitro Boats
186 Mercury Motors
22 Yamaha Motors
11 Evinrude Motors
Thanks to all the anglers, sponsors, and supporters of the Montana Walleye Circuit! Tammy and Don Pyrah, Montana Walleye Circuit Co-Directors
2020 Montana Circuit AOY
2020 Montana Circuit MC
2020 Montana Circuit AC
2020 WUM Fort Peck Champion Series
By Steve Harada
It was an exciting year with several anglers having at shot and Angler of the Year going into Hell Creek. Brett Normandy from Havre prevailed and finished strong at the Hell Creek Tourney with a second place finish and edged out Jason Eggebrecht and Ross Lien for the Angler of the Year by less than 5/10ths of a point. Brett also finished in 6th place at the MT Governor’s Cup with his brother, Trent Normandy. He fished Hell Creek with his Dad, Bruce, and it’s nice that he kept his fishing a family affair! Eggebrecht from Fort Peck and Lien from Glendive had a great year and finished tied for 2nd & 3rd for Angler of the Year and won the Team of the Year award. Jason and Ross won the 2020 Gov Cup and had a sixth place finish at the Rock Creek event.
Jay Erickson and Garrett Long both from Wolf Point, finished in second place for Team of the Year and started the year by winning Rock Creek. Third place honors went to the father/son team of Brandon and Brady Babb who also had an excellent year on the water.
The 2020 Mixed Couple Award winners were another family team of Megan Volbrecht from Circle and her dad, Clint from Richey. They had an outstanding season as they finished in the top ten in Rock Creek and in the top 20% at Gov Cup. Sam and Andy Rose came in second place of the Mixed Couple and also won the Largest Walleye Caught and Released Award with a 3/4” toad that they popped at Hell Creek! Joye Murnion and Cal Phipps from Jordan finished in third place for the category with a stellar year.
Mike and Tristan Dombrovski another father and son team won the Adult/Child competition with an outstanding tournament season. It’s great to see all of the families involved and in the awards this year.
Thanks to all of the sponsors of the Fort Peck Championship Series – The Gateway Club, D & G Sports, The Lakeridge Lodging & Baitshop, Wolf Point Walleyes Unlimited, Rock Creek Marina, J & M Distributing, Hi-Line Ford, Git-n-Go, Fort Peck Marina, Paul’s Glass, Steve’s Bail Bonds, Budweiser/Nemont Beverage, Rock Creek Tournament, MT Governor’s Cup Walleye Tournament and Hell Creek Tournament. Please support these local businesses that contribute to our cause, they allow us to provide the end of the awards and payouts. Thanks to all of the volunteers of the tournaments’ staff and all of the Patrol Boat operators, these tournaments would cease to exist without you folks donating all of your time. Lastly, thanks to the hundreds of angling men, women and kids who fish these events and support Walleyes Unlimited of Montana.
Angler of the Year
1st – Brett Normandy
2nd – Jason Eggebrecht
3rd – Ross Lien
Top 3 Teams of the year
1st – Jason Eggebrecht and Ross Lien
2nd – Jay Erickson and Garrett Long
3rd – Brandon Babb and Brady Babb
Top 3 Mixed Couple of the Year
1st – Clint Volbrecht and Megan Volbrecht
2nd – Andy Rose and Samantha Rose
3rd – Joye Murnion and Cal Phipps
Top Adult Child of the Year
1st – Mike Dombrovski and Tristan Dombrovski
2020 Fort Peck Series total Results
2020 Crooked Creek
Top 5 Overall
1st – Cierra Loudon and Colby Loudon – 97.03 lbs
2nd – Ziek Gordon and Owen Wilcox – 88.71 lbs
3rd – Andy Rose and Same Rose – 85.64 lbs
4th – Gage Gordon and Ben Wilcox – 84.64 lbs
5th – Shane Fuchs and Jon Stoller – 83.64 lbs
2020 Tiber
Top 5 Overall
1st – Kevin Forbes and Kolter Forbes – 30.86 lbs
2nd – Lance Kresge and Dale Persons – 29.36 lbs
3rd – Derrick Hedlen and Cory Jones – 23.92 lbs
4th – Gordy Matson and Tanya Matson – 23.44 lbs
5th – Ty Hinderager and Matt Fischer – 23.44 lbs
Adult Child
1st – Kevin Forbes and Kolter Forbes – 30.86 lbs
2nd – Kurt Novak and Kodi Novak – 23.24 lbs
3rd – Ziek Gordan and Owen Wilcox – 17.22 lbs
Mixed Couple
1st – Gordy Matson and Tanya Matson – 23.44 lbs
2nd – Tom Tubbs and Rozanne Tubbs – 20.12 lbs
3rd – Justin Davis and Dani Hamann – 18.40 lbs
2020 Hell Creek
Top 5 Overall
1st – Trevor Kleppelid and Branden Rolandson – 66.32 lbs
2nd – Brett Normandy and Bruce Normandy – 62.18 lbs
3rd – Dominik Zimdars and Allan Harrington – 58.1 lbs
4th – Tim Davis and Bob Magnuson – 53.14 lbs
5th – Scott Sanson and Stuart Law – 52.22 lbs
Adult Child
1st – Chris Kwasney and Mariah Kwasney – 28.06 lbs
2nd – Dustin Flack and Luck Flack – 10.11 lbs
3rd – Gary Melland and Colt Melland – 3.27
Mixed Couple
1st – JR Rasmusan and Tyana Rasmusan – 39.42 lbs
2nd – Joye Murnion and Cal Phipps – 35.98 lbs
3rd – Willy Hammer and Joyce Hammer – 27.02 lbs
2020 Rock Creek
Top 5 Overall
1st – Jay Erickson and Garrett Long – 36.96 lbs
2nd – Joseph Baird and Will Schilt – 29.96
3rd – Jesse Reuter and Jordan Dasinger – 27.56 lbs
4th – Brandon Babb and Gary Cayko – 27.24 lbs
5th – Jason Eggebrecht and Ross Lien – 28.83
Adult Child
1st – Owen Wilcox and Gage Gordon – 24lbs
2nd – Tyler Dahlberg and McKeever Dahlbert – 15.57 lbs
3rd – Mike Dombrovski and Tristan Dombrovski – 12.02 lbs
Mixed Couple
1st – Todd Dooley and Becky Lange – 24.60 lbs
2nd – Clint Volbrecht and Megan Volbrecht – 23.04 lbs
3rd – Ziek Gordon and Cierra Loundon – 20.48 lbs
2020 Governors Cup
Top 5 Anglers
1st – Eggebrecht, Jason and Lien, Ross – 80.97 lbs
2nd – Polivka, Nick and Mally, Jeff – 65.36 lbs
3rd – Rose, Andy and Rose, Samantha – 62.96 lbs
4th – Hillius, Beau and Bachmeier, Kalin – 58.16 lbs
5th – Knox, Chadand Knox, Brad Ray – 56.76 lbs
Top 3 A/C
1st – Boyer, Kirk and Collinsworth, Hunter – 35.74 lbs
2nd – Wilcox, Owen and Gordon, Ziek – 29.51 lbs
3rd – Novak, Kurt and Novak, Kodi – 28.96 lbs
Top 3 M/C
1st – Rose, Andy and Rose, Samantha – 62.96 lbs
2nd – Herbold, Joe and Young, Hayley – 45.78 lbs
3rd – Volbrecht, Clint and Volbrecht, Megan – 33.94 lbs
2020 Canyon Ferry
Top 5 Anglers
1st – Duane Visser/Time Fredrick – 21.54
2nd – Marty Mclean/Caed Melone – 20.36
3rd – Brian Clausen/John Steeples – 19.64
4th – Jason Rager/Travis Woodland – 17.96
5th – Kyle Vine/Colby Tognetti – 17.48
Top 3 A/C
1st – Marty Mclean/Caed Melone – 20.36
2nd – Zeik Gordon/Owen Wilcox – 17.27
3rd – Lee Payne/Trasten Payne – 10.33
Top 3 M/C
1st – Darren Rockafellow/Dina Rockafellow – 15.45
2nd – Brett Landwehr/Jeanie Newson – 14.08
3rd – Lonnie Wirtz/Christy Wirtz – 12.25
2020 Fresno Challenge – Canceled
2020 Rock Creek
Jay Erickson and Garrett Long both from Wolf Point won the 2020 Rock Creek Walleye Tournament with a total weight of 36.96 pounds. Extreme southeast winds caused the cancellation of the first day of the tourney so Sunday became a one-day shoot-out. Erickson and Long found an effective crankbait bite and bested the Runner-Up Team of Joe Baird from Gillette, WY, and Will Schilt of Riverton, WY by over seven pounds. Baird and Schilt put together a very respectful 29.68 pounds on the scoreboard. Baird caught his first 30” walleye pre-fishing and Schilt got his first 30” on that day. Not many places besides Peck do you and your partner get in the 30” club in a few days of fishing…
Jesse Reuter from Sidney and Jordan Dasinger from Glendive wasn’t too far behind with 27.56 pounds and captured third place. The Mixed/Couple award went to Todd Dooley and Becky Lange both from Sidney and they ended up in 8th place overall. The Adult/Child winning team was Gage Gordon from Belgrade and Owen Wilcox from Laurel, who finished up 9th overall.
The Largest Walleye Caught and Released was a 32 ¼ inch/13.69 pound beast caught by Jason Eggebrecht of Ft. Peck and Ross Lien of Glendive who finished in 5th place in the event. The largest Northern Pike brought in was a 38” gator wrestled in by Don Pyrah of Lewistown and Pat Slater from Lovell, WY. The Wolf Point Wild West Chapter Wee Walleye Award was a 5.5” monster that was battled in after a very lengthy scuffle by John Swenson of Miles City and JR Lund from Winnett. Rumor has it that these two cowboys were nearly ready to toss in the towel before they got him into the minnow net.
A huge thank you goes out to all of our sponsors Joe Moline, Big Sky Fire Equipment, Rock Creek Marina, Budweiser, Nemont Beverage, Agland Wolf Point, Lakeridge Lodging & Baitshop, Will’s Office World, D & G Sports, Big Spring Water, Main St. Grocery Poplar, Ezzie’s Wholesale Inc., The Ole’ Mercantile, LLC, Mon-Dak Marine, Tractor & Equipment, Shipton’s Big R, Farmer’s Union Oil Jordan, Ryan’s Grocery, Fox Ford, Go Fish Installations, Joe Herbold Appraisals, Sportsman’s Taxidermy, Walmart, Scheels, Montana Tire Distributors, GS Oil, Fox River Rods, J and J Engraving Lewistown, and the Wolf Point Walleyes Chapter. Thanks to all the Patrol Boat operators, the Rock Creek Tournament staff, Monte and crew at Rock Creek Marina and all of the other folks that pitch in to help. Lastly, a big thanks to all of the fishermen, fisherwomen and fisher kids that participate in and support the Rock Creek Walleye Tournament.