Anyone tournament fish?

[BuzzH]

Just wondering if anyone has ever fished any tournaments?

A buddy of mine, Pete, who I fish with a lot from Laramie asked me to fish a couple walleye tournaments with him this year in the wyoming walleye circuit.Found out Pete, won the Keyhole tournament a week or so ago...to the tune of about 7k in prize money. Absolutely crushed the competition. Matter of fact the 3 fish they weighed the first day would have easily won the tournament.

link to the webpage and story:http://www.wyomingwalleye.com/

Big-time congrats to Pete...well done.

Hopefully we can cash a check in mid-July...

 

[CJ...$]

Sounds like that could be as Lucrative as Poker Tournaments:hump:

 

[DRAFTSTUD]

Congrats! As you would expect we have quite a few that make a pretty decent pay check Bass Fishing, but an up and coming Circuit is Catfishing. Bill Dance and a few others are pushing that. John

 

[steamingutpile]

Want to see a Walleye tournament come to WNY where the Southtowns Walleye Assoc the largest Walleye club in the country runs an eight day tournament biggest fish by weight wins. Between $$$prize and boat and other sponser goodies over 12K +. And they pay a cash prize down to the 200th place fish by weight. In recent years anything under 8 1/2lbs was out of the money. A few years ago the winner collected $8,000 and then at the end of the awards picnic they drew a fifty fifty ticket and he won another $6,000. Now that's havin a horseshoe up tour butt!!!!

 

[Big Fin]

Saturday, me and my son start preparing for a tournament the following week. We will fish all week, with the big show on the following Saturday and Sunday.

200 boats in the gig. Best we have ever done is 10th place. If you geet to first place, you get $10,000.

So, I hope that the walleye God's shine upon me and we finish in the top half.

If nothing else, it is a good reason to fish for nine consecutive days.

 

[BuzzH]

Big Fin,

Good luck and be sure to post the results.

I'm of the same opinion as you...anything that gives a person an excuse to fish for a week is well worth it.

 

[smalls]

I've done them and for me it's taken some of the fun out of fishing (although I have no problems with tourney's in general). I just don't like to take an activity of leisure and add stress to it. I've seen missed fish, lost fish or heaven forbid a bad net-job send otherwise pleasant people into a fit of rage.

I will say that ice fishing tourney's have a different atmosphere, though, as it maintains that "we better drink all that beer before it get's slushy" aspect. I still haven't done any of those since moving to MT and it won't happen this year either.

Anyhow, good luck Buzz...will any of the tourney's you fish be on Keyhole? I've enjoyed fishing that lake.

And Fin...all I got to say is crankbaits and planer boards!

 

[BuzzH]

Smalls,

None at Keyhole this year...maybe next.

I hear what you're saying about the stress, but I've fished enough to know that things happen, fish are lost, bad netting, etc. It isnt life-changing money either way. I say if you cant take losing fish or tourneys, you shouldnt be fishing them to start with.

I dont view it as competing with other anglers, more about myself vs. the fish, which is really what its all about every day I fish.

 

[Big Fin]

And Fin...all I got to say is crankbaits and planer boards!

Aye, Aye Captain!

 

[steamingutpile]

BuzzH I feel your pain. I love fishing tournaments its some of the guys I've fished with that make it miserable. Act like its the end of the world when you lose one yelling and screaming. I'm out to have fun if I win some $$$$ fine if not who cares. At the end the only important thing is did you have fun. One time in a walleye tourny at first I though I'd snagged bottom while bouncing a worm and spinner. Then I felt that headshake and knew I had a big fish hooked. As I'm playing him the guy I was with is yelling don't horse it(fished for fifty years I know what I'm doin) and going on and on how its gonna be in the money for sure don't do this don't do that. To make a long story short get the fish to the boat its a thirty seven inch Channel Cat. For ten minutes my buddy is on the verge of a heartastroke. Now he's all bummed out me I'm all smiles I got a 30lb+ catfish for the smokehouse.

 

[Ridge Runner]

Buzz.. I have fished some big game tournaments for marlin and they are a kick in the butt. Good times, good people, usually good food and entertainment after the days fishing. Some good money and prizes and usually some side bets that you can really do well at. Geez starting to miss it now. Always thought it would be fun to get a few of the huntalkers together for one. After all we do hunt big game why not fill out the tag and fish for em also. Good luck and have some fun! That's what it is all about.

 

[pa mt man]

Ridge Runner, I fished the WON tuna tournament in Cabo year and 1/2 ago. Caught a 360lb blue marlin.

I think I told you before I'd be interested in joining one with you. My sister lives in Hawaii and is always bugging me to visit. I'm sure she could find us some place to stay cheap.

 

[T Bone]

I took second place in Idaho's South Fork white fish Derby way back in 2001. My buddy took 1st. My prize was $50 gift certificate to Idaho Angler.

Very underwhelming.

Man, I miss flyfishing a proper river. Not some mud banked slow moving lake.

 

[Whiskers]

I enjoy tournaments, we have alot of them.The Fluke and Striper tournaments don't pay big dollars, unless you figure $1,000-$1500 first place big money. We have different teams for different tournaments. We always place in the top 10, thats good when you have 600 boats entered, not so good if its a 20 boat tournamnet. We only placed 2nd one time that was 2 years ago, when we first started fishing them.
Went to a Captains meeting at the Beach Haven Marlin & Tuna club (yep its pretty hoty toty) for a Striper tournament (we ain members, just signed up to fish the tournament). My fishing partner was Bob LeFevre, we told everyone that every tournament we ever entered as a team we placed at least 2nd. We didn't tell them that, we only ever fished one tournament together. But we had alot of them high faluting Capt hat wearing jerks sweating.

 

[Delw]

I fish them all the time been doing it for 15 years usually at least once a week sometimes 3 times a week, the last 2 years have been hard to get out. once I get things rolling again at work I will be out wednesday night friday night and sat night for the summer night tournies.

I only bass fish as thats all we have,.

 

[smalls]

So Fin, How did it go?

I know some guys that were catching some big fish in the days prior to the tourney but I can't find any results on the web. If nothing else a guy could have caught a sunburn the last couple of days.

 

[Big Fin]

So Fin, How did it go?

About as normal.

Caught over 60 fish in the two days of the tournament. You get to weigh you five biggest fish each day, with 14" being the minimum length for a fish to be counted. Bad deal for Fin and son was that we caught 1 fish over 14" on Day One and 17 fish over 14" on Day Two. And nothing real big.

So, we only got credit for 1 fish on Day One and 5 fish on Day Two.

This is normal procedure for us. In that tournament, if you catch one big fish, say 30", it counts for more weight than an entire limit of 17".

The winners had like 55 pounds, which is an amazing amount, considering how few people actually got into any larger fish. Congrats to them. They had a plan figured out, and it worked well.

Not sure how many more tournaments I will do. Son is too busy with work, and I really don't think I would enjoy fishing them, other than the time he and I get to spend together in the process.

Final results aren't published yet, but I suspect we were somewhere in the middle of the pack. I left before the final tally was complete.

 

[Whiskers]

Most of our tournaments are one day events. There is one in November that is a man killer, it starts after the Captains Meeting on Friday, and ends at 1pm Sunday. You can fish straight thru if you want, and we do.

July 11, Team Bucket will participate in the Sunshine Fluke Tournament, its always a good time, one day Tournament, over 200 boats participate with over 1100-1500 people showing up for the picnic afterwards.

 

[Wally Dog]

Yeppers......partner and I are off to Owyhee Res in eastern OR to try fill a sack with 5's this weekend.
Prefishin has been a little tough which is great cus when we kill 'em prefishin the tourney stinks. So with a little luck, fair prefishin will turn into a better tournament outing.
WD