Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge

[Corey Bohn]

The first annual Buffalo Ridge Resort Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge will be held this Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Gary, SD, and will feature the top 3 teams from the 2009 Walleye Classic tournaments (Alexandria Spring -- Minnewaska Fall).

The teams will square off in a Day 1 competitive pheasant hunt at Dakota Ridge Pheasants near Clear Lake, SD, followed by five hours of fishing on Day 2 on Lake Cochrane. Both days of the competition will be professionally filmed with an outdoor TV show produced on the event and aired on Fox Sports North (FSN) beginning in February of 2010.

"The top 3 teams with the lowest accumulative point total from the 2009 Walleye Classic tournaments won the right to compete in this first annual event," said Walleye Classics tournament director, Corey Bohn. "Hunting, lodging and food is free for the teams and it should really make for an interesting and fun event when considering the overall format of the Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge."

The Day 1 Feathers Challenge will begin with a warm up round of skeet for each team member at Dakota Ridge, followed by the opportunity to shoot 3 pheasants with a dog from point. Each team member will only be provided 3 shotgun shells total and will start the competition with 30 points. "In the event of a miss, we'll subtract 10 points for each pheasant missed," said Bohn. "The goal is to still have 30 points after 3 birds are flushed and 3 shots are fired."

"Shooting a pheasant from point with the dog shouldn't be much of a problem for most of these team members, but can they do it knowing their every move will be recorded by the cameraman for internet and TV coverage," said Bohn. "You don't always know which direction the bird is going to flush and it may make for an easy or a difficult shot."

"The team with the most points wins the Feathers Challenge, and in the event of a tie we'll have a shoot-off," said Bohn. "What should make this really interesting is the fact that while these are team competitions, we will also keep track of points individually to crown an overall Outdoor Challenge winner as points from Day 1 will transfer to Day 2."

In regards to the Fins Challenge, none of these teams have ever fished Lake Cochrane (355 acre lake) before and there will be no pre-fishing allowed. Each team will be allowed 5 hours to catch 4 walleyes with a 14-inch minimum and 2 fish allowed over 20 inches. In the case of the Fins Challenge, inches will be converted to points and the team with the most points wins the Fins Challenge.

"This should make for some interesting TV as both anglers will be wired with a wireless microphone with a cameraman in the boat," said Bohn. "While they'll be fishing together as a team to win the Fins Challenge, they'll be looking to really put a whoopin' on each other and to out-fish one another for the chance to win the overall Outdoor Challenge title as an individual."

Rules for the Fins Challenge requires the boat operator to control the boat in the same manner as he would in any other team tournament, while the boat operator cannot control the boat in a manner that would put his partner at a disadvantage. Team members are not required to net each other's fish and are not required to supply tackle or lures to one another.

"While they'll be fishing together as a team to win the Fins Challenge, they'll both be eyeing the overall Outdoor Challenge title individually," said Bohn. "Which should make for some really interesting conversation in each boat, particularly if one angler is out-fishing the other, or if one has a certain lure that is catching the fish and the other angler is looking for help from his partner because he may or may not get it."

Teams competing in the first annual Buffalo Ridge Resort Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge are Bryan Winterfeldt and Darrin Herd, Kenny Neumann and Jack Greengo, and Tim Servin and Dean Grochow. To be eligible for the year-end awards, teams were required to initially sign up for both tournaments prior to the Spring Classic. Results for the Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge will be posted on the official tournament HSOforum and various internet sites following the event.

An outdoor TV show, produced by Minnkota Outdoors TV will air in late February and in March on Fox Sports North (FSN) and various broadcast affiliates throughout the upper-midwest. We'll post show dates and air times closer to the air dates.

[eyewarrior]

Results?????

[Corey Bohn]

Kenny Neumann and Jack Greengo won both the Fins and Feathers team competition, while Bryan Winterfeldt won the overall individual title.

We will have everything up on the tourney HSOforum in the next couple days including video highlights. I will post complete details and an article on this site in the next couple days as well as I'm on the road and won't be back to the office until Friday. Busy, busy weekend and week.

Neumann and Greengo combined to hit 5 of 6 pheasants and caught a 17 1/2, 17, and if I remember correctly a 15 inch walleye on Lake Cochrane on Sunday.

Winterfeldt was 2 for 3 on pheasants and had a 15 1/4 and two 14 inch fish on Sunday to finish ahead of Neumann in the overall individual race. The Kid, 13 year-old Sawyer Bohn, finished 4th overall out of the 7 competitors. Sawyer was 1 for 3 on pheasants and had a 16 3/4 and 15 3/4 inch walleye after missing a 15 incher at the boat with the net that could have put him in second place overall in the individual race.

We have great video footage of the Buffalo Ridge Resort Fins & Feathers Outdoor Challenge and will have it up in the next couple days. Stay tuned.