Roll Call for Frank Schneider Tournament

[The dock is IN]

I'm going to be staying at Grand Vu Lodge on Leech. I like to fish the small lakes near Hackensack and Longville.

Greg Ide

(I've seen the boat forthe winner. It is a really fast bass-style boat.)

[Igor Drackenwolf]

Staying at Stony Point on Cass, hosting a former FS tourney director in my boat.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

It doesn't appear that anyone is following this thread, but I'll check in anyway....

Fishing was pretty much dismal. We saw a bunch of fish on Friday, and had one hooked up for about 20 seconds. Saturday the wind and weather shifted, and we never saw a fish.

It wasn't just us. I looked at the list of fish registered as of Saturday night's feed, and there were 36 fish registered by 29 guys. That's awful. When you have 500+ guys fishing across 21 lakes in this tourney, usually we're upwards of 50 qualifying fish per tourney day. From what I could tell, there were only 27 fish registered on Friday, and 9 fish on Saturday. That's much worse results than I've ever seen for this tourney.

Being that a cold front moved in Sat/Sun overnight, with East winds, and rain, we decided to cut our losses and skip Sunday morning fishing. I'd be interested to know how many fish were caught from 7-11AM on Sunday.

[The dock is IN]

Bite was tough, real tough. Especially on Friday and Saturday. Only 7 lakes gave up fish over 40" 57 total muskies caught by 49 anglers. 26 fish from Leech, 17 from Cass Zero fish from Plantagenet, Wabedo, Woman, Big Boy, etc. Only one from Little Boy. Here are top ten:

1 Joe Anderson 42.5, 44, 47, 40.5 Cass

#2 Tony Summerfeld 50, 49, 44 Winnie

#3 Stephan Nielson 52.5, 47 Bemidji

4 Jason Cation 50, 48.5 Leech

5 Will Walkoviak 46, 43.5 Leech

6 Mike Strickland 52 Bemidji

7 Steve Zeece 50 Leech

8 Jim Danielson 50 Leech

9 Matt Pence 49 Leech

10 David Caplecha 48 Cass

Youth

1 Levi Brion 51 Leech

2 Danny Martin 50 Cutfoot Sioux

3 Dawson Johnson 45 Leech

Greg Ide

(I had a great time)

[RawHog]

That's me at #7

My partner and I also took home the grand prize, a Triton 17 pro with 115hp Evinrude E-tec.

It was great weekend.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

That's me at #7

My partner and I also took home the grand prize, a Triton 17 pro with 115hp Evinrude E-tec.

It was great weekend.

Hey, congratulations!

[RawHog]

^ thanks Igor, It was my first tourny ever, I think we kind of lucked out! I also have a new favorite big-fish lure, you can find them on clearance pretty much everywhere, PM me if you'd like to know..

I got that 50, my partner got his 43, and I missed the absolute largest fish I have ever seen in-person on this lure. had to be 53 at least...

[Igor Drackenwolf]

Bite was tough, real tough. Especially on Friday and Saturday. Only 7 lakes gave up fish over 40" 57 total muskies caught by 49 anglers. 26 fish from Leech, 17 from Cass Zero fish from Plantagenet, Wabedo, Woman, Big Boy, etc. Only one from Little Boy. Here are top ten:

1 Joe Anderson 42.5, 44, 47, 40.5 Cass

#2 Tony Summerfeld 50, 49, 44 Winnie

#3 Stephan Nielson 52.5, 47 Bemidji

4 Jason Cation 50, 48.5 Leech

5 Will Walkoviak 46, 43.5 Leech

6 Mike Strickland 52 Bemidji

7 Steve Zeece 50 Leech

8 Jim Danielson 50 Leech

9 Matt Pence 49 Leech

10 David Caplecha 48 Cass

Youth

1 Levi Brion 51 Leech

2 Danny Martin 50 Cutfoot Sioux

3 Dawson Johnson 45 Leech

Greg Ide

(I had a great time)

I'm wondering about the discrepancy in the numbers I posted and these final totals. I looked right at the fish-registration excel sheet at about 8:00PM Saturday at the feed on Cass, and there were only 36 fish by 29 guys. I can't believe that difference was made up in 4 hours Sunday morning after that cold-front moved through.

Can it be that each feed location did not have up-to-date tournament totals? That seems to be the only explanation I can surmise, but it would speak of some disorganization on the part of Muskies Inc.

[CaptainMusky]

I havent fished that tourney in a few years, but dont you have until like 10PM to register the fish? I thought that is how it was before anyway.

I enjoyed that tournament. I remember the first year we did it some brainiac (me) decided to run and gun the whole time, but not on just one body of water, SEVERAL! LOL that was stupid.

However, it almost was phenomenal because I lost 4 fish over 40 that day and my buddy got a 43". Hooking percentage on Mantas has been terrible for me, but this was the worst by far.

[CaptainMusky]

The number of contestants sure dropped over the years. I believe it was once over 900.

I am going to have to see if I can get out of work next year for this tourney and give it another shot. It was a good time.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

I havent fished that tourney in a few years, but dont you have until like 10PM to register the fish? I thought that is how it was before anyway.

Not according to my understanding. For the past few years, they've provided phone numbers to call-in your registration, and the time of your call becomes the time-stamp for your fish. You fill out the sheet, snap a photo, and then call the phone number to give them the info. Then you bring your registration sheet and upload your photo at the feeds.

Perhaps they don't enter anything into the excel sheet until the form is turned in? Could be, I s'pose. Seems to me that it would be better to enter it as the calls come in. They could always change it later, if the calls don't match the forms, but then at least folks at the feed would be looking at more up-to-date information.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

The number of contestants sure dropped over the years. I believe it was once over 900...

The highest numbers I saw on tourney buttons were contestants in the mid-400s. Doesn't mean there weren't more than that, but that's the highest I saw.

I registered a week and a half before the tourney and I was #208.

[walleye18]

Really surprised that Mike Lundberg did not catch anything (from the standings I have seen). He's a friend of mine and we use to fish the tournament years ago. He always caught fish in the tourney.

He's is by far the best, most versatile fisherman I know...any species...great stick!

[brad coin]

Has far has fish being registered and list updated alot of the results are not in by the time the feeds start, depending on what carrier people have some cell service dosent work on all lakes and areas. The VERY hard working volunteer ladies who crunch data all day try to have at least some results out when people come to dinner. Tournament one year did have over 800 people in it but if you look at all Musky tourneys in state they have been down-George Wahl tourney is a modest entry fee in metro where people dont have to pay for lodging or near has much gas and 100% of profits go to stock fish so you still win even if you dont place and that has been down. Last couple years of MMTT the entrants were down. The just recent Pmtt only had 77 boats in the wisc madison event. And I dont see anybody in a hurry for a permit to do another MEGA tourney on Cass or Vermilion. People just dont have the money to throw at these things has much anymore.

Better fish em while you can because popular opinion is the DNR will put an end to these with the exotic species concern.