Category: Events

A total of 28 anglers ventured to Pymatuning Lake for our Summer contest event.  Saturday was one windy day with gusts to knock your socks off.   Sunday was a more typical summer day.  Fishing was tough but 7 anglers put fish in the boat lead by Chuck Land.  Winning  the tournament  with 4 fish, Chuck netted a 48.25″ beast as well as a pair of 41″ fish and a 38″.  In second place with a beast of his own, Frank Smith landed a 48″ Huskie.  Also catching fish were

Tom Morris 30″, Rick Mayor 40″, Diane Daniels 39″, Bob Basic 36″ and Jack McAllister 32″.

The Summer contest is also the time we draw the winner of our Grand Prize Raffle.  Shelley Leglise is the winner of a one week stay at the North Fork Studio Cabin at Leesville, a Excalibur Rod Works custom rod, a Shimano Tranx 300 reel,  a Muskie Bumper measuring board and a Muskie Train tackle box with lots of baits.  Congratulations Shelley and thank you for all who supported the raffle through their donations and for all who took a chance to be the winner.

Our final event of the year will be the 10th Annual Minnow Fund Event, Saturday Oct 1st at West branch.

Here are some pictures from the weekend

What a great day to be on the water chasing muskies.   A total of 14 muskies were caught by 9 of the 39 anglers hoping to land a giant.  The muskies were elusive at times, some still beat up by the spawn, and maybe even a few still to spawn which is crazy for this time of year.   Fish were caught super shallow and very deep.  Jabez Burford won the event with a 43.5″ muskie, just edging out Diane Lippart who caught a 42.5″ beast.  Jabez also caught 4 additional muskies of 35″, 36″, 38″ and 41.5″.  Dave White continued his string of catching a muskie in each of our events so far in 2022 by landing a 40″ muskie.  Phil Ringenbach just missed the 40″ mark by catching a 39.75″ fish and also lost a real nice one at the boat.  Others catching fish were  Bob Basic 36″, Michael Kinney 35″, Dave Archer 33″, and Jerry Rice 33.75″.  Derek Halas continued his good streak of tournament fishing by catching a 30″ and 32″ fishing out of his lucky kayak.

Here are pictures of David’s 40″ fish and Jabez’s winning 43.5″ muskie

Our next event will be our Summer Contest at Pymatuning on July 9th and 10th.

Now that breaking ice is behind us, time to go crazy with some May Madness.  Our next event is Saturday, May 14^th at Salt Fork Lake.  The muskies can always be muskies, but we should be putting lures in front of hungry fish fully recovered from the spawn with shad spawning on shoreline cover everywhere.  As an added incentive, the DNR did an electroshock survey in April and were able to capture and measure a 57” giant from Salt Fork and a 53″ beast.   This event is a big fish event with a $15 entry fee with the winner being the angler who catches the longest fish above 30 inches.  To add some Madness, you can choose from our standard Big Fish Pool with an additional $5 fee or our Total Points Pool with an additional $35 fee.   Both pools will payout 100% of all pool entry fees.  In the case of the Big Fish Pool, winner takes all.  In the case of the Total Points Pool, 1^st place is 60%, 2^nd place is 30% and 3^rd place is 10%.  The Total Points Pool will require pictures on a bump board and of the angler holding the fish and a bunch of rules.  Please read the rules linked below as well as the Total Points Information sheet.  Everyone will launch from the Old Marina Boat launch with tournament hours from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm.  The registration for this tournament will be online or you can register the morning of the tournament at the launch ramp from 6:30 am to 7:30 am.  Here is the link for registration:

https://bit.ly/MayMaddness22

All Total Points Pool anglers must use a bump board measuring device.  If you do not have one, here is a link to Muskie Bumper, they make great boards:

https://www.muskiebumper.com

All anglers in a boat must be registered for the tournament and must be signed up for the same pool.  If you are fishing by yourself, it is much easier to take the required pictures for the Total Points Pool if you have a cell phone holder with a suction cup to attached to your boat where needed.  They can be had for less than $15 at Walmart, Target, or similar stores.

May Madness Rules 2022

May Madness Information sheet

Last year Mother Nature smiled on the IceBreaker outing with sunny, calm 70 degree weather, this year she had more of a frown.  Greeting 30 + degree temperatures, strong northwest winds and snow, 28 anglers braved the conditions at Piedmont lake to hopefully catch some prespawn giants.  Even though Mother Nature may have frowned, not all muskie were in such a funk with 9 fish being caught and a few more lost at the boat.

The winner of the event was David White with a fat 48″ giant but his was not the only Huskie caught.  Rich Daniels netted a 45.75″ muskie, Steve Skebe a 45.25″ , and Donald Gutshall a 42″ Huskie.  Additional fish caught were George Keyser 38″, Jessie Wolford 38″, Rick Canastrano 30″ and David White also caught a 31″ and 33″.

A really big thank you for Chad Harmon and Tim Smith running the tournament and to all those brave souls who came out on a tough day.

Our next event will be the May Madness on May 14th at Salt Fork.  This one day tournament will be the longest fish wins the tournament with two side pools, a $5 big fish pool and a $35 Total Points pool.  Look for more information in late April.

David’s winning fish!