2011 PMTT Championship!

[Tom Dietz]

Hey all,

I am off to my familiar waters of Ohio to compete in the 2011 Professional Musky Tournament Trail Championship on Alum Creek Reservoir in Columbus. My partner Aaron Templin and I will try to place a few updates throughout the week as we will pre-fish the event Wednesday through Friday. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of old friends and fishing a familiar lake! Good luck on the water.

[Tom Dietz]

Day one report. Extremely tough bite today, only six fish caught! The Burseth brothers lead with a 47 incher. Aaron and I had a good pattern set up after pre-fishing (saw several fish there and my good friend John Blue from Ohio had fish going in the same area. We fished our butts off today but could not get a bite. The good news is that tomorrow is a new day and we are still in this thing with some luck and cooperation from the muskies. We'll regroup tonight and hit it hard again tomorrow.

[Mark Benson]

Tom:

How was the tourney???

Mark

[Tom Dietz]

Hi Mark,

My family and I just arrived home from Ohio this afternoon. Unfortunately my Father-In-Law passed away from Alzheimer's during the event, so my wife Kris drove my truck down to Springfield, Ohio along with the rest of the family for the funeral, etc. I had originally flown down to Columbus, but in lieu of the situation, I Drove my family home after the funeral.

Aaron and I ended up fishless in the event, as our pre-fishing pattern disappeared and we resorted to trolling heavy concentrations of shad on Sunday. We did have one mid-thirties incher caught right next to us by another troller, but that is as close as we could come to success. Thirteen fish caught over all by fifty-four PMTT Teams and all but one under thirty-six inches. Congrats to the Burseth Brothers who won the Championship! They are really good guys and have been competing in the PMTT for many years and they are very deserving. Also a HUGE congrats to my close friends Matt and Dave Kircher for winning the coveted Team of the Year Award. They had a great year under very tough fishing conditions and they were able to boat a fish on Sunday to win this award.

Time for Aaron and I to regroup for next season, as this was my worst year ever for lack of fish caught since I started fishing the circuit. Congrats to all who caught fish this past weekend during a very tough bite.

[Mark Benson]

Tom:

Thanks for the tourney update, probably the mind was elsewhere as well during the tourney. God's Speed to you and the rest of your family!!!

Have a great fall!!!

Mark