2011 Petenwell Musky Challenge

[Todd Forcier]

Finally the stars aligned for our 15th Annual Petenwell Musky Challenge. We had a full field of 80 boats, 160 contestants for this year's tournament.
Friday night registration & rules meeting started our weekend off. Once again The Ridges is our event headquarters. All teams verified their paperwork was completed and Pepsi Americas provide all contestants and judge boats with refreshments. This year we did a magazine drive for our soldiers and Black River Bait Company sponsored that drive.

Super Slayer Tackle Company teamed up with us and provided our seven kids with two lures each. We have another prize for the kids, these kid were competing for a St. Croix Rod in memory of Jordan Rowe. You see, Jordan and his dad Tom have been involved with the tournament in various ways over the years. Jordan passed away last September. This rod is in memory of him and will go to the kid who catches the largest musky.

We handed out Friday's "On the Water Raffle" to a lucky team, complements of T-N-T Tackle and LMP Manufacturing Companies.

This year again, I had the pleasure of having Justine Hasz with me in the boat. Justine is our local Fish Biologist and once again she was helping scan for and placing PIT tags in all the muskies we could get to. Along with Justine we had two other DNR technicians with us PIT tagging. All judge’s boats had the scanners needed to scan each musky and check for PIT tags. If a judge boat found no tag they'd call us to come over and tag these fish.

Saturday morning started out with cloudy skies and a hint of rain. Water temps were 53 degrees and the winds were light, north, northeast. Morning action was fast and furriest. Our back waters were full of fish. As we staged in the Devil's Elbow area we witnessed the first 5 fish caught. First three fish were caught right in front of us all in 20 minutes. Two more fish followed, all within 40 minutes. The action continued with reports of fish being caught in the rivers, sloughs and open water. As we moved out to help cover the river we witnessed a couple more fish being caught.

As the day went on we started to see the size of the muskies increase. Reports of some fish being caught in the big water were coming in.

We got to scan and tag a healthy 45 1/2 inch musky up river. At the time it was our big fish for the day. However the action was still fast.

We caught up with Saturday's "On the Water Raffle" winners and presented them with lures from T-N-T Tackle and LPM Manufacturing Companies.

Then a call came in to help register a big fish. As we arrived you could see the smiles on each contestant. As the fish laid on the bump board it filled it out. We all just marveled at our new big fish for the day. The fish was caught just of the main river. A beautiful, FAT and “SEXY IN OUR EYES” 47-incher.

As day one was coming to a close we kept getting reports of fish being caught. By day's end we had 37 fish reported. Of the 37 reported muskies 32 were tournament legal fish, meaning 34 inches or greater.

Back at The Ridges we posted all 32 muskies caught. Two triples, two doubles and several teams with single catches. And yes, lot of stories of the ones that got away.
We were presented with a superb dinner, fit for hungry fishermen and ladies. After dinner we acknowledged our 2011 sponsors. I presented the big fish winner for day one.

Our tournament fund raiser for stocking muskies proceeded through the rest of the night.

Day two started with completely different weather conditions. Clear blue skies, wind was stronger, out of the north. Water temp was still hovering around 53-54 degrees.

Going into day two we had about four boats all within striking distance of each other.

Several morning fish were undersize, however, fish calls were coming in. Several teams battled for position. Knowing one good fish could separate them from the pack. We then received a report of a team catching there second fish of the tournament in the main flowage. Also one of the teams who caught three yesterday caught there forth fish today.

Like yesterday all our judge boats were checking muskies for PIT tags.

At mid-morning we got a report of a team doubling up today, giving them three fish for the tournament. By the end of day two we had received reports of 12 fish being caught, 6 of them tournament legal fish. Day two's big fish measured in at 41 1/4.

Back at The Ridges we held our awards ceremony. After the musky board got updated we had our five winning teams for 2011. First, we acknowledged our big fish winners for day two. Also Dan Kutschenreuter was presented the memorial St. Croix Rod. Dan was able to catch a 23 3/4-inch musky.

5th Place -
Matt Smith of Wisconsin Rapids, WI and Don Smith of Nekoosa, WI, two fish, 85 points, $500

Forth Place -
Steve & T. J. Kingsfield of Wisconsin Rapids, two fish, 116 points, $1000

3rd Place -
Al Subera of Friendship, WI and Brian Smith of Wisconsin Rapids, WI, three fish, 125 points, $1700

2nd Place -
Jason Schillinger of Wisconsin Rapids, WI and Greg Majka of Wausau, WI, three fish, 171 points, $2800

1st Place -
Dan Frick of Wisconsin Rapids, WI and Jeff Daniels of Rudolph, WI, four fish, 190 points, $4000

Saturday's BIG fish winners - Steve & T.J. Kingsfield with a 47.
Sunday's BIG fish winners - Al Subera & Brian Smith with a 41 1/4.
I'd like to note each day's big fish winners donated $100 each, back to stocking. This is a good example of what our contestants think of this program.

Through the monetary donation and raffles we are proud to announce we raised $4,300. We will take $1000 and make a donation to our local DNR to help fund musky research programs on our local waters. This leaves us with $3,300 to purchase muskies for fall stocking.

We also raised $1,205 for Operation Musky IV (www.operationmuskie.com). And have over 200 magazines to send out to our soldiers.

80 boats, 160 contestants, 49 muskies caught. 38 of the 49 were tournament legal fish. WOW what a weekend.

To ALL our sponsors we "thank you" from the bottom of our heart! Without you this tournament won't be at the level it is today. Thank you again!! To our contestants, we'd like to "thank you" as well. Without your participation, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do, make the Petenwell Flowage a class “A” musky fishery of the future.

[Todd Forcier]

Some more photos...

[Todd Forcier]

Our 2011 PMC winners -

[Todd Forcier]

Saturday & Sunday's "On the Water Raffle" winners.
Dan Kutschenreuter winner of the memorial St. Croix Rod with his catch of the day.
Jake Thompson answering the musky "hot" phone.

[Todd Forcier]

2011 Petenwell Musky Challenge will be aired on Keyes Outdoors, June 4th at 8:30 am on FSN North.

[Todd Forcier]

Correction on the time, it's 8:00 am Saturday mornings on FSN North.