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I have not had a chance to talk to Charlie today but Team Zippo won the MWC tourney on Mille Lacs. The link shows the Mille Lacs tournament results.
Now they have some time off until the National Team Championships which will take place in mid-October. An outstanding "regular season" for Team Zippo!!
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Leade...6&s=Team&c=MWC
I had my wires crossed (bad cell connection yesterday when talking to Charlie) and I gave some misinformation. After talking to Charlie again today, Zippo is in first place nationwide regarding the MWC Circuit. If they do not fish anymore tournaments until August, they could get bumped out because the race is super tight between the top 2 spots. Zippo will be back on the road heading to Lake Winnebago (WI) trying to put some distance between the second place team. There is no more East/West division.......it is all one big division this year. Sorry for the mix-up.
A few images from the tournament:
http://liveleaderboard.com/EventData...s/DSC_5232.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5465.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5473.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5479.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5487.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5492.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5494.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5499.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5502.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5511.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5617.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5619.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5629.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5681.htm
http://www.liveleaderboard.com/Event...s/DSC_5705.htm
Congrats to Team Zippo. I'm sure its tougher and more stressful to produce when money like that is on the line.
I don't know much about tournament walleye fishing, but I was surprised at the winning weights. The average fish is under 2 pounds. That seems small to me, but most of my limited walleye experience is on Lake Erie, and when you catch a walleye by accident muskie fishing, they are usually big. My biggest walleye, 13lbs, was caught trolling a 10" Believer and spoon on the St. Lawrence. Is that avg. size normal, or just because of the body of water that was fished in the tourney?
The slot limit on Mille Lacs really keeps the weights low (smaller males). After you get your limit, then you can roll the dice and go hunting for the larger females which is what they did and scored a 29.5" (28" is the top end slot length) fish on Day 2. Strategy really comes into play during these slot limit tournaments. Some guys who are way down in the points standings roll the dice all day and just hunt for big fish. The key is not putting yourself in those gambling situations and hunt the higher percentage fish first.
A little luck does not hurt either. :)
Charlie was telling me last nite (over some celebratory ice cold lemonade) that there were several guys who got busted clipping tail fins to meet the 14"-16.99999999" slot limit. (All fish between 17" and 28" must be immediately released.) They were cutting the tails to shorten the fish so they would be under 17" and count as part of their basket if you can believe that. They made very irregular cuts to make it look like the net had damaged the tails.
Mille Lacs is one of those places that you are actually hoping to catch small fish (14.000001-16.999) to get your limit and then go hunt 1 (and only 1) big fish over 28.
When you talk to him next time tell him I'm following along with it and it is so awesome they are doing so good!
Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!
A slot limit deal would be super tough to compete in........
There are a handful of teams from the Eastern US that participate in the 2-3 major walleye tournament circuits. The Eastern guys are almost always (excluding Dunkirk/Barcelona and Lake Ontario events) traveling to the mid-West to fish on foreign waters. To be able to finish in the top 30 much less win one of these events is outstanding.
The Eastern US just does not have the numbers of walleye tournament anglers to suffice moving any of these tournaments to the East. They have tried it in the past but low turnouts (low payouts) forces the major circuits to stay in the mid-West.
They had a nice write up in the Bradford paper about the boys.
Nice mug shot!
http://www.masterswalleyecircuit.com/
Hiya Red!
Your rodbuilder buddy Harv here..
I had the "honor" of shackin' up with Doug, Charlie, Jamie & Conrad for that tourn. WHAT A WEEK!!! I was 'campbitch' & pre fish helper & I had a blast! I fed the crap out of those guys with smoked goodies. Charlie named me "Homer" ! LOL
When they won, Charlie looked awestruck..
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r...ougcharlie.jpg
Then The Grubbs' boat SANK at the weigh-in...that's another 3 page story!