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Posts: 21
| Just received my information in the mail yesterday!! |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | Too bad the tourney wasn't this past weekend. I think I would have racked up about 200 points on Moens, just counting the fish I caught. Probably won't see a fish in the tourney. That's my luck. Good Luck , Brad |
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Posts: 634
Location: Bloomington, MN | Hodag roll call! The odds are better for a BIG fish showing up here in Minnesota, but the beauty, serenity, and charm that Wisconsin's northwoods has can't be beat. This is one of the best run tournaments going. You have a remote chance at a guaranteed $20,000 for a low entry fee of $200 (early reg.)/$250 per team. There is a limit of 200 teams, but they are spread out on 5 different lake groups, so the pressure is not overwhelming. I will be fishing this tournament for at least the 12th time, and have not registered a fish (I'm believing I couldn't even catch one if I was stuck in a closet with it)....so I think our Moen selection may be our best bet. To my knowledge there has never been a 50" registered during the 25 year history of this tournament, but good ol'Pelican definitely has the capability. 1 50" and a 34" would beat out 4 34"'s(max. # of fish you can register is 4), so if you are a gambler, Pelican is calling. They once gave a Ranger/ Ford truck away for the first 50" caught during the tournament, but I don't think they are doing it any longer. MuskieFirst should be covering the tournament even though the M.A.C. is up a Vermilion the same weekend. If MFirst is covering it, please have the staffer take pics of Lake Group boards at the finish of the tourney. Hey..."5th Lake", what did you get your fish on and what color? Maybe see you and the Moen gang at Birchwood Lodge for a couple/few!
Team Thomson/Anderson...The Championship Winners of the 2009 Hodag Muskie Challenge
The internet is filled with delusional people, isn't it?
Edited by Clark A 9/9/2009 7:59 PM
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Posts: 109
Location: Spencer, Wisconsin | Since moving to the great state of Wisconsin 5-years ago I can second the comment of ClarkA with regards to the charm of this state. After having the opportunity and privilege of fishing in this great event for the past 6 years with "Mr. delusional" I enjoy every moment fishing and interacting with the fello Lungemans!
Good luck to all; aka the sane one of the team... |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | OutdoorsFIRST Media will not be offering any coverage for the 2009 Hodag. Excellent reasons, none of which have a thing to do with the tradition of the event or the excellent field of anglers fishing it; I was very involved in the Hodag for a whole lotta years when Gene and Dick ran it and thought it was a stellar event.
We put our dollars and crews where the coverage and what it takes to provide it is appreciated.
Good luck to all fishing the Hodag! |
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Posts: 634
Location: Bloomington, MN | Sorry we won't see you next you at the Hodag Mr. Worrall, but we will be wearing our Muskie First jackets proudly, if it's nippy out! It sounds as though we picked a good lake choice. Can I still get some Pink Violent Strikes sent to Larson's with less than a weeks notice? Congratulations to Miss Sue on the Tigger!
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Just let me know and I'll have a couple Moen Specials made up for you and waiting here, sir! |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | low of 36 on friday night. nice. 15 degrees colder than thurs. night. I'm sure that will turn the fish on. |
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Posts: 968
Location: N.FIB | any results on the tourny |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Amazing, isn't it? One of the largest, longest running events out there, too. We will be speaking with them this week about next year. |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | 1st place $20,000
2nd place $650
It will be a different tournament from here on out. |
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Posts: 714
Location: Rhinelander, WI | 1st place was advertised as guaranteed so with less participants I think between 160 and 170. They had less total money in the pool to work with. Also donations and sponsorships where way down compared to years past. Considering they had a complete turnover in Chamber Staff and lost their tourney director this spring I think over all it was run pretty well.
There was lots of grumbling from fishermen, especially Friday night. Mostly about the 2nd -10th prizes and the door prizes. As far as fishing the event I didn’t notice any problems with the way it was run, I really liked the ease out instead of the shotgun death race. I didn’t like the rules imposed by the insurance company on the 50” fish prize(didn’t matter as once again she eluded us all) and yes I would have liked to see better money for 2nd through 10th. But for a $250 entry fee and a shot at $20,000 I was still happy. I think that is still one of the better 1st place prizes for that type of entry fee.
I think there will be a change in the way they arrange the purse next year so they don’t get hammered with a guaranteed prize. Maybe a guaranteed % paid out or something like that. I already told them there number one priority should be keeping the 90% who don’t catch fish happy, those are the people that will need convincing to come back the next year. Do things to keep them happy and the tourney will be back to 200 boats in no time.
Anyway if you would like to see anything different post it here, I volunteered to attend the wrap up meeting and give my thoughts on the pros and cons of this years event, you post them here I will bring them to the people in charge. Venting on the internet is one of our greatest pastimes. So lets here them, please both positive and negative. The new people want to do there best and make the event go smooth, and build it back up to 200 boats.
56 fish total caught, with a triple that included a 48 incher taking home first place. One other triple and a bunch of doubles. That 48 was the biggest, a 46” hybrid from Pelican was second and a few more 45inch class fish. I have some more info at home, I will post it if I remember.
Nail A Pig!
Mike
Edited by MRoberts 9/21/2009 2:40 PM
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| Mike,
Without a doubt the only way to gaurantee the 20 grand is to fill the field. Percentages have to be set based on the number of entries, with 2nd place never being less than 1/2 of 1st. Leave it up to the fisherman to get the entries up. Take away the early bird sign up, do whatever needs to be done. But they have to get the prize money back up there or there will not be a Hodag challenge next year. If they have so many new people running the thing, did they think of calling any of the old timers for help?
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Posts: 27
| One thing I thought was run poorly was how the lady in charge said she didn't call Joe Fittante about the free replica for the biggest fish until Thursday of the tourney week. If you are running a tournament that big that is something that should have been done months in advance, not the week of. At the 7:30 rules meeting she then tried to blame it on Joe for not calling her back. |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Please keep in mind these folks just took this over not too long ago. Constructive criticism is fine, just complaining to complain won't be. |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | I understand the payout schedule, and the fact that they had to guarantee 20k. Economy and sponser's are down. Just make sure to change it next year. This has always been a superbly run event, Which I look forward to every year. Other than that here are some complaints I had that could be brought to the attention of the officials.
1. "taking away the shotgun start is safer" . It sure would have been, but when I asked the official how we will go about the start, showing him my number, I was told "How can we do that, just figure it out yourselves". Really? 4th lake Moen had a shotgun start both days. With the dense fog it was as dangerous as ever.
2. The fact that if a 50" fish was caught we were told to call Kim and she would meet us at the reg. station. Are you kidding me? So you would keep a 50" in a livewell waiting for her? After possibly driving a fair distance to the reg station. I think most of us pride ourselves in CPR, and I for one did not like the position that an angler would have been put in, in that situation. Ridiculous. Thankfully ,as mentioned already, she eluded us again. Must be changed for next year. Some people did not have aerated livewell's , just holding tanks.
3. Get someone who knows a little more about the tournament to run it. While I understand they may be in a pinch , taking over recently, whatever. If they want to keep this a big deal then treat it like one. I have nothing against the young lady in charge , and I'm sure she did the best she could, I just don't think she knew. I would have to say a far cry from Mr. Stellflue. |
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Posts: 32926
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Dick, Gene, the committee and the Chamber ran it for years...tight ship, well run, and savvy enough to keep arguments with the chamber or anyone else out of the public eye. They need a good master of ceremonies to run the rules meeting and awards ceremonies, and to set and enforce the rules via committee no matter what. Just my take, as one who was involved with the Hodag from the 80's to a couple years ago. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | MRoberts, having been involved for years in annual events, the best advise for the Chamber is to have a meanigful thourough critique meeting by all parties involved within a couple of weeks, at the latest, and get ahead of the game for next year by doing as much as possible as soon as possible for next year's event.
Just a few quick points of input for the Chamber: 1) The Chamber would get more mileage out of the tournament hats if the "Hodag Muskie Challenge" is acknowdged on them; 2) Keep the date of the event where it is. The Hodag was on the same weekend as the Harley-Davidson Weekend for years without a problem. All the activity around with the bikers is actually a positive to me. Although we have clothes for whatever weather occurs, The weather will likely be better on the current weekend. There will be schedule conflicts no matter what weekend is selected so leave it where it is; 3) The "early-bird" discount is probably not a deal breaker for entrants, but highlighting that the order that entries are recieved will determine your order to leave to fish likely will take care of getting registrations in early; 4) The 7:00 AM start was great, especially on a clear lakes during clear weather, the majority of our action was within the first hour on both days.
Only 362 days until the Hodag!
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 9/21/2009 8:33 PM
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Posts: 634
Location: Bloomington, MN | Is there a way the tournament can be changed to "no transport" by next year? Increasing the entry fee by $30 for a year or so to cover the cost of buying boards probably would not cause too much of a stir, and everyone by now should have a cell phone and a digital camera.
Apparently they obtained the insurance contract a week or so before the tournament to cover the 50"/$39k+ Ranger prize. If they had that aspect locked in time to advertise that prize, it probably would have increased the field, although it was a nice surprise.
The hats do need to state "Hodag Muskie Challenge" on them! I would "almost" take the hot pink ones over this years hats.
Moving the tournament up a couple weeks would be a terrible idea. First off the chance the weather will be colder is almost a given, which I'm sure would cut down on the amount of contestants, and the fishing hours would be cut down due to darkness.
Overall, it was a well run tournament, and I will be back next year to probably take another beating. |
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Posts: 355
Location: Wausau, Wisconsin | Great tournament, I always love fishing it. For their first year running the tournament they did a great job and seemed well organized. I was disappointed with the payout schedule and it didn't seem like the payout % was very high. With that I'm very happy for and proud of my friends Kent and Doug, no two better guys could win that, again. Always feel like I'm fishing for second with them in the tournament. :) I hope for the sake of the history of this great tournament the payout gets changed. Otherwise I'm fearful participation will be low next year. I heard a lot of complaining and honestly did a little myself. If they do that and change the weekend so as not to conflict with Paul's Pro Am that would be great and I think it would help fill it. Although after Schweik/Sparbel's performance, I'd be fishing for second in that too. I'll be back next year, hats off to them for asking for the comment sheets and wanting to improve things for the anglers. |
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Posts: 400
Location: North/Central WI | Just curious how everyone feels about the point scoring system that is used for the Hodag. I realize that this has been in effect for awhile and was not a change this year. My personal feeling is that it makes big fish worth way too many points in a tournament in which you can only register 2 muskies/day. This is coming from the guys who took fifth with a triple this year (actually an unofficial quadruple...but that's another story), and I am sure there are those that may disagree. I realize next year (if we fish again...) the point scoring system may work in our favor, but I still don't see how a double should ever beat a triple. If they were to change the format and use judge boats, then I would not have a problem with the scoring. I would also like to see a voluntary big fish pool added next year. Make it $20/team and divide the pot in half for Sat. Big Fish and Sun. Big Fish. Even if only 100 teams threw $20 in, that's still $1000 per day for the big fish. |
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Posts: 2
| I spoke with Joe Fittante regarding the winner of the replica and I think J Wood is the one who one in 2008. He has your fish ready, just give him a call 715-627-7662. Good luck |
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Posts: 537
Location: Gilberts IL/Rhinelander WI | Hey Nate, I happen to like the point system. No way should 3- 34", beat 2-49". That said , I see you're point. Although you don't have to register all the fish you catch. Good Luck!! |
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Posts: 27
| Arcticranger, thanks for the info. I actually met Joe last night and picked it up. It is awesome! He does great work! |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | For a group that is just learning the ropes of running a muskie tournament, it may be a stretch, but how about changing the measurement system to match the PMTT or the Tuesday Night League that each boat must have a bunkboard and have your team number with the picture. Taking the transport aspect out of the picture will allow us to potentially catch more than two fish a day.
Edited by Steve Van Lieshout 9/22/2009 11:37 PM
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Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Steve,
Agreed. The CPR format kicks butt. No more transporting muskies, immediate release, and as a result, no limit on the number of fish per day. An additional charge of $40 for the board isn't out of line, and the team leaves with a cool bumpboard. The images can be used at each virtual weigh in, and for promoting the event in the future. Paul Hartman pioneered this concept, and it works. No judge boats. Just check the anglers in at the landing, add the sticker of the day to the boards, and get 'em out there. Check in the image cards in the evening, takes about 30 minutes to judge and add to a program the numbers caught in the Hodag.
The PMTT uses judge boats,not CPR. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | Steve, it will likely not happen because it makes too much sense! |
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Posts: 90
| The most disappointing part was the fishing on Lake George this year, for whatever reson. We only raised about 8 fish the whole tournament and only got hooks in a couple of undersize ones. Ironically enough that is 2 less than we saw in 3 hours of prefishing Friday morning, but thats musky fishing for you. This is only my second year in the tournament, but I was a little disappointed in the payouts 2-10 as everyone mentioned, in an offline conversation Kim told me it was a result of the early bird registrations which we took advantage of, but I would gladly pay the extra $50 to see the 2-10 payouts more in line with what was paid in 08. As far as the start was concerned, we were second out, so it wasn't too bad, but there was no plan on how to do it, the official yelled out your number from the dock with an unassisted voice that couldn't be heard over 15 outboards, so everyone kind of went once the guy ahead of him got m ost of the way out of the bay, I understand it got a little ugly after the first 4 or 5 left cause know one knew who was going or when.
As far as the date is concerned, for me, it falls currently on the perfect weekend, I come up from Chicago and my brother from St Louis, so a date change especially to mid October would more than likely exclude us as we make a week of fishing out of it, to justify the trip because there is time in September. I just got home about 2 hours ago actually.
The most ironic part of the whole thing is all we caught in the tournament were short fish that couldn't be registered, so after we left George on Sunday ran into town to see who won, and headed onto Pelican where we were staying we hit the water at 1:45 and within 2 hours had raised a 4 footer, and caught a 38 and a 43, all from the same weedbed. Oh well, if the date remains there is always next year. |
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Posts: 1916
Location: Greenfield, WI | Jeff, did you complete and turn in your survey in your tournament package?
If not contact the Chamber of Commerce directly and express your opinions directly. |
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Posts: 109
Location: Spencer, Wisconsin | A few notes of constructive input for the Hodag to improve for next year: 1. Improve the communication ie; televise the Ranger for starters we did not find out until the Friday check in for rules reading. 2. Better organization on the general knowledge of the lake(s) check in and the basic protocal. (They could have networked with a vets who assisted with the past administration) it would have provide more creditability to the new committee. 3. If you dont fill the field then taper off the first place purse and then blend the rest 2nd thru 10th and advertise this in the flyer so the fisherman know they need to enter to bring up the total prize money. 4. The delayed start worked out great, very safe! 5. The caps could have at least have the Hodag challenge on them some where! 6. Door prises were very weak and years past were actually fun to enter a few bucks to have a chance at a nice prize. 7. Fittante's not being there like years past did not feel right I enjoyed gaucking over his work! 8. No mention of the first large pike, again back to the communication 9. Not trusting the judge to call it a 50" I did not totally understand this; I know the issues around the prize at hand but agree having a fish in the live well or in the net for an extended period of time stresses the fish too much and the risk of death is almost certain. 10. Moving the date up or back is a bad idea too. This time slot works the best with the temp and the slight cool down I dont like throwing a line in the white fluffy stuff too much.
Edited by TET62 9/25/2009 6:14 AM
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