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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Its a crisp cool morning out here on the Fox Chain with 82 boats facing off for a shot at over $2000. Water temps are ranging from 55 to 57 wtih are temps hovering around 42. The forecast is for sunny skies with a possible rain and stormy mix coming later. Reports of the fish being on the spawn may be negated with this coming front. As of yet I have witnessed no fish caught, but it isnt yet 8AM, More later..... |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | First Report:
No fish reported thsu far with the winds kicking up and the temps holding steady at around 40 degrees.
Boats on Bluff throwing small jerkbaits up shallow all the way to the breaks. Rich Gallagher and Frank Bottileirgi started their day fishing right in one of the smaller channels, but in the 30 minutes i was in this water, they nor anyone else had yet to move any fish.
Lake Marie had a few boats, but not all that many considering its size. I did spy Tad Dahl (Muskycore) longlining crankbaits off of planer boards from his DeepV Tuffy.
Channell and Catherine appear to be the lake of choice thus far, with over 30 boats doing everything from trolling long or short lines to working up in the shallow channels.
More later...... |
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Posts: 1769
Location: Algonquin, ILL | Slamer, your not fishing?
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Posts: 32958
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | The fish need to cooperate!! Keep us posted Slamr, and thank you for the live coverage! |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | The weather is holding stable at cold and windy, with no sign of nice weather to come! Regardless, fish are being caught!
The best results that I can confirm so far are:
Boat #74 with a 45"er caught trolling Lake Marie
A red Tracker has a 41"er casting a small bulldawg on Lake Marie
There have been a number of other fish caught, though these are unconfirmed....44", 39", 32" all rumored, but as of yet unconfirmed.
Other than that, I have heard of a number of fish moved on bright bucktails as well as some fish follows on spinnerbaits.
MuskieFIRST Member Updates:
Dave Hebeda had about a 40"er come in low and slow on a glider, caught a 26"er, and a beer can!
Joe Mellott (Luke Chinewalker) moved a mid-30s.
Ralph Florio, Doc (Neil Veirup), and Mike Gregg all had the same results: not even a fish moved.
The MuskieFIRST member with the best story of grief so far is Tad Dahl/Muskycore with a 48"+ lost trolling because of a line breakage caused by a trashed rod line guide.....this is after forgetting his tackle box and all his gear at home! |
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| I had a feeling there would be some movement today. Yesterday they were sluggish and saw lots of spawners. I am glad (jealous) people are having action. Keep up th egood work Slambo! |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | All participants are at present pulling there boats off the water, and it seems as though the action slowed down after the morning.
Will report more when I hear it..... |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Big surprises!!!! Unknown to most, 14 fish were caught today
The final tally and winners are:
1st Place: Boat #61 Robert Matusek/Bill Matusek 45.5" - 19.5pts
2nd Place: Boat #74 Jeff Miller/Bob Blanke 45" - 19pts.
3rd Place: Boat #48 George Benda/Jerry Benda 41" - 15pts.
4th Place: Boat #65 Hugh Flack/Dave Lefferman 39" - 13pts
4th Place: Boat# 45 Craig Schaller/Tom Kramer 39" - 13pts.
6th Place: Boat #40 Dale Hurd Jr./Mike Herzog 38" - 12pts.
7th Place: Boat #54 Ron Hedman/Bob Hedman 34" - 8pts.
7th Place: Boat #10 Jim Hoffman/Nehison 34" - 8pts.
9th Place: Boat #33 Jim Reiter/Doug Betteau 33.25" - 7.25"
10th Place: Boat #47 Doug Kloet/Bill Porus 33" - 7.25pts.
11th Place: Boat #41 Richard Burton/Joe Colllete 32.5" - 6.5pts.
11th Place: Boat # 4 Jeff Lowe/Erik Shacks 32.5" - 6.5pts
13th Place: Boat #52 Rob Dehkehwalter/Mike Gleason 31" - 5pts.
13th Place: Boat #29 Joe Tiero/Chuck Wiesenth 31" - 5pts |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Though fishing was tough most all of the day, with the majority of fish being caught early in the morning, the winner took their fish not 15 minutes from the tourney's end! In addition the fish was caught not 100 yards from the tourney headquarters. Just going to show that the tournament isn't over til it's OVER!
For those of you who weren't fortunate enough to have the chance to participate today, all I can say is that my overall impression of this event is that it is NOT just a club tournament. The venue (the Thirsty Turtle) has more than ample parking with many marina's nearby, the policies and procedures for fish registration are clear and straight forward, and the prize money of close to $2000 is more than enough reason to check this event out. In addition this event is going to be counted in the MuskieFIRST World Muskie Rankings, so for those of you interested in friendly competition, fishing one of the toughest bodies of water in the muskie's range, possibly winning a nice amount of money for a day of fishing, or even getting yourself up or in the ranks of the best muskie fishermen on the planet, this is definitely a muske tournament series to consider.
Though this tourney is completed as of now, there is a fall companion tourney (thusly making this a series) Saturday November 1st. The conditions are sure to be a bit different, and the patterns may be way off from what put fish in the boat
of today's winners, but the fall tourney is sure to be as great an event as was seen today! For more information on the Fall FRV Challunge, go to http://www.frvmuskie.com
Thanks to all who participated and the generous and diligent folks of the Fox River Valley Muskies Inc. Chapter for putting this event on! |
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Posts: 32958
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Sounds like a great day on the water despite the cooler weather. Congratulations to those who boated a fish, especially the Matuseks for the win. |
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| The "toilet bowl" again requires a 45+" fish to win! That is like 3 or 4 years in a row where a 45 didnt cut it to win. It aint Canada or any other pristine lake but its a muskie lake. Beggars cant be choosers. Congrats to the people who boated fish! And a big thanks to Slamr who kept us couch people on top of what was going on! |
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| THANKS FOR THE UPDATES FROM THE TOURNEY!!!!!  |
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Posts: 7119
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Actually I had alot of fun covering the tourney, would have liked to have done the same with the Cave Run PMTT Tourney Coverage, but there is NO CELL PHONE SERVICE in all of the city of Morehead, KY. AND I would have done more on the water reporting but it was TOO COLD to type while on the water! The internet connection was working like a champ, but my fingers werent!
We hope to be able to cover as many future tournaments in the same and expanded fashion as possible in the coming months and years!
*any suggestions (other than video, working on that one) in terms of what you'd like to see in tourney coverage, please email me at [email protected]! |
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Posts: 492
Location: Lindenhurst, Illinois | It was a very scrappy beer can that my partner and I boated. Thing hit a depth raider like a ton of bricks in about 16ft of water. Man did we have a great time. Didn't hit the money this year but as usual a very well run tournament.
Great coverage Slamr. I will have to bring my computer in the boat next year. |
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Posts: 169
Location: Elgin ,IL | <p>AJ,</p><p>Great job covering our tournament! Wish we could have put something in the boat for you while we were on Bluff! Tough sledding man, didn't see a toothy creiite all day!!</p><p /><p>:(</p> |
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