Musky Mania 33, June 2004
Tournament Winners
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All, Musky Mania 33 is in the books and although the number of fish caught was down from last spring's outing, the size of the fish were pretty respectable.
The conditions of North and South Twin were a bit different than the past couple of spring outings in that the fish had already spawned on South and so for the most part it presented conventional fishing techniques; whereas North Twin the fish were just starting to show in the shallows and sight fishing as was probably expected was not a realistic approach. Mark Curtis, the area guide who spoke to us Friday evening provided some of that type of advice, in addition to some other area lakes that might be a good option. Mother Nature for the most part was cooperative even though Saturday afternoon was a bit soggy, but definitely should not have slowed fishing. |
Tom Hickson of North Twin Lodge was again a very outstanding host and awarded those folks who caught their fish on North and South Twin their muskie pins.
Musky Pete had a good pre-tournament couple of days with a 40, and two 38 1/2 inchers, with one of the 38 1/2's being caught right in front of his partner Jim Jessup as Jim was backing the trailer in for them to leave the lake and in front of Gary and I as we are waiting in line to trailer our boat, in addition to several other folks standing on the dock, he had quite an audience.
In addition to the muskies caught, the kids had a pretty good catch of bluegills right off of Tom's dock. We again had a first place winner where in this case it was their actual second musky caught, but there first musky caught was on Saturday, a very respectable 43 1/2 inch tiger caught on South Twin. Actually new participants to our Musky Mania outing did very well in that they caught 4 out of the 7 fish registered. In addition to Dan Gracyalany's two fish, Mark Melius landed a nice 37 1/2 inch and Greg Croft a 36 inch fish caught on 6# test line. Below are the results of the registered fish for MM33:
Congratulations to all the successful fisherman and as a point of info, all fish were released to fight again, so for at least the fish caught in South Twin, they are there for possible future Musky Mania outings.
With regard to Musky Mania 34, mark your calendars as it will be held on October 9th 10th, again out of North Twin Lodge. Tom is currently holding 5 cabins for us, so you can make reservations as you see fit.
A couple of points of information that need to be passed along, specifically for the folks who were not at the awards on Sunday when we did discuss some of the info.
Proposal was made to increase the entry fee from the current $15/person to $20 for adults and leave it at $15 for the kids, kids being 16 and under. The primary reason for this change is to help us better cover costs; specifically for the door/raffle prizes as it has become more and more difficult over the past several years to get donated items such that we are having to purchase more.
We have at least for the past several years provided a door prize for each participant, one approach being considered is to cut back on the number of door prizes and to get some more substantial items such as rods, reels, tackle boxes, etc. We will see how we do on donated items for MM34/35 before we make this change.
Also, just a reminder to folks who are the winners in a couple of respects; one that the three winners are to be part of the organizing/coordinating committee for the next outing and of course the 1st place winner has the opportunity to head this activity. In the case of MM33 being won by a non-K-C employee, I will take the lead on organizing MM34, but will look to Perry and Tom for your assistance as well as others, thanks in advance.
With regard to the 1st place winner it is expected that they be present at the awards to receive their winnings to include the traveling plaque and vest and of course take on the responsibility of heading up the next outing. We would really like to see all the winners be present as well as more of the participants, realizing that there are situations that come up that may not allow this, but if possible it would be appreciated if more folks attend the awards, this is your outing, not just for the folks who are organizing it and a handful of others. By not showing for the awards activity it sends the wrong message to newcomers and the people who spend organizing the event, thanks again in advance. Just a reminder on winning criteria which might help motivate folks in attending the awards, you can only win one place, as in the case of Dan who actually had the two largest fish registered, but could only take first place.
Any suggestions regarding prizes/activities are always welcome, so please let us know your thoughts.
Thanks again to all the participants, and a special thanks to Gary Borkowski, Musky Pete, and Jim Jessup for their help in organizing MM33 and of course we are already looking forward to the fall MM34 outing, have a great season chasing lunge, think "big fish". I will send some photos out shortly.
Musky Pete had a good pre-tournament couple of days with a 40, and two 38 1/2 inchers, with one of the 38 1/2's being caught right in front of his partner Jim Jessup as Jim was backing the trailer in for them to leave the lake and in front of Gary and I as we are waiting in line to trailer our boat, in addition to several other folks standing on the dock, he had quite an audience.
In addition to the muskies caught, the kids had a pretty good catch of bluegills right off of Tom's dock. We again had a first place winner where in this case it was their actual second musky caught, but there first musky caught was on Saturday, a very respectable 43 1/2 inch tiger caught on South Twin. Actually new participants to our Musky Mania outing did very well in that they caught 4 out of the 7 fish registered. In addition to Dan Gracyalany's two fish, Mark Melius landed a nice 37 1/2 inch and Greg Croft a 36 inch fish caught on 6# test line. Below are the results of the registered fish for MM33:
Congratulations to all the successful fisherman and as a point of info, all fish were released to fight again, so for at least the fish caught in South Twin, they are there for possible future Musky Mania outings.
With regard to Musky Mania 34, mark your calendars as it will be held on October 9th 10th, again out of North Twin Lodge. Tom is currently holding 5 cabins for us, so you can make reservations as you see fit.
A couple of points of information that need to be passed along, specifically for the folks who were not at the awards on Sunday when we did discuss some of the info.
Proposal was made to increase the entry fee from the current $15/person to $20 for adults and leave it at $15 for the kids, kids being 16 and under. The primary reason for this change is to help us better cover costs; specifically for the door/raffle prizes as it has become more and more difficult over the past several years to get donated items such that we are having to purchase more.
We have at least for the past several years provided a door prize for each participant, one approach being considered is to cut back on the number of door prizes and to get some more substantial items such as rods, reels, tackle boxes, etc. We will see how we do on donated items for MM34/35 before we make this change.
Also, just a reminder to folks who are the winners in a couple of respects; one that the three winners are to be part of the organizing/coordinating committee for the next outing and of course the 1st place winner has the opportunity to head this activity. In the case of MM33 being won by a non-K-C employee, I will take the lead on organizing MM34, but will look to Perry and Tom for your assistance as well as others, thanks in advance.
With regard to the 1st place winner it is expected that they be present at the awards to receive their winnings to include the traveling plaque and vest and of course take on the responsibility of heading up the next outing. We would really like to see all the winners be present as well as more of the participants, realizing that there are situations that come up that may not allow this, but if possible it would be appreciated if more folks attend the awards, this is your outing, not just for the folks who are organizing it and a handful of others. By not showing for the awards activity it sends the wrong message to newcomers and the people who spend organizing the event, thanks again in advance. Just a reminder on winning criteria which might help motivate folks in attending the awards, you can only win one place, as in the case of Dan who actually had the two largest fish registered, but could only take first place.
Any suggestions regarding prizes/activities are always welcome, so please let us know your thoughts.
Thanks again to all the participants, and a special thanks to Gary Borkowski, Musky Pete, and Jim Jessup for their help in organizing MM33 and of course we are already looking forward to the fall MM34 outing, have a great season chasing lunge, think "big fish". I will send some photos out shortly.