hartman tourney on Mille lacs

I see that there is a muskie tourny this weekend. Has anyone ever fished it and does anyone think it will it be packed on thursday with pre-fishing?

Any details? What time does it start? What day(s)? Where is it out of? How many boats? Thanks.

The tourney is this weekend. It goes out of Izaty’s. It ususally draws about 65-80 boats. Might draw more this year since they opened the tourney up to the whole lake instead of just the southern half like they’ve done the last few years since Gene Miller walked away with the win trolling the north end a few years back. (He had a 7 fish lead after the first day!!)

Its a good tourney, and the conditions are prime for some great catches! Alot will be determained by the strength of this cold front that is coming thru tomarrow. Yesterday, one of the guides I work with had a 4 hour trip out for muskies and had 2 hook ups, and 8 other follows. The surface temp today was around 78*F and if it stays like that, we are going to have a heck of a good August with those toothy critters.

Thanks for the report Jack. Any idea what time the boats take off? I wanna sneak a little fishing in before too many boats show up. Will be kind of fun to see everybody’s approach to fishing them with that pressure. I’ve never watched a muskie tournament.

I think they take off at 7 AM., but am not sure. You could probably call Izaty’s and find out. The best bite right now is first light (5-7AM) and late in the day (5-9PM). If you really want to get in some fishing, I’ll suggest 2 spots that are holding fish and will get hit hard once the tourney starts. 1.) Doe Reef. 2.) The weed bed in front of Flagship. If you start at 5, since they are so close, you should be able to easily cover them completely before all the other boats get there.

Good Luck!

Appreciate the info Jack. Steve

any word I am dying here!!

You can get all the info on the tourney at the muskiefirst website, they have a list of the winners.

There was a 56 incher caught during the tourney too!

That 56″er was a monster!

Hook, I see Chris Jensen took third

I gotta ask…..I saw something kind of “weird” the day of the tournament. I was fishing for muskies with a couple friends and we saw a guy in the water next to his boat….He was tring to frantically get back in the boat..it appeared. When he did pull himself back into the boat, he grabbed the net and netted what appeared to be a good sized muskie. I saw in the pictures of the tournament….the guys I think did this……I assumed somebody fell in trying to grab the net, cuz it was hard to stand up out there with the waves…..much less when you got a muskie on and are fishing for money…things get more frantic…….care to share any stories?????? Just curious.