Wisconsin Regional Championships Slated for Minocqua Chain, September 10-11
By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director
After a season of four qualifying tournaments on the Wisconsin circuit
of the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC), those teams who made the cut are
now preparing for the Wisconsin Championship of Walleye Fishing, which will
be held at Minocqua Chain on September 10-11.
They will be competing for the first place prize of $5000 in cash, plus
trophies. In addition, the winners will receive the Lowrance “YOU WIN!”
award of two Lowrance LMS-332C color sonar/GPS units valued at $1400, making
the total first place purse worth $6400.
Leading the way will be the Yamaha Outboards Wisconsin Region Team of
the Year, Michael Gengalo, Jr., from Wausau, WI and Michael Gengalo, Sr.,
from Pelican, WI, who ran away with the title by accumulating 28 points.
Their closest competitor had 53 points.
Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC) Executive Director Bernie Barringer
expressed excitement about holding the Wisconsin Championship of Walleye
Fishing at the Minocqua Chain. “We welcome the opportunity to feature the
Minocqua Chain for our championship. It’s a great opportunity to come to a
community and showcase one of the premier walleye chains in north central
Wisconsin.”
The Minocqua Chain, which has five main lakes on the chain, poses
several interesting challenges for the tournament teams. According to Kurt
Justice, owner of Kurt’s Island Sport Shop and a full-time guide for the
past 13 years, temperature changes and the timing of the tournament will be
crucial.
“It all depends on what the temperatures do in the next couple of weeks.
We could either be at the pre-turnover stage or the lakes could have turned
over. The weed growth is already beginning to die back, and the fish are
moving out toward the deeper coontail,” said Justice.
Water clarity will also come into play. Lake Tomahawk is the clearest,
with Minocqua less clear and Kawaguesaga more stained. Lake Tomahawk is also
the largest at 3,392 acres, followed by Minocqua at 1360 acres, Kawaguesaga
at 670 acres and Mid Lake at 42 acres.
So, a second challenge will be deciding on which body of water to spend
time pre-fishing. “We have a great cisco forage, and a lot of the big
walleyes will follow the forage,” noted Justice. “However, targeting those
fish is really tough, because we have a law that does not allow the use of a
motor to propel the boat while fishing. A motor can be used to position the
boat, but it cannot be used for fishing.”
In other words, no trolling. Oh, yes, there is one means of trolling:
rowing! Rowing is allowed, and the local anglers who know how, catch fish.
Justice says accessing those fish will probably be done by jigging with
spoons or casting deep diving crankbaits. The key is to locate the schools
of cisco and then target the walleyes.
Teams will also target structure. “Rock bars, rock and deep gravel humps
can hold some big walleyes,” added Justice. “Depending on what the
temperatures have done, the sand grass could also hold walleyes.”
So, yes indeed, the GNWC teams have their pre-fishing work cut out for
them.
For the GNWC teams, the activities actually start on Friday evening with
the Wisconsin Championship Banquet.
The tournament opens Saturday morning with a 7 a.m. take-off, and
weigh-in will take place at 3 p.m. Take-off and weigh-in will be held at
Northern Resort.
“We certainly invite the public out to witness each day’s weigh-ins.
Each day will present a different sort of drama. Saturday’s weigh-in will
show the anglers and the crowd just where everybody stands going into
Sunday’s action. Then comes Sunday’s weigh-in where the crowd will get a
chance to see how the teams adjusted from the first day’s fishing. It will
also be a time to learn what these teams did to unlock the secrets of the
Minocqua Chain,” said Barringer.
Special awards will be give out at the Championships including the
Cabelas Big Fish Award of a $200 shopping spree for the team that catches
the largest walleye during the two-day Championships. In addition, an
optional Big Fish Pot will go to the team catching the overall big fish
during the Championships.
Skeeter Boats is offering an additional $3000 above their GNWC winnings
to any owner of a Skeeter boat who wins the Wisconsin Championship of
Walleye Fishing while fishing in the Skeeter. In addition, the top-finishing
Skeeter owner will receive $1000. This extra $1000 is above the $3000 for
winning.
YoNet Folding Nets by AMFYOYO will offer the Yo So Close Award of an $80
folding net to the three teams finishing just out of the money.
TowTector, maker of the premium boat protector for towing vehicles, will
offer the Towtector Comeback Award of a Towtector Shield valued at $269 for
the team advancing the most places from day one to day two.
The FoodSource Lure Company is sponsoring $200 in FoodSource Lures for
the top placing family team.
Those interested in checking out the standings, reading the releases
about any of the seven regions or simply learning more about the circuit can
access the GNWC website at http://www.walleyecup.com.
Major national sponsors for the GNWC include Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
Outboards, Lowrance Electronics, YoNet Folding Nets by AMFYOYO, Aqua-VU,
Aqua Innovations, Cabela’s and UpNorthOutdoors.com. National championship
sponsors are Towtector Shield and the FoodSource Lure Corporation.