This past weekend I had the opportunity to fish the 40th Annual Muskies Inc. Frank Schneider tourney in the Walker area. Three days, 21 lakes, and hundreds of anglers is what makes this one of Hawg Hunters G.S. favorite tourneys to fish. Once again Bob and I opted to stay put on Big Lake, a choice we certainly didn’t regret as Big continued its reputation as an absolute musky factory.
Heading up two days early on Wednesday, Bob and I thought we would spend a little time fishing some of our favorite lakes in the area. First on our list was Wabedo, a lake known for good size but not outstanding numbers of fish. Air temps were still around 90 at 6:00 when we hit the water, and we pretty much had the lake to ourselves. We never managed to see a fish but picked up a couple pike and a 22” walleye after dark trolling Grandmas. A cold front was in the forecast and on Thursday we woke up to 55 degree temps and rain, the front had arrived. Next on our list was Plantagenet, a short trip as we had to get checked in at our resort on Big that afternoon. Plantan is probably the best small water musky lake in the state, with an above average number of 50” class fish and days worth of structure to fish, it has all the ingredients to make it a great fishing experience every time you go. We weren’t on the water an hour and I had my first follow, what looked to a solid mid 40’s fish, hanging on a deep break just off a reed bed on the west side. The fish came hot on a bulldawg, but turned at the last minute right next to the boat. Knowing that this fish was ready to eat we hung around, and about 10 minutes later I got bit. Same Dawg I had the follow on, but we can’t say for sure it was the same fish, as she ate about 30 yards farther down the break. She hit the tape at 45” and had some scars that would indicate some mishandling in her past. We wrapped it up at about 5:00 after 5 more follows but no takers, off to Sugar Bush Resort on the east side of Big Lake.
By Friday morning temps had continued their trend of decline and forecasts indicated we would be seeing some fronts roll through all day. Bob and I hit the water the first day of the tournament with high expectations that Big not only be showing us lots of fish, but that with frontal conditions many of these fish would be on the chew. Bob started the action early on the north central side of the lake setting hooks into what ended up being our first and only short fish of the tourney at 38”, well short of the 40” minimum. Until noon we really hadn’t had much in the form of weather rolling in, or much action in the areas we were fishing. So we decided to call it for a half hour for some lunch. A decision that in hindsight I believe really hurt us. As we were docking up the boat the wind started to pick up and some clouds rolled in. By 1:00 we were back down to the docks, just in time to see four boats roll in to register fish, and one other boat right in front of the resort boat one. The wind had jumped to about 25mph and the skies were dark, the front turned them on. The rest of the afternoon we had several good chances on some really nice fish, but it wasn’t until a little bit after six that Bob connected with a 42” that crunched a white and nickle Siligirl on 5 mph troll in 7 feet of water. Bob was on the board for the second year in a row, basically a fish a day is all it takes to end up in the top 10 for this tourney.
Saturday got off to a slow start with only a couple follows by noon. We came back from lunch to find some technical difficulty with Bob’s Ranger. The throttle cable had broke, limiting us to just the kicker to move from spot to spot. Down but not out we moved around the lake at a cool 5mph in the rain trolling between spots. We never saw another fish, but the other guys we were up fishing with Bill and Bruce, managed a 45” on a homemade black bucktail with orange willow blade. Bill’s first legal in almost 10 years of fishing the tourney.
As usual it was a challenging and fun tourney. All for the benefit of our favorite fish.
Tourney wrap-up:
95 fish boated
51” biggest fish (Cass)
Top Three lakes, Leech 36, Cass 22, Big 21
1st Travis Hultgren Leech 49, 44.5, 41.5, 41 – 72 Points
2nd Mark Tietjen Leech 42, 47, 43.5 – 54.5 Points
3rd Jack Shiver Jr Cass 47, 42.5, 40.5 – 52 Points
4th Ken Lundberg Leech 45, 40, 40.5 – 47.5 Points
5th Tim Hinrichs Big 42.5, 40.5, 41 – 46 Points
6th Loren Flom Big 44.5, 50 – 42.5 Points
7th Josh Opatz Big 48.5, 45 – 41.5 Points
8th Jeff Pearson Big 49, 42 – 39 Points
9th Bryce Cook Big 45, 46 – 39 Points
10th Ray Burris Cass 43, 45.5 – 36.5 Points
Final Leader Boards and the Grand Prize.
Looks like ya’ll had a good ol’ time. Nice report.
Nice report Dan
and Props to Bob for managing to boat a couple of fish 
Our cabin had a 44″ and a 46″ for 3 boats. Dan,you forgot the highlightes for that little girl?
Well… Kind of. Bob and I watched her catch that fish, that part was pretty cool. She got wrapped in the motor and her dad was running around the boat like a mad man trying to get the fish in the net. There were two girls in the boat all wrapped up in frog togs, when they finally netted the fish, it looked like two Ewoks bouncing around afer taking out some Storm Troopers. Here is the sad part, the old man took the fish out of the net and the admired it out of the water for at least two minutes. He then proceeded to put the fish in the livewell (technically DQing the fish), it sat in the livewell for about 5 minutes, then he got it out and started taking pictures. I saw the fish dropped by him at least twice, while it was out for pictures. He then proceeded to put it back in the livewell for awhile, then after a couple more minutes he pulled it out, took it boatside and proceeded to just drop it in the water. All three of them looked over the side of the boat at the fish, and it was obviously not swimming away. He lit up his big motor after the wind pushed them from the fish, then proceeded to make a meager attempt at reviving it. Not to take away from that little girl’s accomplishment, having kids catch fish is awesome, and totally forgetting about the tourney, it just isn’t fun to watch a big fish get beat up like that. Several other participants complained at Sugar Bush as well about the whole fiasco. My guess is Big has one less 50″ fish today because of it.
Thanks for reporting Dan. That is sad when being handled like that. You owe the fish to have all your tools and camera ready. I wonder who was longer? Her or the fish?
What lake did you guys fish?
Thanks for the press. We’re in the process of making some changes to the formate that will hopefully improve everyone’s experience and also increase attendance since this was our lowest in years. Keep in tune for some formate changes for next year.
Shawn Kellett
President
Twin Cities Chapter
Muskies Inc.
How many teams were in it this year?? What was the pay out for 1st?? Looks like fun, but the weather could have been better.
Dan We all fished Inguadona Friday. The 44″ came from there. Saturday and Sunday we all fished Leech. The 46″ was from Leech. Shawn It looked like attendance was low at the banquet. I asked the guy next to me at the banquet how many 20 – 30 yr olds he can see. There wasnt very many. Were a dieing breed. I wish I had some sugestions for you to increase attendance. You people run a good tourney
You guys run a great tourney! I’ve only fished it two years and it was a looong time anticipating the 40th annual. Mr. Musky and I fished the tourney together this year and I was lucky enough to boat this 42″ 15 minutes into the tourney on Friday. She came off a green M/G tandem. Blame the picture on the sun and not the photographer
No others in the boat for the rest of the weekend.
We noticed the same thing about numbers being down. I haven’t heard anything on the counts either but my guess just by the banquet and how many boats we saw, that it was down at least 25%. A real bummer because the tourney itself offers a guy a legitimate shot at winning a brand new boat just for catching one 40″ fish. Although easier said then done, for $75 bucks entry fee, I would say that is one hell of a pay off.
The one thing that stands out to me about this year is where all the fish came from. All I can say is no one bother to fish Big next year… no fish in that lake. Go to Leech, thats where you’ll find them.
We had about 590 this year. Typically we have 700+/-. Whey you take $75 x 100 people you have an event that doesn’t make much money. That’s not to take anything away from the people who spent countless hours and dollars out of their own pocket to pull this thing off. Our tournament directors have the process of pulling this thing off down to the last detail and this year’s event when off smoother then any since I’ve been involved.
What many people don’t realize is that when you join MI, $0 of that $35 goes to the chapter. It’s events like this that go to fund Youth, Fisheries and Research. Events like this allow use to function and better the fisheries so participation among the muskie community is critical. We buy the boat, hats, lunch, and everything else before we have contestant #1 signed up so it’s a huge leap of faith by us. I believe it costs around $40,000 to pull this thing off depending on the year.
We’ve been talking a lot since then and I pointed out the same demographic that was noted here. Many younger guys like me aren’t participating. We’re going to try to make it easier for “family guys” and newbies to compete next year. We’re thinking of allowing people to pick-up preregistered hats on Friday and increasing the hours on Sunday since many people don’t want to take 1-1/2 days of work off to participate. Any suggestions to improve the event are welcome.
If you’ve thought about doing the event give it a try next year or if you haven’t gone in a while we’d love to have you back. It’s always the weekend after Labor Day so you can put it up on the calender today for next year. If you don’t have anyone to fish with we had a got a boat/need a boat list going this year and had quite a few new people attending. They got to fish a great event and meet some new people (and laugh at some of their antics
)
Thanks to all who attended!
I think I would look at taking the entry fee and jacking it up a little. Lets say that you go to $80.00 or $85.00, I don’t think that would drive people away, plus it makes some more money for a great cause. Take the 590 people this year, that would yeild around 50K- Being that the grand prize is a new boat, is $85.00 per person out of reason, I say heck no. Also being that the grand prize is a drawing, it levels the playing field for everyone to have a chance to pull that rig home on Sunday. Longer hours on Sunday would be Ok, but I don’t think that will get you more people or money. To be honest, by the time Sunday rolls around, most if not all the guys/gals arms are about ready to fall off
Good luck and keep up the great work. This is my 9th year fishing this tourney, and I am gunning for the old man award in the future 
I did not fish the tourney this year, but have in the past. It is a first class operation. I see that Mr. Kellett mentioned getting more young anglers involved. One possible reason numbers may be down is the opening of the NFL season. I fit in the 30 year-old demographic and a lot of other guys I fish with are huge fantasy football players. The first weekend of football is like a holiday to many people. I also know a lot of guys who were at the Dome and Lambeau for the respective openers. Not saying that I’m correct, but the NFL opener might take away some people.
Anyway, it’s a great tournament and the people who run it put in a ton of work. If you have not fished it, seriously consider it for next year.
Oh heck yes. 11 hours of casting with a broken 1 hour of rest, if that, two days in a row is brutal but I really can’t imagine a more fun tournament. You get to fight for a place on the board (um, fun!) then meet a bunch of great people at the end and hear some great stories. It kind of makes you wonder though if Fridays are tough for people to get off and a longer Sunday would help….not a bad idea although I love the full Friday.
Bob how old are you? I’m just wondering if I’m gonna have to out-live you for the award or if you are just SOL
Of course you can only win it 1 year in a row….
Any true musky fisherperson would really enjoy the tourney I think. You have tons of different water to choose from which means structure structure structure. You can start off on a small lake with a legitimate shot at the leader board or go to the big lakes if that’s your poison. Not to mention it is up in Gods country where the water is clear, the smell is clean (depending who you bunk with), the sounds are serene, and the fish get BIG. Give it a shot!
Chris
What about bringing back the Friday night feed? We lost money on it for years and decided to scrap it a while ago. We were thinking it would bring back some of that competitive socializing.
The trouble with the banquets/feeds and the other social events is by the time guys get off the water all they want to do is have a beer, some dinner and crash. Plus, everybody is so spread out no one wants to jump in the truck and go somewhere more than five minutes away. I know a lot of guys look at this as a social event, but many fish it competitively as well.
Another thing to consider, if boats are getting to be a spendy proposition, would be to make the grand prize cash. I know between Bob and I we already each own a Ranger, that Triton would not have been an upgrade for either of us and we would have just ended up selling it. I think a cash prize will draw many more people than a new boat will.
Yeah, you could have a big box of cash for everyone to admire…
I know I would 
but I would imagine one of the reasons the boat is the grand prize is so that another sponsor can contribute to the event and that company can feature one of their products so that MI can offer a larger grand prize. If I would have won the boat it would have been sold too but only because I could not have afforded it. I think you’re right on the social event idea Friday Dan. 
Chris
“The one thing that stands out to me about this year is where all the fish came from. All I can say is no one bother to fish Big next year… no fish in that lake. Go to Leech, thats where you’ll find them. “
BIG LAKE HAS MUSKIES IN IT???? and lot’s of them at that!!! I can catch them trolling a double 10 in 7ft of water!!!! I know where I’m fishing next year! Thanks Dan! You’re the man.
Actually from what I was able to gather from other guys trolling put quite a few fish in the boat during the tourney. With a lake the size of Big, there are no secrets, you can see where everyone is fishing and eventually what they are throwing. The same fish might move 5 times for five different boats during the day. I know Bob and I have been fishing a stretch right behind another boat, who was fishing behind yet another boat, and still managed to boat fish. Wierd how it works sometimes.
Damn, that is AWESOME!! I haven’t caught a muskie in 4 years now, and it’s really gettin to me. I gotta be able to find them sometime this fall I would hope. Nice report!
No way! Muskies in Big Lake? Next you will tell me they are in Cedar Lake by Mille Lacs? Or Island by duluth? Heck I even heard that they are in Miltona and West Battle…
There are no muskies in cedar, miltona, or west battle.
There are huge muskies in Gull Lake, however. I caught and cpr’d a monster muskie in Gull this year. 
I didn’t even know there were any muskies in Gull already, but I hope they stock it. It would be a great trophy muskie lake. 