NWMI Fishing Club
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Updated   8/22/2024
2024 Past Events
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Cancelled
Our first Grand Traverse Trout Derby is in the books and it turned out a bunch of big fish and a bunch of big checks as expected. 
The Big Box, Big Salmon and Big Fish Divisions all went to
"Team Get 'em" featuring an 18.65 lb King Salmon, and a 1st place heaviest 29.95 lb box.  Congratulations to Dallas Ingersoll and Zeb McCauley for a $750 win!
The Big Laker Division went to "Team Firelines" with an 11.65 lber and gaining them the 2nd place heaviest box.  That was a $400 win for Josh Gray and Keygan Stephenson
The next big winner was "Team Fished Face" )The Woebbeking Clan) plus Ethan Davenport and Miles, Bill and Makalee.  This great group netted the 3rd place heaviest box with 2 Lakers.  Their 3.15 lb Cisco won the "Odd Fish" Division totaling their winnings at $350.
And out of the blue, bringing in a sweet steelhead was our perennial favorite Dakota Joes Outdoor Team weighing 7.10 lbs and pulling  them the $250 Division Win.  Huge win for Joe Blanks, Ryan Goff, Brandon Goff and Amanda Moen.  
Thanks to our hosts at TCH Gear!  Great chow and accommodations and the discounts offered for Derby participants as well.  We will do this again, bigger and better than before!
Thanks to our Big Lake sponsor Dreamweaver Lures.  A fantastically packed Lake Trout box absolutely stuffed with Dreamweaver gear had us all cheering for Dave Acha as he won it. 
Thanks to Matt and Maxine Marciniak and The Fallen Outdoors Veterans organization for the huge cooler prize.  Paul Little was the winner and struggled to carry it out!  And we didn't help him at all!
And a big thanks to Blaines Farm and Fleet for the Lithium Bubba Filet Knife set.  What a perfect prize for big water fish cleaning!
Our team of boat ramp officials, weigh masters, species identification expert, and border patrol enforcers are the best in the business.  Thanks to Tom, Spanky, Mike, Andy, Kevin, John T, and Nick for this finely tuned event.  Per always, our great group of volunteers makes events like this fun, exiting and profitable (for some). 
Next event is Wednesday, 12 June, for walleye and "any other big fish" on Silver Lake.  Stay tuned for the weekly flyer.
2024 Grand Traverse Trout Derby
Cancelled
Thursday
Thursday
Thursday
NWMI Fishing Club

The cold water is still in Frankfort.  The top 20 feet was OK (70 to 60 degrees), but deeper than that and you wanted your ice fishing gear and a balaclava.  Really put a damper on numbers for some, others had no trouble at all. 
Out of 24 boats (68 fishermen), 20 boats weighed fish.  Pretty good overall success rates.  However, one boat and a surprising Cinderella Kid came out of nowhere for the top spots.  Let’s review the winners.
3rd place went to Team Fish Stix with Jordan Flynn, Stacy Tolla and James Riley bringing in 40.20 lbs.
2nd place went to Team Voyager IV.  This is our Webmaster, heavy volunteer, lifetime member and aggressive bird harasser John Truchan fishing by himself!  He managed a nice 56.05 lb box out of nowhere with a big salmon early and the bites kept coming after that. 
1st place went to Team Doctor Sus (Vadim Sus, Vlad and Dominick) with a huge 27.75 lb monster for big fish that rounded out their box with 85.50.  A great night for them for sure. 
The event was well attended early for free hotdogs and a good chance to see old faces and new people.  Will be doing this again as ports and weather allow.  A big thanks to Makayla Vitous and the whole Vitous clan for making that happen!
Door Prizes given away at the end of the night were spectacular as usual. 
The hand-picked and loaded DREAMWEAVER Salmon Box, donated from Shane Ruboyianes from Dreamweaver.
The Fallen Outdoors (a Veteran’s outdoor sporting organization) donated a sweet Dometic Cooler, just perfect for the front of my boat, holding 36 cans plus ice.  Thanks Matt and Maxine!  And thanks for the setup, registration, weigh in, and tear down. You guys are fantastic!
Many thanks to The Tackle Box right there in Frankfort for those great gift cards!  People were very happy to have such a convenient bait shop right there supporting all of us.  Thanks Brian and Christine! 
A Rapala Lithium-Ion Filet Knife Combo Set from Rapala will make light work of any box of fish! 
Our local business sponsors really come through all season long…The U&I Lounge in downtown Traverse City, The Fallen Timbers Restaurant in Honor/Beulah, and Martell Electric giving out TCH Gear gift cards.  These are perfect to make a weigh in satisfying and fun.  Thanks to all these local businesses. 
Next Wednesday is our makeup date for Elk Rapids.  Hoping for light winds, warm water and huge boxes of lakers and salmon.
Records have been broken!  This is the new normal for the Club.  We keep getting bigger and better.  A huge turnout with more boats, new members and the most fishermen than ever before.  And why not?  It was a beautiful night in Frankfort and the fish were hungry.  Let’s go through the weigh in, give credit to the field of competitors and thank a bunch of volunteers and sponsors.  Everybody takes a part of the success with them here.  And for all you guys and girls out there that didn’t place, just showing up and being a part of these events keep us coming back week after week.  Next week will be your week…that is what I keep telling myself. 
In 1st place is Team Major Disappointment (Brent Major, Matt Bankey and Brennan Williams) with a huge 90lb box of 5 fish.  That is an 18lb average, with the Big Fish of the night weighing in at 26.15 lbs. These guys compete every week and really put it all together last night.  ($404 for 1st place, and $600 for Big Fish)
2nd place went to Shiny Objects (Rich Barrett, Doug Barrett, Eric Beaudrie and Carter Yuchasz) logging in 71.05 lbs.    Rich and the boys did a fine job navigating the obstacles to the weigh in and got in on time…which is a huge feat for the Shiny Objects Team and well done. ($323 for 2nd place)
3rd place went to Team Fin-Full Addicts (Tom Beatty, Dick and Mike Hartrick) coming out of nowhere with Tom fishing one of our events for the first time and scoring big with a 66.05 lbs!  ($243 for 3rd)
4th place went to Team Big Red (Ethan Pilarski, Chase, Payden, Chris and Derrick) with a weight of 60.50 lbs and winning $161 for fourth.  Ethan!  Nice job.
5th place went to Team Lucky Strike with 57.50 lbs.  That is Young Johnny McPeake, Chad Kapala and Doug Sanker pulling in a nice box and $161 for 5th.  What?  How does this happen? 
6th place went to Team Wicked Tails (Neal Carey, Scott Gretzner, and new member David Rowbothan) with a weight of 56.85 lbs and gathering $161 for 6th.  This is Team Martell Electric and Miller Beer right here.  We thank them for the Martell Electric sponsorships all year!
7th place, and our last payout spot went to “The Reel Deal” with 55.45 lbs.  That is old time club member Bernie Hennig taking out Ana and her dad Nathan and putting up big weight.  Fantastic.  ($161 for 7th).
Records broken for this Frankfort event, off the top of my head are 32 boats registered, 107 competitors. 6 new members and 3 renewals are probably a record, but I’d have to research that.  Ugg.
A huge thank you to Matt and Maxine for smoking the pork and making the sandwiches and bringing the cookies and prizes, and setting up, running registration and the weigh in, being the bouncer for any late coolers and running a great event…our biggest of the year.  Thanks Matt and Maxine.
Another big sponsor night for Dreamweaver Lures, TCH Gear, Martell Electric, Fallen Timers Restaurant, The Tackle Box and Gauthiers Archery!  These guys don’t have to contribute.  But they care, want to keep community events entertaining and fun and we will push our business to these locals.  Absolutely giving back to all of us and the fishery.
Next Wednesday is another big one…East Bay Center Road.  A 30lber was caught out there on one of our Wednesday Nighters.  It can happen again…and to you!  See you Wednesday.

2024 Past Events Page 2
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