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Manthei and Regenfuss Win PMTT Mercury Marine Event

Category: press release

 Jun 30th, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Jun 30th, 2009 at 12:00 AM

The third qualifying event of the 2009 Professional Musky Tournament Trail –
Mercury Marine’s Summer Challenge was held on the beautiful Eagle River Chain in Eagle River, Wisconsin June 27th & 28th. There were over 200 enthusiastic anglers registered to compete in the Mercury Marine sponsored event. The chain is known for a very good population of muskies and yielded 37 muskies in this year’s event. The weather leading up to the event was filled with high pressure systems and hot weather. That all changed on Saturday when Mother Nature brought in low pressure rain and ideal fishing conditions. This caused the fish to turn on, though Sunday turned out to be a little slower bite with sunny conditions and winds picking up into the 30 M.P.H. range making boat control and lure presentation a challenge. As always, a lot of anglers figured out a good pattern to net some muskies.

Rob Manthei of St. Germain, WI and Andy Regenfuss who happen to be brother-in-laws were fishing their first PMTT ever and won it. The two anglers have fished the chain often. The location the anglers were in was on deep weed edges and rock bar edges at about 12 feet. The team used bulldawg lures, letting them sink to the bottom and pumping their baits keeping in close proximity to the bottom as their presentation.

Manthei & Regenfuss managed to catch and release muskies that were 34.50″, 37.75″ & 40″ and ended up also winning the Mercury Marine’s Bonus Bucks Award for an additional $500, the first place hardware and over $14,000 for the first place win. Congratulations to them on a fine job.

Coming in a close second place were Nick Cammeretta of Cary, IL and Tom Olsen of Northern, IL. These two phenomenal musky anglers used a lure presentation of slow rolling bucktails on deeper weed lines. The two fishermen were also the Ranger Cup winners for the event for an additional$1,000 bonus. Fish sizes for Olsen and Cammeretta were 34″, 35.50″ & 37.50″ as they took home over $4,500.

Third place was taken by two Geneva Illinois Residents Ryan Reynolds and Steve Pekarek. The two anglers used buck tails near cabbage in less than 6 feet of water to coax musky that were a 34.75″ and a beautifully marked 44.25″ hybrid tiger musky Big Fish of the tournament and $2,900

Fourth Place was won by Eric (Bartlett, IL) and Chris Burseth (Crystal Lake, IL). The two brothers caught their muskies on buldawg lures also. The brother tandem fished deep weed edges to coax two muskies into their net. The fish were a 38″ & 39″. Rounding out the top five places for fifth was Ben Diamond of Antioch, IL and Steve Huylk of McHenry, IL. The two anglers caught and released muskies of 38.50″ & 35.75″. They used bucktails in 7-8 feet of water for their success.

Steve Lindahl from Ranger boats was on hand and spoke to all of the anglers about some new upcoming boat ideas for 2010. “What a great partnership Ranger Boats and the PMTT have had over the years and I see a bright and incredible future together. Ranger Boats will be introducing some new redesign to the Fisherman series in 2010 and as always will keep on building these legends one at a time”, stated Lindahl.

Tournament Director Tim Widlacki thanked all of the PMTT’s fantastic sponsors, especially the Eagle River Area Chamber of Commerce does every year on hosting this event and to all of the local Eagle River area sponsors. Also to Mercury Marine for sponsoring not only this event but for supporting the entire 2009 PMTT trail.
In addition Ranger Boats, Musky Hunter Magazine, Keyes Outdoors Television, Rollie & Helens Musky Shop, Musky Mayhem Tackle, Crash’s Landing, Chaos Tackle, Morehead Kentucky Tourism Commission and all the associate and contributing sponsors. Please let these fine folks know that you appreciate their promotional efforts in support of freshwaters most challenging fish … and those extreme anglers who chase her on the first, best and only truly National Professional Musky Circuit … the PMTT!

If anyone is interested in entering the last  PMTT Qualifying event on the St. Croix River on the Minnesota and Wisconsin border near Hudson. Please contact the PMTT as noted below. To obtain more information on becoming a member of the 2009 PMTT, or to view event photo album, please visit them on the Web @ www.promusky.com or call PMTT office @: 815-478-4351