Marx and Marx Win Lake City MWC
Category: Tournament
Sep 18th, 2006 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Sep 18th, 2006 at 12:00 AM
Lake City, MN – There were no knock-knock jokes or head butts between these two Marx brothers, but rather tons of smiles and high-fives. Minnesotans Don Marx (Rockford) and Joe Marx (Clearwater) fished their first Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit tournament and captured the win on Lake Pepin on September 16 & 17th. The duo brought in 8 fish over two days totaling 40.33 pounds and cashed $24,884. They showed a field of 192 teams “a thing or three.” They won with over a fifteen pound margin.”This is unreal,” shared Don. “Part of what feels so good in accomplishing this is going up against such a large field — full of great local anglers as well as big names in fishing.” Joe piped in that he hoped it would be a fishing career stepping stone for them – which is just getting going. “We’ve fished smaller tournaments and had some success, but we wanted to put a slice of our winnings into a major tournament and give something a lot bigger a try.” Don agreed. “We hope this will open some doors for us for more things. We probably had the smallest boat with the smallest engine in the entire field – yet we got it done!” The size of the field and the professionalism of all the anglers overwhelmed the young guys – but they felt ready to step up to the challenge. They promised to be back next year now that they have had a big tournament experience.The key to the team’s success was working their number one spot very strategically, trolling in the Vermillion River at the head of the lake; and also stopping to cast specific spots in the same area. In both cases they used jointed crank baits for their presentation. Purple was the key color and worked in a number of color combinations while trolling; particularly purple/green and purple/yellow. Finesse casting seemed to be most effective with green chartreuse shads, rolling the baits over the rocks and logs. “You can lose a lot of baits with this strategy, but the fish really responded to this presentation,” shared Don.On day one the brothers probably had an 11-plus pound walleye in the basket; weighing three fish totaling 15.89 pounds. We don’t know the exact amount because only teams in the “big fish pot” are allowed to weigh a fish in contention for the angler-organized cash bonus. They didn’t get in because they arrived early for registration before the big fish pot was even open – no one was there to take their entry. They came back for the meeting but thought they could still get in after the meeting was over – but circuit policy is to close the big fish pot after the meeting starts. “Now that we know — we won’t let that happen again,” said a chagrinned Joe. The big fish pot paid $1,105 for the biggest fish each day; gone with a rookie error. Their five-fish 24.44 pound basket on Sunday propelled the team from 4th place to first..their nearest competitor 15.09 pounds behind them. Paul Fournier of Andover, MN & Ryan Olson of Cambridge, MN received a $200 additional cash bonus from Lindy for being the top finishing team using a drift sock during the tournament along with two new Lindy Drift Control products. Fournier & Olson finished in sixth place and cashed a check for $4808.The $1000 Ranger Cup bonus was awarded to Jeremy Goddard of Green Bay, WI. Goddard and partner Steve Zegers also cashed the $100 Panther Marine Tech bonus. They finished in 4th place and cashed in $8573. A $500 Tommy Docks Comeback Award for moving up 65 places from day one to day two was awarded to another set of brothers – Dan and Dean Krukow from Rochester, MN. The Krukow brothers also caught the biggest recorded fish of the tournament – at 9.69 pounds – which landed Dan and Dean another $1105.Inhibitor Tough Times cash bonus of $100 was awarded to Ed Mucha of Shabbona, IL and Todd Maas of Johnston, IA. MWC sponsor Ice Armor awarded Mark & Cathy De Deker of Larsen, WI with two sets of new Ice Armor cold-weather outer wear. Farm & City Insurance Services drew the Van Dyne, Wisconsin husband and wife team of Ron and Vickie Goldapske for two new inflatable PFDs. FCIS also assisted at least one team with required safety equipment to pass morning inspection. The Goldapskes went on to take 2nd place in the tournament – cashing in $11,981. They were the only team in the entire 192 field to bring in 5-fish limits both days for a total of ten fish. Food Source Lures paid out cash and “real food” in a game for the anglers awarding $100 to Wisconsinites Mike Schaeffer (Fond du Lac) and Chuck Wenzel (Brillion). Frontenac Sportsmens Club did their usual stellar tournament operations work with the MWC. A dedicated walleye conservation fund of $2880 has been sent to the Club for their efforts in improving this spectacular river fishery. Tournament StatisticsNumber of Teams: 192 Number of Fish: 497Total cash and prizes: $132,844 Total Weight: 1156.12 poundsWater Temp: 62 degrees Big Fish: 9.69 pounds Average Weight: 2.32 poundsWater Clarity: Green with algaeWinning Pattern: Casting and trolling jointed crank baits in an area full of big rocks and tree stumps Inside Tip: Purple color combinations for trolling, chartreuse green for casting, and finessing the bait to roll over the rocks and logs