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NPAA Member Wins the MWC Event on Waubay Lake in Webster, SD

Category: npaa

 Sep 20th, 2010 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Sep 20th, 2010 at 12:00 AM

Brandon Carpenter, NPAA #393, of Rockwell, IA won the MWC’s last Western Division tournament on Waubay Lake in Webster, SD this past weekend.  Lake Waubay has slot limit restrictions on its waters and is under the South Dakota no upgrading rule which made the event a game of decision making each time a fish was caught.  Do they keep it, and tag it, or do they let it go and try for a bigger one? The decision was made easy at one point during the competition on day one for Carpenter when he hooked into a monster Walleye weighing in at 9.71 pounds. Their day one weight totaled 17.65 pounds, and gave them a 6.65 pound lead over the rest of the field going into day two. On the second day, they managed another big weight of 9.11 pounds giving the two man team the win by a strong margin.

Brandon will be the first to tell you that they got lucky and that’s all there was to it. According to him, “the fish were biting on any kind of crankbait they trolled behind their leadcore line and it didn’t matter much what color they were.” 

 “We went through around 60 fish today”, said Brandon’s partner. “But, we didn’t get any big ones like we did yesterday. Yesterday we were catching a lot bigger fish on average. It kept us busy, but it wasn’t what we wanted, so it was kind of slow for the keeper sized fish. We had two in the boat at probably 9 o’clock and picked up another two in the next two hours. We needed one more at about 2 o’clock, so we started thinking we were going to throw the next one in that was of legal size…we did that, and we got two more after that one.”  For their efforts Brandon and his partner were awarded a check from the MWC for $8,000.00, along with the 1st Place Berkley Premier Team’s Bonus Award of $500.00, and the day one Big Fish award of $350.00.

Mike Oletzke, NPAA #113 took third place with a total weight of 21.33 pounds. He and his partner won a check from the MWC for $2,300.00 along with the Ranger Cup Bonus Award of $1000.00, the second place Berkley Premier Teams Bonus Award of $300.00, and the 3rd Place Big Fish Award of $150.00. Senior Events Coordinator, Dan Johnson, asked Mike to share his thoughts about the day and Mike replied, “We had an excellent day. We were pulling “Hornets” in 8 to 10 foot of water. We stayed really shallow during the whole tournament. The deep bite just didn’t go for us, so we stayed shallow, and when the fish would stop biting in the 8 to 10 foot we would slip out to 14 foot and we would put some giant crankbaits on, and don’t ask me why this worked….we would make about three passes and go up shallow again, and there they were again. It was like we would go deep and push them back in. It was weird. It was one of those strange deals. That pattern was something we figured out the day before the tournament. Prefishing was slow for us. There was nothing hot or anything big. But, as any tournament angler can tell you, it’s a game of consistency. You’ve got to keep the same project going. It was a lot of fun!”

Brian Woodward, NPAA#538, of Casper, WY  and his partner finished in 6th place with a total weight of 19.71 pounds. “We moved around quite a bit, and had some good stretches that did pretty well….we did have some good fish bite, so we’re happy.” Brian and his partner took home a check for $1,050.00.

Brian Tordsen, NPAA #388, of Sioux Falls, SD and his partner, Mike Dorris, NPAA #426, of Madison, SD brought in a limit each day for a total two day weight of 18.47 pounds to land them in 9th place. Finishing in 15th place was NPAA member Troy Morris, NPAA #166, of Fargo, ND and his partner with an18.12 pound total weight.

Two NPAA Members, Mike Knippenburg NPAA#444, of Hiram, Ohio and Ryan Buddie NPAA#445, of Lakewood, Ohio were named the MWC’s overall Team of the Year for finishing the season with 35.93 points in the Challenge program, in which teams fish an entire division plus an additional “challenge” tournament outside their division. The pair earned a pair of 14 k gold rings plus a check for $13,000.

“This is awesome,” said Knippenburg. “I’m on cloud nine that we fished against the best in the business and took home Team of the Year.” Buddie was likewise elated. “To come out our first year and compete against the world’s best walleye sticks is beyond our wildest dreams,” he said. Both MWCers credited long hours of prefishing and research to helping to take home one of the highest awards in walleye fishing.

 
NPAA Youth Event Successful

After the weigh in on day one, the NPAA sponsored a “Kid’s Fishing Clinic” in conjunction with the MWC. 30-40 children received brand new rod and reel combos that were donated by the MWC and tackle boxes were donated by Northland Fishing Tackle. Several Pro Teams stayed around to help teach the kids how to put a slip bobber on their line and then showed them how to tie a hook on, so they can learn to fish too. Two bikes, donated by local establishments in Webster, SD, were the hit of the event when two little boys won the free raffle drawing.

	NPAA Kids and Family Fishing Program

The NPAA is a non-profit organization focused on growing the sport of fishing and increasing the professionalism of its members.  Its supporting partners include Northland Fishing Tackle, Navionics, Mercury Marine, Evinrude Outboards, Lund Boats, Ranger Boats, Off-Shore Tackle, Fin-Tech Tackle, Berkley, AIM Walleye Series, Masters Walleye Circuit, FLW Outdoors, Frabill, U.S. Forest Service, Liddle Marketing, FPS Financial Planning Services, Do-it Corp., Optima Batteries, John Butts Outdoors, Pasha Lake Cabins, Oahe Wings and Walleyes Guide Service, Outdoor First Media, Advanced Tex Screen Printing, Pro Staff Gear and Worldwide Marine Underwriters.  More NPAA member and association news can be viewed at www.npaa.net.