NPAA Members Arnoldussen, Wenckbach, Candle and Noble win big at Cabela’s MWC on Lake Winnebago-Oshkosh, WI
Category: npaa
Jun 7th, 2010 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jun 7th, 2010 at 12:00 AM
NPAA member Dean Arnoldussen NPAA#408 of Appleton, WI and his partner caught a two day limit of 10 walleyes weighing 27.16 pounds to finish third at the Cabela’s Masters Walleye Circuit held this past weekend on Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The two man team fished crawler harnesses in the mud off Oshkosh, in a bite that was painfully slow at times. They managed to get their five fish limit both days of respectable fish averaging nearly 2.75 pounds each. Arnoldussen and his partner took home the Ranger Cup prize of $1000.00 along with a strong cash payout of $6,300.00 for their efforts.
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Karl Wenckbach NPAA#620 of Lake Villa, IL and his partner bagged 26.24 pounds to capture fourth place prize for the MWC tournament. He and his partner split $4,600.00 in winnings for their efforts.
A total of 362 boats competed this past weekend as Oshkosh hosted the Cabela’s MWC and the Cabela’s National Team Championship events simultaneously. Some teams, like Johnnie Candle NPAA# 42 of Devils Lake, ND and his partner Dave Noble NPAA #997 of Dixon, IL, chose to fish both events while others chose to fish only one event. Johnnie Candle and his partner, Dave Noble put together a game plan for two solid limits of fish this weekend, to bring home a top 10 in the NTC and a top 15 in the MWC event on Lake Winnebago. Saturday, they brought in five fish to the scales that weighed in at 10.98 pounds, and on Sunday they brought in another five fish limit for 11.36 pounds, for a two day total of 22.34 pounds.
“It was good! Things went really well”, said Johnnie. “We had a pretty decent prefishing period, not really great, but we caught enough fish to put a game plan together. We stuck with the game plan for two days, and weighed two solid limits for a pretty good finish.
When we first found out we were 10th in the NTC and 15th in the MWC, we were a little disappointed, but we looked at the weights and realized that we just finished 10th out of… what? 274 boats (?) in the NTC tournament…we said, “Holy Cow! That’s pretty good! We forgot pretty quickly that we didn’t win, and we were really-really excited for two solid finishes…especially on a body of water this far from home. We fished hard for two days, and caught two solid limits, but we never got that “kicker fish”, or that big bite that we were hoping for and still did well.”
“We trolled up in Lake Poygan all weekend. We were out in 8.5-9.5 feet of water, pulling in-line planer boards with #5 Flicker Shads, and #5 Shad Raps. The best colors were black and gold on the Shad Raps and “Hot Tiger” on the Flicker Shads. We were running them 50 feet back with monofilament fishing line at about 2mph. We would go through spurts. We’d catch fish like mad for an hour or so, and then it would get slow for a couple of hours, and then you would catch them again later in the day for an hour or two. Every day we usually had our tournament limit by 1:00. We upgraded a few fish each day, and ended up with nice weights each day.
The next highest finishing NPAA member for the NTC was Jamie Grubbs NPAA #965 of Sheffield, PA. He finished in 12th place.
The NPAA Kids Fishing Clinic was a success with over 50 kids showing up to participate. Johnnie Candle MC’d the event while other pros, like Rick Zachowski, who helped organize the event, helped the kids learn to tie knots, put a slip bobber on their line and held a door prize drawing for a supped up bike. One lucky boy won the bike and the happiness showed when he stood on stage to accept it and get his picture taken. Teams that stayed after the weigh in to help with the kid’s event autographed t-shirts that were handed out thanks to the sponsors like Cabelas, Northland Tackle, and many others. Goodies such as rods, reels, tackle boxes, and much more was given away to the kids for free.
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.