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Van Dyke team wins Michigan Walleye Tournament

Category: npaa

 Aug 8th, 2013 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Aug 8th, 2013 at 12:00 AM

Betsy Lehndorff , The Alpena News
ALPENA -A local team won the Michigan Walleye Tour for the second year in a row, taking home the state championship.

Wayne Van Dyke of Hubbard Lake and Erich Carlson of Alpena caught 70.15 pounds of live walleye in Thunder Bay over a three-day period last week, beating out 29 other top fishermen.

For Van Dyke, Saturday’s success means he now has back-to-back state championships.

But it wasn’t easy, Van Dyke said.

“The fish disapeared Saturday,” Van Dyke said. “We caught nothing until the last 45 minutes of the day. We thought we’d lost.”

Van Dyke and Carlson also hauled in the biggest walleyes of the day Friday and Saturday, and will share $7,000 in prize money.

Although they landed only four fish Saturday, their luck was enough to keep Kal and Rick Ustishen in second place. The Ustishens’ catch weighed 69.92 pounds.

Third place was filled by Dustin Neubecker and Rob Dematio, with 62 pounds of fish.