Wyoming Walleye Stampede May 30th and 31st
Category: press release
Mar 9th, 2009 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Mar 9th, 2009 at 12:00 AM
The Wyoming Walleye Stampede organizers announced today that its inaugural tournament will be at Glendo Reservoir this May 30th and 31st. Partners Brian Woodward and Eric Whitaker chose Glendo because of its reputation as one of Wyoming’s premiere walleye resources. Traditionally, winning weights average forty pounds and have exceeded fifty pounds with 10 fish, two-day totals. “Glendo is central to a growing fleet of hard-core tournament contestants hailing from Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, and South Dakota anglers,” Whitaker commented.
To reduce post tournament mortality, participants bring walleyes to a “measure boat” located strategically throughout the resource where they are quickly measured and released. The lengths are then converted to weight by quarter inch increments. For example, a 15″ walleye is credited one and a quarter pounds, a 20 incher is approximately 3 pounds, and a 26″ fish is credited six and a half pounds. The coveted 30″ inch walleyes, those rare “bug eyes”, convert to 10 pounds. Each team can measure up to 12 fish per day and score their 5 largest fish per day. Two day aggregate totals determine the winners. The entry fee is $400 per team. The Grand Prize is $10,000 based on a field of 125 boats. “What really appeals to our group of participants is the parody of our overall purse. The payback will pay deeper to 25 places, or 20% of the teams with an overall ‘in the money’ purse of $40,000! A real plus for our 1st annual tourney,” Whitaker added “is the number of Wyoming-based sponsors who have stepped up with $4,500 in Big Fish and divisional pots of family, mixed couples, youth, and even a “poor boy” division with teams competing with 125hp motors or less. A long distance award will go to the top 2 teams traveling the farthest who will each receive $100 visa gift cards to help with fuel cost. This translates to an unprecedented payback nudging over 85%. Perception is that these are ‘pro anglers’ when in reality these are just your everyday “die hard, western walleye anglers.” “While it’s not our primary focus or goal to become a springboard into the nation’s elite pro-am events, it certainly has provided a venue for that. Most anglers compete for the pure pleasure of the competition, the camaraderie, and simple fun,” Brian Woodward clarified.
This year we will campaign to create a greater awareness of zebra muscles and encourage anglers to go online and take the Game and Fish questionnaire designed to educate anglers on how to avoid transport of these highly and potentially devastating invaders of our walleye resources.
Not only is the Glendo resource a premiere walleye fishery, but it’s vistas of Laramie Peak to the west offer an amazing backdrop to pursue these treasured game fish. We will feature a new awards ceremony on Sunday starting at 5PM, May 31st at the Hall’s Marina that may be the most innovative, exciting, and informative to date. The public is welcome. “The winning patterns are discussed with each team in the money. This is the climax of the event. There is laughter, cheering, even an occasional ‘I don’t think so’ groan as we will sort the winning patterns out among the ones ‘in the money.’ The diverse winning patterns offer non-participants a wealth of cutting edge techniques that would take a lifetime to assimilate! ” For more information, interested parties can go to wyomingwalleyestampede.com