Freeland Walleye Festival

[EYESON]

Fished this for the first time this year and had a good time, meet some nice people and caught fish. After talking to some of the guys there I can understand the fight not to open this to the lakes. Don't get me wrong I am glad it is open and we fished the bay al weekend, but it started me thinking. Hopefully there is someone from the Lions club monitoring this and can chime in. What would you all think of something like this.
first,second, and third places would be paid out as normal, but then mix it up maybe the next place would be to the thenty third, then maybe fitith, and so on until all tweenty five spots were paid out. The nice thing with this is that it would give everybody a chance to win something and would not handy cap the guys who have to fish the river.

[grizzly]

Kinda feel as if they have taken this tournament out of the small guys reach.
Not everyone has the ability to troll on the bigwater, wich as we know most of the bigger spawners are gone and done out of the river. With that being said I hope not to anger anyone with this post but I think the folks in freeland were looking to build this tournament up a little buy opening it up to all legal waters. Maybe bring more money into the local economy. Wich is cool but the playing field is no longer level atleast in my opinion. Hope everyone had a safe and fun filled opener. Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject. Again sorry if this post offends anyone.

grizzly.

[Magnet]

My understanding is that the rules were changed due to the speculation that some anglers were cheating. By cheating, I mean that it was suspected that some anglers were weighing in fish that were caught from the bay. This is what I heard a couple of months ago when they were considering changing the rules. So the organizers decided to open the tournament up to all waters to eliminate the speculation and the finger pointing. Is it the best solution? Probably not, especially when you consider that the rule changes accomodate the suspected cheaters rather than the honest angler.

[Hamilton Reef]

Top winners of the Freeland Walleye Festival:
Senior Division:
Gabe Graham – 58.45 lbs.
Bill Putman III – 57.95 lbs.
Al Kukla – 51.9 lbs
Junior Division:
Blake Putman – 37.45 lbs.
Austin Tomasek – 28.9 lbs.
Leon Noykos Jr. – 17.85 lbs.

Fish story: 20th Walleye Fest a success

Traffic along the Tittabawassee River was heavy this weekend, with anglers dotting banks and navigating boats in hunt of walleye. And they found them.
In its 20th year, those fishing in the Freeland Walleye Festival dragged in a record amount of fish – 2,475 pounds. The previous record, set in 2003, was 2,209 pounds. The additional weight put the event total past the 50,000-pound mark for its two-decade history.
The tourney sponsored by the Freeland Lions Club also drew more participants than ever – 416, nearly 25 percent higher than last year.
Tournament weighmaster Steve Doyle attributes the year’s success to chilly weather and to the new "no boundary" stretch of open waters.
"The cold weather kept (walleye) in the river," he said. "A lot of guys are coming in with five fish."
While the tournament opened fishing grounds to the Saginaw River and bay for the first time, most fish caught were taken from the Tittabawassee.
Midlanders Liz and Chris Jeroue, a husband/wife team who have entered the contest for the past 11 years, tested both waters in an effort to win. The couple started at midnight Saturday, first hitting the river and then heading out to the bay. They fished earlier in the week to find hot spots.
"He has better luck trolling. I have better luck on the river," Liz said. With about two hours of sleep they managed during an off time, they came in before noon Saturday with that day’s limit, five each.
"It’s a good time," said Chris. "We sit, we talk, we wait." He weighed in his first day’s load at 22.75 pounds and came in eighth place Sunday with a total weekend, 10-fish catch of 41.9 pounds.
Ryan Goodwin, 13, who fished Saturday, reeled in one big fish, but not what he was expecting. "Once I saw it jump, I knew it wasn’t a walleye," he said of his trophy steelhead. "It was too big."
For those who didn’t enter the tournament, there was a weekend full of activity off the river: dancing, drinks and casino games in the festival’s "Phish Tent." Saturday, Tittabawassee Township Park had a pond stocked with trout for young fishermen; 500 fish were added for the event.
At 12, it will be the last year that Charles Bicigo will be able to take part, but he pulled out what he hoped would be the biggest silver trout. "It’s his last year, so he has to go out with a bang," his mother said.

[JJ Mac]

I think that anytime you have a "local" style tournament, there are lots of opportunities to cheat. When there is not an official start and end weigh-in time, livewell check, dead fish accepted, these things can just happen. It sounds like they had the extended boundaries to resolve one concern--people fishing the bay instead of staying in the river system. What the rule change did not address was all the other ways to cheat and it also probably alienated some of the dedicated river rats, who were the core of fishermen in past tournaments.

Imho, I think that if you are going to have an "observed" stlye tournament that includes a livewell check, shot-gun start and weigh in time with live fish, then that's when big payouts and fish limits of 5 per day are appropriate.

For less "observed" or local style tournaments, I feel you are better off using more of a shiver on the river style format. Payouts are just based on say top 25 weights of fish. There would be much less incentive for cheaters to pass fish. It would also make this tournament perhaps a little less of a marathon for the contestants. They wouldn't have to kill themselves pulling all dayers and all nighters in the early spring trying to catch five fish to weigh in each day.

But what do I know, I wimped out this weekend on the tournament and stayed home sick.

[LivingLegend]

I fish in it I fished the bay and I saw last years big fish winner fishing by him self useing three rods I think the playing field is more level now but I think the payout should be lowered and pay more place's I think there would be less cheating because of a low pay out like $500 for first place. I notice alot of the past winners were not in the top 15 .:bash: