Lund Angler-Young-Angler Championship

Lund Boat Company held it's annual Angler-Young-Angler Championship tournament on Lake of the Woods last Saturday, in what has become an annual event for Kenora.  16 teams took part in the tournament, with the winning team recieving a trip to Disney World.  The second place team earned a fly-in fishing trip in the no-entry fee event.  

Teams qualified by winning a regional event.  Regional events take place across North America, with representation at the Championship from as far away as Yellowknife NWT, Michigan and South Dakota. Each team is matched up with a guide - who were all Lund pro-staff members that have years of experience on Lake of the Woods.  Though the guides can't fish, they can drive the boat, and choose fishing locations and strategies.  

I was matched up with my good buddy Chad Johnson and his two kids Jacob and Jordan Boyd from Rogers, Minnesota.  It was their first time walleye fishing on Lake of the Woods and we had a great week and a solid tournament showing.  

The tournament itself was a catch-photo-release event so fish were measured and released unharmed.  There are a lot of big walleyes in Lake of the Woods right now and we want to keep it that way so not putting them through the stress of going in the livewell is important.  

Chad got things going early with a 26 inch walleye to start the day

Jordan soon followed that up with a 27 incher that was the largest of the day.  She definately had the hot stick in the boat!  

Jacob with his 26.5 incher.  All the fish were caught on a NORTHLAND FIRE-BALL JIG tipped with a leech

We finished 4th in the event with a 6 fish total weight over 42 pounds!!!  Last year the winning weight was 36 pound so we were pretty confident on our way in.  However, the big walleyes were snappin' on Lake of the Woods and three other teams knocked us off.  Here we are holding down the hotseats until the final three boats came in

The winning team of John and Aidan Butts, along with Aidan's buddy Luke Turcotte hold up the first place prize as their guide Jason Vogelsang looks on.  Congratulations guys!!!