A record 2,064 anglers registered and took to the Iowa Great Lakes this weekend for the 30th Annual Easter Seals Iowa Great Walleye Weekend, a 36-hour fishing tournament to benefit the Easter Seals of Iowa. This year’s competition featured a record prize of $30,000 for catching one of the six DNR-tagged Walleye released in the area, however, all six remain at-large.
Here are the winning catches:
Heaviest Walleye
1st: Tom Bornstad, Okoboji, IA – 7.9lbs/28”
2nd: Lee Nieuwenhuis, Hospers, IA – 7.26lbs/26.5”
3rd: Brian Plowman, Adair, IA – 5.14lbs
Heaviest Stringer (3) of Walleye
1st: Tom Christensen, Spirit Lake, IA – 11.64lbs
2nd: Torrey Krause, Everly, IA – 9.76lbs
3rd: Shannon Green, Spencer, IA – 9.2lbs (This is a correction from an earlier mistake.)
Heaviest Northern Pike
1st: Tom Dahna, Bingham Lake, MN – 10.14lbs/37”
2nd: Barry Williams, Ames, IA – 7.4lbs/32”
3rd: Zach Edwards, Waterloo, IA – 6.7lbs/29”
Heaviest Stringer (5) of Panfish
1st: Dan Youngblood, Spirit Lake, IA – 6.38lbs
2nd: Matt Rozeboom, Inwood, IA – 6.0lbs
3rd: Rick Allison, Sioux City, NE – 5.5lbs
Heaviest Stringer (10) of Bullheads
1st: Ryan Cunningham, Sioux City, IA – 18.57lbs
2nd: Jason Flammang, Sioux City – 18.5lbs
3rd: Christine Birdsell, Sioux City, IA – 18.39lbs
Heaviest Bass
1st: Sonny Vanlenning, Spirit Lake, IA – 5.47lbs
2nd: Harley Wittkopf, Algona, IA – 5.18lbs/19.75”
3rd: Henry Vrieze, LeMars, 5.1lbs/19.5”
The number of registered anglers broke the previous record by nearly 600. The big draw to this year’s event was a combination of terrific fishing conditions and the increased price tags for reeling in a tagged-fish. In all there were 24 tagged fish, including perch, bullhead, and crappie, but all went unclaimed.
The Easter Seals of Iowa is a non-profit, statewide organization that provides daily services to adults and kids with disabilities.
