|
Bad weather helps Faust anglers
Joe McWilliams
For Spotlight
It wasn’t exactly what you would call ‘nice’ weather for the 12th annual Faust Volunteer Fire Department Walleye Tournament on the weekend of May 30 and 31. But bad weather up top often results in good fishing down below, and there was no shortage of qualifiers for the almost $27,000 in prize money handed out on the Sunday afternoon.
“The fishing was good!” says Robert Nygaard, one of the chief organizers.
It was a windy weekend though, and contestants had to battle the wind, rain and waves on top of the regular challenges of tournament fishing. Continued Below.
|
First place winners Grant Marquardt and Larry Marquardt of High Prairie receive their $8,250 prize from Robert Nygaard of the Faust Volunteer Fire Department Walleye Tournament.
|
|
Brad Welygan and Colby Welygan of Slave Lake took second overall. Presenting is Robert Nygaard. The pair also won the prize for catching the biggest fish – 7.10 lbs. – on Day 2 of the competition.
|
On Sunday, rainstorm after rainstorm ran east over Lesser Slave Lake, broken by periods of ‘relative’ calm, with the sun shining brightly. These sometimes lasted no more than 10 minutes before the next driving storm.
“I almost lost my boat!” said one contestant, back on dry land after a bit of excitement after his propeller fouled, his boat breached and he and his partner took a couple of waves over the stern.
But all ended well. Nygaard says one pontoon boat got into a bit of trouble when one of its three pontoons failed, but it limped home with no further damage. Continued Below
|
Scott Dahlgren and Robin Edwards of Slave Lake took third place. Presenting their award is Robert Nygaard. Dahlgren and Edwards also won the prize for the biggest fish on Day 1, at 6.3 lbs.
|
|
Fourth place finishers were Ken Carpenter and Tracey Crain of Slave Lake. Robert Nygaard presenting.
|
Eighty-three teams took part, each paying $325 for the privilege. Total payout was $26,975, with the overall winners receiving a cheque of $8,250.
The High Prairie duo of Larry and Grant Marquardt were the winners of that amount, thanks to their two-day total weight of 26.65 lbs. They bettered the Welygan team from Slave Lake, Brad and Colby, by 1.65 lbs. Continued Below.
|
Robert Nygaard presents Wade Locke and Eric Churchill of Kinuso with their fifth place prize money.
|
|
Sixth place overall finishers Pamela Fitt and Troy Fitt of Sherwood Park receive their prize money from Robert Nygaard.
|
In third was the Slave Lake team of Scott Dahlgren and Robin Edwards at 24.75 lbs.
The biggest fish of the weekend weighed in at 7.10 lbs; it was caught by the Welygan team.
Nygaard says the fire department raised itself around $2,500 from the tournament, which it plans to spend on ice rescue equipment and training.
Copyright © 1999-2009 Spotlight. All Rights Reserved.
No part may be reproduced without written permission.
View our Privacy Statement.
Send website suggestions to the Webmaster
|
