2024 Bays Edge Recap ~ 4.21.24 RESULTS
For years we have been waiting for a beautiful spring day to get in the annual Jigging Open sponsored this year by HDS Custom Rods. Well, Mother Nature and the Fish God’s were NOT listening. Having to use a “Blow Day” Saturday due to 5-8 ft waves and nasty gale winds we pushed to Sunday. Nobody knew what any of their previously established spots would look like or if the fish were still there, but hey that’s just tourney fishing.
At 5:00am, 39 (we lost several boats due to religious reasons) boats started their check-in at Mark’s Bay’s Edge Bait and Tackle Shop and headed anywhere from Detroit, Michigan to Cleveland, Ohio waiting for “lines in” at 7:00am.
The story of the day was LEWT Sponsor, Lowrance and their Active Target. The NWT anglers in town Thursday and Friday proved that big fish were able to be caught around the can line and if conditions allowed, anglers would be able to target and pick off individual fish. The new trend on Erie is putting the trolling rods down and learning to target fish by utilizing the Lowrance Active Target system and using it to its maximum potential.
At 3:30p, teams started making their way back to Bay’s Edge for weigh-in, all looking to finish in those Top Six paid spots on the weekend. The average 5-fish bags right now are weighing in anywhere from 15- 18#. This time of year being able to target those bigger pre/post spawn females is going to land you tourney day results.
Winning $600 and taking home the Big Fish Award for the day was Team Piper Plumbing, caught by Ben Bremer. The guys used Active Target and vertically jigged plastics North of Kelly’s Island to land their 8.31# giant!
Great work boys even if you are from the state up north!
The last paid spot on the day went to Team Miler Time with captain Merf Miller with 18.08#. Team Miller walked away with $400 for 6th place.
Team Troyer and and Jusk Ducky landed in the contingency prize range and won HDS Custom Rods both with 16# bags.
In 5th place, team Marble Head Fishing Company with LEWT sluggers Edgar Trent, Erik Jenson and Jim Swick. The team was able to capitalize on the Lowrance Active Target
System targeting fish suspended in the water column, basically “Ice Jigging” and make $600 on the day. They fished deep water off Lorain to do the damage.
4th place on the day was a LEWT newcomer and NWT Pro Brett Gilbertson with Team Regil with 25.25#. Brett was in town all week fishing the NWT was able to hop over and stack his skills up against the LEWT anglers in the Jigging Event. Brett was able to find suspended fish around Niagara Reef and target them with his partner using a variety of Jigs and swim baits.
Team “NIM” moved up several spots from their 6th place finish in 2023 with a 3rd place
bag in 2024. The team found themselves in 3rd place with a stout 28.14# limit anchored by a 7.41# big fish. These guys targeted structure out deep to “ice fish” and target bigger suspended walleye. “NIM” made $1000 on the day for the top finish. Team “NIM” made up of Mike “Miller Tech” Miller, Cole Carlson, and Old School Gun “Rattler.”
Team C’est La Fish led by captain Ciprian Donici made a statement in this year’s jigging event by hammering down a solid second place finish with 28.98#. Ciprian, Nick Olesky, and Ron Leaton again used Active Target to search and destroy suspended fish in the water column. Nick has now entered his first two LEWT tournaments and cashed two straight checks. Can anyone say “young gun?” The team made $2700 on the day.
Team “NIM #2” led by captain Joe Gibson was able to capture the self-proclaimed “English Title” in 2023 and this year took the 2024 overall LEWT Bay’s Edge Jigging Event title with a giant bag of 29.83#. Joe along with his support staff of Bryan Fisher and Tyler Berthold put on a clinic all day targeting fish suspended in deep water east of Vermillion. They had to throw an audible on their first spot in the morning but plan B finished out the day, good enough for 1st place on the day. Gibson and crew took home $4700 for 1st place. Fantastic job guys.
The Jig/Cast/Drift only event has grown to be one of the most fun events on the year. Mark’s Bay’s Edge is a great venue and will continue to host us annually. Look for us in October when Bay’s Edge will host the 2024 LEWT 2-Day Championship.
The next stop in the LEWT series is Huron Ohio where we will host our second annual Pro-Am Event. An amateur “Am” angler will team up with an experienced LEWT Team “Pro” to form a three man team. This team will fish the standard two man rules and the amateur angler will get to experience a LEWT tourney day. They will learn from the best, fish with the best, and hopefully experience that win like the best!
We will also be announcing the details for this year’s B’laster Fall Brawl at this Fall Brawl kickoff party and pig roast sponsored by Branch BBQ. 2024 will be the biggest brawl ever with more great ideas to come this season.
Ryan Buddie, Joe Gibson, and Tyler Berthold will host a kids fishing clinic and the NPAA and Future Anglers Association will be giving out fishing poles to kids in attendance while supplies last. This will be a great event and we hope to see you all there.
Kids fishing clinics and cookouts are free so please come out and experience the Quality Mark Inc. LEWT and B’laster Fall Brawl.
More at LakeErieWalleyeTrail.com
2024 Magee East Recap ~ 3.30.24 RESULTS
Magee East Campground and Marina is home to the LEWT kick off event year after year. The hospitality and hard work of the Magee crew is second to none and the atmosphere for the first event is always electric. The Magee venue and staff again made getting our 89-boat field launched and ready to go a breeze. It’s always a gamble with weather this early in the year, but we always roll the dice trying to get after those pre-spawn Lake Erie giants.
The beginning of the week brought typical volatile March weather, wind rain and an unfishable Lake Erie. As the end of the week grew near, Mother Nature straightened out giving anglers an opportunity to game plan and do some pre-fishing. The “cans” area or Camp Perry firing range impact area, possibly the most well known pre-spawn staging area on the lake, appeared as if it was going to be in play with clearing water color and stable south winds. If this held true into Saturday, it was most definitely going to be a Lake Erie Slugfest.
5:00AM Saturday rolled around and we were met with South winds and cloudy overcast skies. Just prior to send-off the overcast skies opened up and started pouring down rain leaving anglers with a soaking wet start to their day. This is not surprising and has been known as (what we now call) LEWT weather. Despite the rain, Lake Erie remained calm and the South wind switched slightly out of the East, still allowing anglers to get to where they wanted to fish.
Many anglers headed East towards the Islands or the Camp Perry firing range “cans” but returning Champs Robert and Travis Zajkowski headed to their old stomping grounds to the North. This didn’t pan out for them as it had during pre-fishing. The reigning champs had to scramble to make their 5-fish bag and finish with 23.72# – not what the champs wanted this time around.
With an 89-boat field the LEWT was going to pay out 13 spots and give away nearly $27,000 in total prize money and awards. As luck would have it in 13th place we have a tie with 34.83# – Cole Carlson and LEWT newcomer Brady Yonkers tied with Scott Boswell and Michael Boswell, LEWT veterans. Neither team weighed a “big fish” and both caught five total fish leaving the third tie breaker to a coin flip. The Boswell’s won the coin toss taking the tie-breaker and 13th place.
Great job to LEWT first time angler Brady Yonkers for cashing a check, welcome to the big leagues, big guy.
Coming in 12th place we have Randy Kline and Ray Irving. This could be one of the most feel good stories of the day as the pair finished with 34.94# and took home the big fish title with their 9.93# Lake Erie spawn giant. The team wins nearly $2000 for their efforts and USA Military Veteran Ray cashed his first check in the LEWT.
Thanks for serving our country, Ray – we appreciate you!
Coming in 11th on the day was LiTime sponsored angler Jaime Perez and Darin Csubak with 35.31#. Perez has been busting his butt for the last year and a half working towards his goal of cashing a check in the LEWT and he’s finally achieved his goals. He’s put his work in and the excitement showed while on stage. Perez’s excitement is something special and shows that he’s in it for the long haul, congratulations to Team LiTime.
It never gets old when Off Shore Tackle Pro Angler Mark Brumbaugh comes across the stage. This time, Mark and his partner, Steve Summerly walked across the stage with 35.48# of Lake Erie gold. Mark and Steve were able to capture a top 10 finish continuing their momentum from last year. Congratulations Mark on another top finish. It’s great to see a long-time LEWT angler still up at the top of the pack doing what they do.
We’ve done a lot of recaps, but we’ve never once mentioned Steve Hendricks, and Brian Ulmer‘s name while discussing the top of the leaderboard. Yeah right, that’s just a joke. Anybody who has followed the LEWT has heard the names Steve Hendricks and Brian Ulmer at the top of the pack over and over again. Nearly back to back team of the year champions Hendricks and Ulmer brought 35.57# to the scale starting their year off right with a 9th place finish. The team nearly won $1000 for their efforts.
Jim “Fish Missile” Taggart and Mick Weimer just edged out Hendricks and Ulmer with 35.75#, good enough for 8th place and took home just shy of $1000. Jim Taggert has been grinding mostly out East being from Pennsylvania, so to see western success was big gratification for him. Getting to know Jim over the last few years, there’s not a more positive fun guy on the circuit.
Congratulations Fish Missile!
Shane & Shawn Wassam or is it Shawn & Shane Wassam? I guess it doesn’t really matter when you bring 35.84# to the scale. The Vic’s Sports Center & Ranger Boats team was able to capture 7th place good enough for $1050.
These guys have been working hard and staying within striking distance of the top finishers and were finally able to put it all together and capture a top finish, great job guys.
The Miller Tech Ranger 622 ran by Mike Miller and Bryan Fisher brought 36.21# to the scale to start out their season with the top finish. Miller and B-Fish are always a team to contend with and this event is just the same. These guys are able to capture top finishes from West to East and are always dangerous.
The Miller Tech team will take home $1150 on the day.
Now we have the top five. Eric Weaver and Gabriel Weaver, long time LEWT anglers stuck with their game plan and fished south of the islands targeting fish suspended in the water column. The team used Bandit’s averaging 80′ back using Orange belly baits to do their damage. The Weavers were able to bring 36.60# to the scales and land them a top five and $1250 on the day.
In 4th place, we can officially call Nick Olesky a hang around or prospect so to speak. The kid fishes nonstop and is always in the tournament scene but has never been a captain in the LEWT. Nick decided to hop in and fish with his dad being the last boat to enter the field boat number 104. Nick and Ed anchored the day with a 9.08# big fish caught on NFP custom baits. The first-time team landed a top four finish and $1500 on the day. Nick and Ed found something slightly outside the pack and fished north of Green Island targeting fish he found days prior using Lowrance Active Target. Nick decided to fish that same school fish using NFP customs while trolling 40-50 back. Great job NFP team Nick and Ed Olesky.
In 3rd place for 37.12# we have the Quality Mark Team Tyler Berthold and Joe Gibson. The two, previously on other teams, join forces this year and capitalize on their first LEWT together and capture 37.12# good enough for $3320 on the day plus earning the Ranger Cup $500 bonus totaling $3820 total. Berthold says that they put on a lot of miles scoping new water yesterday with their Lowrance Electronics looking for pods of fish and the right water color. Once they found what they were looking for it was game on. Spending time doing a little scouting paid off for Berthold and Gibson.
In 2nd place McGee East camping residents, Gerald Franklin Senior and Gerald Franklin Junior brought five fish for 37.14# good enough for second place. Being locals the Franklin’s fished in front of Camp Perry, ”the same thing they do everyday.” Sometimes a little local knowledge goes a long way. The LEWT works hard to put out schedules that allow fishermen to take advantage of trends and patterns that put fish within reach of the launch. Great job to a local father son duo. The team won $5980 on the day.
And 1st place, we have Michael Hostetler and Ian Hostetler, who started using Lowrance Active Target and trying to cast swimbaits at fish that they were pinpointing on their electronics. They have had success doing that in days prior while pre-fishing but that tactic was not proving fruitful on Saturday. They decided not to leave those fish, but just changed tactics and started trolling. They were able to put together five fish for 37.25# and $7400 on the day. Congratulations Team Hostetler on the top finish!
Finishing First Place in the Kayak Division is Aaron Mcpherson. Aaron is a Western Basin local and has a lot of experience on a Yak. He was able to bring in three fish on the day and take the first Kayak event on the season. He stayed near Turtle Creek and jigged to catch his fish. Great job Aaron.
2024 LEWT Team of the Year - (After Magee East)
Hats off to our anglers who continue to prove why the LEWT is the best event in the land. Continued support and great fishing makes being a LEWT top team something to gloat about. It’s great seeing new faces in the mix and anglers from across the country. Great job everyone.
We will be back in action at Bay’s Edge April 20th for a jigging only event. This is an “Open” event and anglers can fish with a team and up to 9 rods. This event is a great way to get big boats involved as you can leave from any port you choose – lines in at 7:00am and weigh-in at Bay’s Edge no later than 3:45pm.
The LEWT Huron Pro-Am event will follow mid May.
Visit LakeErieWalleyeTrail.com for more details.
