Bill St. Peter Wins 1st PWT Canadian Tournament
Bill St. Peter leap-frogged past second day leader Mark Brumbaugh
in the In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail Super Pro at Dryden,
Ontario. Both walleye pros were competing in the Super Pro series
tournament presented by MinnKota, the Lund/Mercury Pro-Am.
St. Peter, Bay City, Mich., has been fishing in the PWT pro ranks
for eight years and qualified for Mercury Championships every
season. He has 35 money finishes in 53 events. He is a past winner,
and currently ranked fourth in the Johnsonville Angler of the
year standings. He wants a shot at the Mercury Championship presented
by The Dow Chemical Company for 2007 qualifiers in May of 2008
on St. Peter’s home waters of Saginaw Bay. Gary Parsons,
Glidden, Wis., maintains the Angler of the Year lead.
The winner netted $45,000 cash and a 20-foot Lund boat rigged
with a 200-hp Mercury outboard, valued at $41,000. Brumbaugh won
$20,000 for second place. Their winnings pushed their career PWT
earnings to more than $300,000 each.
Mark Courts, Harris, Minn. was third, good for $18,000. The Super
Pros fished with and made friends with many new anglers, most
from Canada. Of the 52 amateurs/co-anglers, 36 were from Canada.
The amateurs fished with the pro’s tackle and went to the
pro’s spots, riding in state-of-the-art walleye boats. The
top amateur was Reid Norine, Oakdale, Minn., who will pick-up
a new 2008 Lund 1675 with a Mercury 60-hp outboard, valued at
$20,000.
The big fish award went to St. Peter and amateur partner Greg
Waites, Dryden, for a 10.04-pounder. It was worth $500 to Waites
and $1,500 to St. Peter. The Dow Chemical Company Heavyweight
$1,000 award went to St. Peter, also. Parsons won the Coleman
Cool Under Pressure award for advancing 36 places. On the amateur
side, Glen Rowan, Thunder Bay, Ontario, advanced 43 places to
win the special Coleman cooler. The second through sixth place
amateurs earned Mercury rebate certificates worth $500 to $1,500.
Three Dryden Chamber of Commerce employees received PWT Special
Achievement awards for their dedicated service to make sure the
entire tournament week was a very smooth operation. They organized
and managed a large corps of volunteers and attended to hundreds
of details. The large crowds at all activities and the final weigh-in
were very impressive. The announcement that the PWT would be back
in 2008 brought amateurs running with checks to enter, but the
early entry timeframe will be later this fall.
Tactics varied from St. Peter jigging in 9 to 12 feet, adjacent
to rock reefs, to Brumbaugh casting 400 series Rip Shads and Frenzy
Flicker shads in 3 to 8 feet of water to slip-bobbers, bottom
bouncers and spinners. The consensus was as Bill St. Peter said
on stage, “Any place you go, you can catch walleyes, thousands
of them.” Brumbaugh loved the variety, “If walleyes
were biting by the hundreds every day, so were smallies, pike
and muskies. What a great spot to fish!”
Scott Glorvigen, Grand Rapids, Minn. Super Pro said, “I
stayed at Indian Point Camp, and they were great. The camp operators
from around the lake received rave reviews from the contestants,
and the entire community rated an A-plus for hospitality.
Photos of the entire week are available on the PWT web site, www.professionalwalleyetrail.com.
The PWT is an integral element of the In-Fisherman Communications
Network headquartered in Baxter, Minnesota, and InterMedia, America's
leading producer of targeted media. PWT promotional partners include:
Mercury Marine, Lund Boats, Berkley, Lowrance Electronics, Optima
Batteries, Minn Kota, Realtree, MotorGuide, Johnsonville Brats,
Outdoor Channel, Coleman, Northland Fishing Tackle, The Dow Chemical
Company, StowMaster, Reef Runner, Yo-Zuri Quality Lures, Smooth
Moves Seat Mounts, Kwik Pfyt Mud Flaps, Yellow Bird Planer Boards,
Allstar Graphics, Ram Mounts, Element Edge, Pflueger, Plano Tackle
Systems, Aikens Lake Wilderness Lodge, E-Cell, Cannon, Fin-Tech
Tackle, Do-It Molds & Dryden District Chamber of Commerce,
807.223.2622.
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