10 years, 10 different winners!

It was another great weekend at the 10 th annual Nestor Falls Musky Cup held on Lake of the Woods.
Many of Sunset country’s best anglers come together for this one, and many travel quite a distance to
try to have their names burned into the Musky Cup. Each team is allowed to enter their two longest fish
each day. Each fish entered must be done by video on specific Nestor Falls Musky Cup bump boards, and
the fish must be measured while in the water along with a video of releasing a healthy fish. It’s tricky!!

Going into the weekend, it was a full moon with unseasonably warm weather, with water temps around
65 degrees. The fish were shallow and everyone was seeing a lot of them. Thursday before the
tournament the temps started to drop. Friday was the first day, and everyone had a bunch of follows
but we hard time getting them to eat at boat side. Anyone that has fished LOTW knows that most fish
are caught in the figure 8 boat side. There were 34 musky entered on Friday, with Nick Schumtz and
Mark Stevenson entering the biggest fish of the weekend at 51” and a 38”, putting them in 2 nd place. The
leaders after day one were Mike Gate and John Garret with 41.5” and 49.5”.

Saturday of the tournament, water temps dropped even more. This really changed things, pushing most
fish out of the skinny water where they were on Friday. It made it very tough to find fish for many of the
anglers. Saturday there were 24 fish entered. Mike Gate and John Garret came in with two good fish
again, 42.5” and a 48.5” securing them the top spot, and got to hoist the cup over their heads. With a
total of 182” for four fish, they broke tournament record. 2 nd Place went to Danny Herbeck and Dale
Barker with a total of 174.5”. 3 rd place went to Jamie Krukoski and Steve Hanson with a total of 165”.
Nick Schumtz and Mark Stevenson won a pair of chainsaws for the biggest fish of the weekend.
This tournament would not be possible without its organizer Byron Walker, all the great volunteers that
make the event run smoothly and we can’t forget the fishermen. A huge thank you goes out to all the
sponsors, Sandvik, Drop Tine Tackle, Nestor Falls Marine, 54 or Bust, DK lures, Lakelife Adventures, Falls
Hardware, the township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, and Tinkers Places Resort for hosting the event.
For more info about the tournament visit www.muskycup.2cat.com.

Keep casting ‘til they bite!

Thatcher Haggberg
www.droptinetackle.com
www.thatchersguideservice.com