Big Muddy Fishing Tournament Lives Up To It’s Name!

The Big Muddy fishing tournament took place this past Saturday, May 1st here in Bismarck.  100 teams took off from Marina Bay and hit the Missouri River early Saturday morning.  It was a very warm day and some anglers thought that would turbo charge the bite.  According to several reports, that was exactly the case.  The feed-bag was on.

Not only were the fish biting, but the big ones were as well.  The kind of walleyes that win tournaments.  There were 40 plus walleyes that weighed 8lb's or better caught on Saturday.  The biggest walleye weighed 11 pounds 8 ounces.  The wind however, did make it difficult for some anglers in the tournament.  Weigh in was Saturday afternoon at the Broken Oar.  For the first time ever at the Big Muddy Tournament, the North Dakota Game and Fish were on hand with their fish tanks.  In previous years, all the fish caught were butchered.  Not this year, as 95% of the fish made it back to the Big Muddy alive after weigh in thanks to North Dakota Game and Fish.  This means all those big fish caught will give another angler an opportunity to catch a trophy.  Not to mention, all those big fish who are the future breeding stock.

A pretty nice purse, as 100 teams competed for the top prize of $12,000.  There was also a "Big Fish" award.  The top 18 in the tournament  won cash or prizes.  In the end, the winners of the Big Muddy were Jake Miller, Jordan Binstock and Mike Binstock.  They weighed in 6 fish for a total of 37.34 pounds of walleye.  That was about a 1/2 a pound better than the 2nd place team.  The biggest fish for the winning trio was a 10.7 pound walleye.