Jr. Walleye fishing tournament reels in 14 teams

Tim Brody - Editor

Fourteen teams took to the MAPB lakes (Minnitaki, Abram, Pelican and Botsford) on Aug. 15 to compete in the Morgan Fuels Jr. Walleye Championship presented by the Sioux Lookout Anglers and Hunters.
Each team was able to submit four fish to be weighed, one over slot size and three under slot size, with the top three highest total weights in both of this year’s age groups winning cash prizes. A random prize draw followed, and all of the young anglers walked away with a prize thanks to the support of local businesses.
Taking first place in the Over 12 category was the team of Cooper and Derrick Sawdo with a total catch weight of 8.05 pounds.
MAC and Ron Laverty took second place with a total catch weight of 5.88 pounds.
Coming in third was the team of AJ Egerter and Kelli George-Egerter with a total catch weight of 4.56 pounds.
Taking first place in the Under 12 category was the team of Fisher Stevenson and Bryan Thompson with a total catch weight of 7.66 pounds. 
Isla and Eric Bortlis took second place with a total catch weight of 4.68 pounds.
Coming in third was the team of Tucker and Brendan Sitar with a total catch weight of 4.05 pounds.
Jr. Walleye fishing tournament coordinator BJ Egerter commented of this year’s tournament, “A little bit later in the year, so we were hoping for more but with it being vacation time before school starts back, it was still a good turnout. I was really impressed, we had a few teams step in last night, so it was great.”
Overall, he said the event went well, “It seemed like everybody had a lot of fun and everybody beat the rain and the weather, so it was great.”
Jeremy Funk took on the role of Tournament Director on the day of the event so Egerter could join the tournament as a participant and fish with his family.
“It takes volunteers helping in all ways to make an event like this run,” Funk said.
Both he and Egerter thanked all of the volunteers who helped make the event happen as well as Municipal staff for having Farlinger Park (Town Beach) ready for the event.
Funk and Egerter also expressed their appreciation to this year’s tournament sponsors, Morgan Fuels, First Mining Gold, Sioux Lookout Home Hardware, Al’s Sports Excellence and Clark’s Bait & Tackle.
“It’s great that the community, businesses step up to support events like this, get kids out fishing,” Funk concluded.
This was the 15th year the tournament has run.