Submitted Photo
From the left are Gordy Anderson, Tom Miranda and Mark McMahon, who won the 2020 Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge with a total weight of 29.66 pounds and a 7.59 big fish that took third place on Saturday.

The weather held up and the shotgun start went off at 7 a.m. as planned. There was a full complement of 50 boats signed up for this year’s event and the anglers had sunny skies and waves of one to two feet to fish in. All the participating boats launched out of the Dunkirk harbor. The deadline to report with coolers to the Chadwick Bay Marina parking lot was 3:30 p.m.

The electronic scales were set up and the staff was open for business. Before the weigh-in started, Senator George Borrello addressed the crowd and thanked the fishermen for attending and participating in a safe and sportsmanlike manner. His presence and manner was appreciated.

After that the scale was open for business, there were 37 coolers in line on Saturday. Bob Rustowicz, Jim Steel and Jesse Smith reported with four fish coolers totaling less than 20 pounds total. Just to give you an idea how tough fishing has been this year, Rustowicz won the Big Dawg tournament a few weeks ago, so you know it was tough. Reporting with five fish coolers were Carmen Nardollillo, Al Wittman and Justin Emerling. Fittingly Emerling’s boat is named “Just One More.” His team weighed in 24.53 pounds with five fish. The rest of the gang came up with six-fish coolers, but the shrink bug was out with 5 boats having at least one fish that was just shy of the 20-inch length minimum.

Saturday’s event paid cash prizes for the three heaviest walleye. If you had an 8-pounder, you were in the money. Mike Pinelli took first-place money with an 8.06-pounder. He was followed by the Carmen Nardolillo team “Slot Money” with an 8.02-fish. The final place was taken by Team “Pole Dancer,” led by Tom Miranda. Tom’s crew had several larger-sized walleye because their total weight for the day was 29.66 pounds, good enough to win this year’s tournament. Gordy Anderson, Tom Miranda and Mark McMahon got their fish out of Silver Creek in 79 to 83 feet of water.

The hot presentation was copper wire /dipsey on the one setting, 200 feet back, towing a blue spoon. They were scraping the bottom and waking up the bigger fish. Mike Pinelli on Team Bass-hole weighed in 29.08 pounds for second place. Mike, along with Joe Bartone, Rob Reese and Damon Delmont, fished west of Barcelona by the “Red House” landmark in 75 feet of water. They used 10 colors of leadcore line towing bombers, with black and purple being “hot.” Their 8.06 walleye was the first fish of the day. Gary Kisel of team Night Cap finished third with 28.52 pounds, while local talent Tyler Hale with Buddy Marsh and Adam Diate took fourth-place prize money with a total weight of 27.22 pounds. David Levan, the leader of “End of the Line,” looked confident prior to the weigh-in and ended up with 27.12 pounds, good for fifth place.

Dennis Alguire was in the winner circle again with 26.27 pounds, good enough for sixth place. Randy Jaroszewski who had a second place 9-pounder on Friday, had to settle for a 5.95 big fish on Saturday, but his six walleye added up to 26.24 pounds and seventh place. Randy fished in Pennsylvania both days. On Friday, he was all alone. On Saturday, he reported having 100 boats around him. The price of success.

Brad Milleville of Team Fishfull Thinking took eighth place with 25.70 pounds; and Richard Kacmarski of team “Trollmaster” grabbed the final payout spot with 24.83 pounds. Reporting with weights over 20 pounds were in descending order: Craig Kawski-team G-Man, Justin Emerling, Jeff Johnson, John Lignos, John Ferdinand, Jim Klein team Eye-Fish, Charlie Klaus, Pete Smith Jr., Frank Simonick, Jim Taggart, Brett Nichols, Chris Postle, Dan Salansky, Aaron Teijera, Jared Meyer, Ron Duliba and Walleye Willy, Curtis Loveless, Richard Baliva and Chuck Pohlman. Also weighing in fish were Carmen Nardolillo, Jason Beck, Jeff Philips, Tim Willson, Bob Rustowicz, Al Wittmann, Dennis Pillard, Jim Steel and Jesse Smith.

The Steel family and staff of volunteers do an excellent job, and look forward to next year. Before the weigh-in started, Jim Steel announced that one of the captains, 16-month-old daughter Scarlett Kiera, has been fighting cancer. The guys passed the hat to take up a collection for the little sweetheart. If readers would like to help, go to: GoFundMe:https://gf.me/u/ykfty4. Thanks!