BACK

2005 Great Lake Tournaments

Apr 23 - Muskrat Blizzard Classic

We tied for 2nd in the rain and snow.  One In The Box would win the event.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Larry Rymar, Matt Gordon, Craig Waelens, & Phil Clark

Apr 30 - Salmon Stakes

We decided to fish the river for this event.  Most of the shallow water in Lake Huron where spring kings can usually be found the water was very dirty.  We ended up going 1 for 2.  We lost a small acrobatic coho at the back of the boat.  Right after the missed fish, we got a hit on a diver with a Lemon Ice Spoon and landed the largest king of the tournament and the ## number field.  The fish weighed 10.75 lbs.

Crew - Capt. Dave Rymar, Mike Rymar, Steve & Steve

May 7 & 8 - Sarnia Bay Tournament of Champions

Mike Rymar was asked to fish on board Rawhide and accepted.  

This tournament is 5 salmon/trout with a maximum of 1 Laker per day.  The team fished hard on day one, able to boat a tournament limit, and were only out of 1st place by about 3 lbs.

Day 2 fishing was a bit tougher.  The team was only able to boat 3 salmon this day, lossing a VERY nice king at the back of the boat.  This fish probable was the difference in the entire event.  Boating it would have probable meant first place.  Team Rawhide would end up falling one position in the standing to 3rd with 48 lbs.  One In The Box would end up winning the event with 55.5 lbs.  Sea Duce would make a huge run at winning, but fell 0.03 lbs short.  Sea Duce weighed 40 lbs of Browns on day 2.  

Crew - Captain Jason Fletcher, Gary Fletcher, Andrea Fletcher, Paul Powis, and Mike Rymar

May 14 - MSSC

Mike Rymar was asked to fish on board Rawhide and accepted.

Fishing was tough in the rain.  For the second weekend in a row, Rawhide would fall one king short of the limit.  Just one more fish and they would have had a run at first.  You can always say one more fish in any tournament, so it was just a matter that we were just not the best boat on the water again.  We were happy with 2nd place in the tough field, but falling short is always disappointing.  Congrats to One-In-The-Box for pulling out the win.

Crew - Captain Jason Fletcher, Mike Rymar, Hogan, and ???

May 17 thru 22.

We finally cracked the top 10, it is kind of bittersweet though as we did not boat one silver fish during the tournament hours.

I only spoke to 2 boats on the water the entire tournament. We were allies with Fletch Thursday thru Sunday. And I gave Russ a call on Saturday to tell him to come out, but he was taking fish and did not need our help anyways.

We fished a total of 35 hours thru the week. Boated 83 fish.

Fishing got progressively tougher and tougher as the week went on.

I thought that more boats, would take 9 trout both days, but I guess it is harder than everyone things. Lakers let people actually weigh fish. But the boats that found the silver fish placed well. Only our boat and IVANHOE were the only 2 boats to take a top 10 finish and not catch a silver fish. The standing were very tight.

Only 108 boats fished the tournament. In 2003, we had over 160, and last year we had 144.

Crew - Captain Dave Rymar, Mike Rymar, Phil Clark, Adam Hienrich, and Tim Cook

June 4 & 5 - Grand Haven Offshore

At Grand Haven, fishing was very slow.  We took 16th in the AM division out of 90+ boats.  On Sunday, we boated 6 fish and moved up in the standings.  We fished 3 days on Lake Michigan and our largest fish was an 8 lbs King.

I had a major problem with the Grand Haven City Marina.  They are supposed to call the MDNR and request a blackout from the marina from Tuesday Night until Sunday Morning.  A Blackout makes it so that no one can reserve a boat slip.  I made a reservation for the last day possible, which was Monday evening.  Then my intent was to extend my stay until Sunday of the tournament.  They have a max nightly stay of 7 nights, which we would be under.  I called Friday before the reservation date and asked the dock attendants if I could still do this and they said yes.  Our family drove the boat across the state Monday to put the boat in the water.  When they arrived, they attempted to extend the stay, but they would not let us.  Their reason was because some boats were allowed to reserve slips.  What ended up happening was that Grand Haven as to call the MDNR 6 months prior to the blackout.  They did not do this.  They were late, and some boat reserved spots.  Then they did the blackout and decided to let the guys who made reservations keep and honor them.  So basically we had the slip reserved for Monday and someone had it for Tuesday.  There were two mixups.  One when they did not did not make the blackout call on time, and two when the dock attendants just said yes I could extend my stay when really I could not.  My family wasted their holiday Monday to go across the state pulling the boat.

We decided not to keep the boat there that one night, because no one would be in Grand Haven to pull it out Tuesday.  The Marina did remburse us our money back, minus the fee for making an online reservation.  We called several people in Grand Haven.  Harbor Master, the tournament committee, city government....  It got us no where with the slip.  The tournament committee did get us a spot across the river in a private marina.  The mixup left a sour taste in our mouths and so did the city officials when we talked to then.  I don't think we will be going back.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Larry Rymar, Adam Hienrich, & Jim Frazier

June 11 & 12 - GLPAA Port Austin/Grindstone

We finished in 7th place, only 4.5 lbs out of first.  Very tight finish for the top 10 boats.  We ended up pulling the largest Lake Trout of the entire event on Saturday.  It weighed 12+ lbs.  We took home a check for $500 and 2 Big Jon Captain Pack downriggers for the fish.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Craig Waelens, Dave Goldenbogen

June 25 & 26 - Manistee County

We had boat problems on day 2 and could not fish at all.  Not a good fishing seeing we missed an entire days fishing.

Crew - Captain Jason Fletcher, Mike Rymar, Jeremy Barber, Hogan, ???

July 23 & 24 - Ludington Offshore

Tough day 1 of fishing for the Fishigan Crew.  Then on Saturday evening Captain Dave fell on the dock and broke 2 ribs.  They fished in 6-8 ft seas on day 2, but the rookie crew could not work without Dave.

Crew - Captain Dave Rymar, Steve, and Tim

August 13 - DAS Ludington

Finished 8th in the 16 boat field.  First day the team fishing Ludington since the offshore tournament.  We fished too deep most of the day catching smaller salmon; the adult Kings were in closer.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, and Sara Rymar

Aug 20 - 21 - BWSA Ludington

We got a late start and then did not fair well in the morning bite.  Lost a few fish, and was only about to boat 6 the entire day.

Sunday the team fished in the PM lake just for a bit before throwing in the towel.  It was rough in the lake.

Crew - Captain Dave Rymar, Mike Rymar, Heather Gray, Brian Gray

This page was last edited on: 09/20/2005   

Do not copy or reproduce material of any kind in this site without permission from Michael Rymar or David Rymar Copyright©2001.