Fishigan Fishing Team	Searching for the Largest Fish that the Great Lakes has to offer!!!
2006  Great Lakes Tournaments

Aug 5 - Tightline Shootout

Thursday pre-fishing the action was pretty steady.  The team was able to box 7 Kings over 20 pounds including a 25, 25, and 27.

Friday action slowed for most guys that stayed around the Bluffs.  The Fishigan team decided to make a move around noon to try and fish a school of adult Kings.  The team went west and fished the bank off the spit.  At the spit, the guys were able to boat 2 mid-day adult kings.  One of which went 29 pounds.

Saturday was the day of the Shootout.  This event is 1 day for $10,000.  The Fishigan pointed east for the start of the event and ran to their Thursday spot.  The thought was that Friday was just an off day and the fish would be back on the bite..... Wrong!  The guys would troll the first 2 hours without a fish boxed.  A move needed to be made.  Next thought was to go to the spit and work that bank.  The guys would box 6 fish there, but 1 adult, 2 juvenile Kings, and 3 steelhead were not going to win this event.

Finally tally for the Fishigan team would be 107 points.  Congrats to Captain Matt Santoro and the Hot Rods crew.  They boated several adult kings.  Their largest 6 kings went 152 pounds for a total of 212.20 points.  Very impressive box of fish.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Jim Frazier, and Adam Heinrich

June 24-25 - TAOC

Friday was a blow day with zero boats going out of Port Austin and one charter going out of Grindstone.

Saturday everyone was on a level playing field with no one having any pre-fishing advantage.  Fishigan went to their usual tip of the thumb fishing spot.  Action was pretty consistent, and the team was able to pull a limit of tournament with no salmon.  Their day 1 total had them in 3rd place about 2 pounds behind both Riptide and Gone Bad.  Riptide has won a few of the GLPAA events, and Gone Bad is one of southern Lake Huron's top Charter Captains.

Day 2 the Fishigan went back to their stopping grounds.  Action was about the same, but this trip they were able to mix in three Chinooks.  The weigh-in was tight.  Gone Bad did not have a great day 2.  Fishigan was on top of the leader board with 106 pounds, but Riptide had not weighed in yet.  Riptide also found a couple of bonus Kings out there on day two and was able to pull out the win by 3 pounds with a total of 109.  Congrats to Rob and his crew.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Phil Clark, and Adam Heinrich

June 3-4 - GHOC

What a blast we had in Grand Haven!!

Friday, we pre-fished and left the harbor at 5:15am.  It was really strange as there were supposed to be ~145 boats fishing on the very next day, and we were the only boat heading out in the morning at that time.  They must have all been waiting for the 6:30 start for the ladies/kinds/big fish derby.  Anyway, we set up north of the harbor and found a pocket of fish right way.  We whacked about 8 fish in that one spot and moved on to two other non-productive spots.  Our friends on FISHWHORE fished our numbers later on Friday and popped ~12 fish at noon.  So we both knew we had a place to start on Saturday.

Saturday, we boxed out a little bit early, slowly made our way back to port at 22mph, and cleared the pier head at 1:10pm.  Mike and Brian lifted the cooler to the scales and found no line at all, and there were only about 8 boats that had weighed ahead of us.  They weighed our 12 fish at 70 pounds.  We were the leaders of both the Am and Pro with 190+ points.

Sunday, we struggled all day.  Our friends on FISHWHORE had 8 bites right next to us, and finally after 65 minutes of fishing we popped our first fish.  With a half hour run time, and not having a bite the first 65 minutes after stop we had lost 95 minutes of fishing and it really ended up being the difference in the tournament.

We came to the scales on day 2 with only 11 fish, and the Am Boat REEL DEAL ended up beating us by 1.2 points.  We still walked away with a second place prize of $2500, a 333 prize, day one leader prize of $500, and the Saturday Side Bet.

Thank you Brian and Jim for fishing with us, and FISHWHORE for the help on the water!!!!!!

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Brian Meredith, and Jim Frazier

May 20-21 - BWC

We got H-Dix out of retirement.  A move that may have ended up costing us in the overall standings, but we made out with the prize we did end up catching.....

We laid a big egg in the overall standing for the Blue Water Classic.  Pre-fishing Thursday we only landed 4 weighable fish.  We did take a 5.5 pound Coho, the largest spring Coho ever landed on the FISHIGAN, and the largest Coho we ever landed on Lake Huron. 

Friday, we fished a new spot and from 10am till 12:30pm, we were able to land 9 weighable fish.  One of which was a 10.5 pound King on a half core.

Saturday, we struggled all morning and ended up going 2 for 2.  We were in the Big King Jackpot and fished right up until the end, but when we pulled into Port Sanilac, we were a few seconds late and got DQ'ed.

Sunday, we had a few things to fish for.  Big King Jackpot, Port Prize, and any of the largest species of the tournament divisions.  We decided not to beat ourselves up in the 8' waves.  We ran straight out and fished the wreck called the Northstar.  It lies in about 97' of water.  When we got there, we were surprised to see bait and hooks on the fish finder.  We landed a few pinks and missed a good tug on the full core.  Finally at about 7 o'clock a rigger rod bounced a little bit, it had popped off the release, but the rod was not raising.  Dave Rymar grabbed onto it and felt a good couple of headshakes.  It came in rather quickly for how big it was, and when it saw the boat, it thrashed around a lot.  Dave was able to pull it in close, and Matt Gordon threw the net under it.  It was a large Lake Trout.  We did not weigh it; we guessed it at 10 pounds.  We just got it on ice, and filled the cooler full was water.

When we weighed the fish, it was the largest fish of the entire tournament at 11.66 pounds.  There were still about 3 hours left before weigh-in closed, and somehow it lasted as the top fish of the tournament.  The prize was $1,000 gift certificate from Big Jon.  Image can be found here.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Phil Clark, Matt Gordon

April 29 - SCSS

We fished Harbor Beach.  Lost a nice fish right off the bat.  Then we landed a small coho.  Our 3rd bite was a steelhead that made it to the boat.

We lucked out in the Salmon Stakes taking the largest steelhead.  A whopping 3 pounder.  Not the largest of fish, but still worth $500.

Crew - Captain Mike Rymar, Dave Rymar, Craig Waelans, Cory Waelans