Consistency with a confident game plan put the team of Dustin Christopherson, Adam Jost, and Erick “The Legend” Jost at the top of the leaderboard for the inaugural South Dakota Team Walleye Championships.
Erick “The Legend” Jost received his name just a few months back in May of 2009 when he caught the fish that was heard around the state. During an after work fishing trip this past May Erick latched into one of the largest walleyes known to be caught here in South Dakota measuring over 34 inches. Since the catch and after a few articles were done on the fish and pictures of Erick with his fish flooded emails throughout the fishing world, Erick has been recognized as the guy that caught the “big one” on Lake Oahe. He hasn’t signed any autographs yet but has been approached many times by people asking are you the guy that caught the big one. Adam and Dustin have nicknamed him “The Legend” as a joke, even though Erick doesn’t like the name. But The Legend came through this weekend catching 5 of the teams 6 fish (that they tagged) over 20 inches in the 2 days. Of those 6, 3 of them were over 25 inches and Erick caught 2 of them, and he caught 3 of the 4 over 20″ fish the team decided to weigh in. I personally can see the new nickname sticking around for a while!
Here is a little information about this tournament and the waters it was held on. Each team is allowed to have 2 or 3 people as their team, and each team member is allowed to catch and keep his/her legal limit for the tournament. A legal limit in South Dakota on Lake Oahe is 4 walleyes/sauger per person of which one of those 1 fish can be over 20 inches. Each team was given 1 tag per team member that was to be immediately used to tag their over 20″ fish when they decided to keep that fish. South Dakota law also strictly enforces a no cull rule and the tags were used as part of the enforcement to keep everyone honest.
The tournament was held out of Spring Creek Resort, with all waters of Lake Oahe accessible by boat as the boundaries. The tournament rules allowed each team to weigh 5 fish each day with only 2 of those fish measuring over 20 inches. The winners were less than one half pound away from a 4 pound average over 2 days and not many waters in North America can puts weights like that up with a slot in place! Lake Oahe is one of those few places and there is no better place on Lake Oahe that Spring Creek. Spring Creek Resort and Deep Water Marina was a major sponsor to this event, and I encourage you to visit their website to plan your next trip to South Dakota and Lake Oahe. http://www.springcreekventure.com/
Dave Underhill the Host of The Fishing Crew Pro Challenge MC’d the event and many commented this was the most organized, well ran event they have ever fished. The fisherman appreciated how Dave managed the lightning storm that delayed the take-offs Sunday morning as well as the professional weigh-ins, and kept the very large crowd entertained and interested.
Results
48 teams competed for the title of South Dakota Team Walleye Champions, and all 48 teams weighed fish. With some of South Dakota’s best fisherman fishing the tournament, the top 10 has some very familiar names:
- 1st – Dustin Christopherson, Adam Jost, Erick Jost
- Day 1 (19.98)—–Day 2 (19.57)—–Total (39.55)
- 2nd – Roger Novotny, Steven Novotny, Derek Schiefelbein
- Day 1 (17.36)—–Day 2 (18.40)—–Total (35.76)
- 3rd – Lee Pulse, Scott Handel, Glenn Eimers
- Day 1 (17.18)—–Day 2 (17.98)—–Total (35.16)
- 4th – Drew Osnes, Josh Peffer, Brandon Day
- Day 1 (16.46)—–Day 2 (16.80)—–Total (33.26)
- 5th – Darren Nelson, Travis Frizie
- Day 1 (17.16)—–Day 2 (16.06)—–Total (33.22)
- 6th – Kenneth Johnson, Robyn Johnson, Don Miller
- Day 1 (15.58)—–Day 2 (17.30)—–Total (32.88)
- 7th – David Harmon, Scott Busteed, Pat Busteed
- Day 1 (16.36)—–Day 2 (15.66)—–Total (32.02)
- 8th – Bob Stalley, Aaron Olson, Nick Fossness
- Day 1 (17.72)—–Day 2 (13.42)—–Total (31.14)
- 9th – Mike Walter, LaVonne Walter, Dave Davison
- Day 1 (15.06)—–Day 2 (16.74)—–Total (31.80)
- 10th – Dave Dunn, Dan Gallimore, Bruce Lyon
- Day 1 (15.26)—–Day 2 (15.40)——Total (30.66)
Event Photos
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