2008 South Dakota Highway Patrol Fishing Tournament
If you were sitting around this spring wishing for a
couple of days of some nice weather, great fishing, and a good time, and
you were one of the participants in this years tournament that’s exactly
what you got. The 2008 South Dakota Highway Patrol Fishing Tournament was
held in Pierre at Oahe Down Stream Recreation Area June 22-24. The
tournament started off on the evening of the 22nd with burgers and brauts
supper, a rules meeting, and lastly a Calcutta.
The next morning 43 teams departed from Oahe Marina to
start the first day of the tournament. The morning was a little breezy but
most of the teams overcame this and got on to some spots holding quality
fish. That afternoon a weigh-in was held at the same location. Reining
champs were Paxton, Erickson, Stalley sitting in 1st place with 19 lbs and
a lot of very good teams close behind. Later that evening at the
tournament headquarters there was another fantastic meal prepared with the
help of a few outstanding volunteers.
Following the meal there was prizes given away ranging
from hats, fillet knifes, underwater cameras, and the top prizes being a
savage .17 rifle. Day two was redemption day for some teams that finished
very close to the front the last few years. The weather was a little
better and the size and quality of fish defiantly increased for many of
the teams on day two. At the weigh-ins, the excitement was building when
teams would save their kicker fish until last which kept everyone in
suspense. It came down to the last team to weigh-in Paxton, Erickson and
Stalley, the leaders from day one, but as they knew as well as the scale,
they came up a little short. After the two day tournament the top five
teams are as follows.
1st Troy Spitzer, Ron Schaffer, Glen Spitzer 37.31 lbs
2nd Fred Devany, Brian Gortmaker, Guy Dibennedetto 37.21 lbs
3rd Jeff Metzinger, John Wollman, John Weber 36.27 lbs
4th Mick Jost, Jeremy Chicoine, Joe Sovell 34.74 lbs
5th Ginger Fass, Garland Schrank, Wade Schrank 34.33 lbs
After speaking with a lot of the participants and
teams a variety of tactics were used to land and find the fish. Bottom
bouncers with crawlers and minnows seem to be the bait of choice but a few
teams pulled crank baits to find the bigger fish, cover more water and
ultimately putting some of them over the top of the rest of the teams.
From the tournament staff I would like to thank all the
participants, volunteers, and most importantly the sponsors of the fishing
tournament and with special regards to the South Dakota Peace Officers
Association and the South Dakota Highway Patrol Association with out any
one of these we would not be able to have such a great and outstanding
tournament year after year. Next years tournament is sure to be bigger and
better. We are already gearing up for the 2009 tournament and its
projected location will be in the Cow Creek area. If there are any teams
interested in next years tournament contact Eric Paxton 280-5912 or Randi
Erickson 280-1338.
SDPOA Bikes donated though the Mark Deffenbaugh Memorial of the SDPOA
