Press release to newspapers and other websites

LEWT Sandusky event features outstanding fishing

The Western Basin Sportfishing Association (WBSA) held the third event of the Starcraft Marine/Evinrude E-TEC Lake Erie Walleye Trail (LEWT) at the Sandusky City Boat Ramp on Saturday June 16^th.   The 37 teams that participated in the event found beautiful weather and great catching as they all brought a limit catch to the scales for the weigh in. 

The team of Mike Robertson of Potsdam and Mike Tobias of Lovington brought in a five fish limit weighing 35.32 lbs. to capture the top spot.  They found the winning fish in shallow water off of Sherrod Park just west of Vermilion.  Their winning program was trolling deep diving Reef Runners with Grey Ghost and Bare Naked being two of their best colors.  Robertson commented “We thought we had made the wrong decision when we didn’t have a fish yet at 8:30 and were thinking about moving just as things started to pick up and then we stayed there the rest of the day and kept catching and upgrading.”   Dave and Travis Hartman from Columbus Grove and Bellevue came in second with their second straight top 5 finish by weighing 32.6 lbs.  Rounding out the top 5 were third place finishers Tim Joseph and Don Marston of Utica with 32.46 lbs. fourth place went to Jeff Lash of North Robinson and Chad Cheatwood of Bowling Green with 31.4 lbs and in fifth place was Darik Warnke of Stow and Karl Warnke of Aurora with 31.24 lbs.  Second through fourth place pulled spinners north of the islands while the fifth place team were also pulling Reef Runners but on the east side of Kelly’s Island.

The chase for the Cranberry Creek Marina Big Fish award saw a tight finish as the top 2 teams in the tournament battled it out for this honor also.  Team Hartman took top honors with a 9.42 lb walleye.  In addition to the $500 big fish award they also captured the free season ramp pass to Cranberry Creek Marina.  Robertson and Tobias took second big fish worth $200 with their 9.06 lb fish.

With all of the teams bringing in a limit there were a total of 185 fish brought in weighing a combined 857.4 lbs. for an average weight of 4.63 lbs.  A lot of the teams donated their fish to the club which in turn donated them to the Second Harvest Food Bank in Lorain.  There were a total of 283 lbs of fish donated for their cause.  In addition to paying out over $5000 in prize money there was also over $1,200 in merchandise handed out from our sponsors.  A special thanks goes out to the City of Sandusky for the use of their excellent facilities and to West Marine for providing refreshments to everyone in the morning and at the weigh in.

In the race for team of the year Tom and Tommy Sibert sit at the top of the list but right behind them are  Robertson and Horstman and Hartman and Hartman both just 2 points out of the lead.  The top five teams are all separated by 8 points but it really is any ones title to grab since teams can drop 2 of their lowest point events out of the 5 tournaments.

The next event for the LEWT is the Gander Mountain Migration Open which is held in conjunction with the WRWA out of Geneva State Park.  This is an open event which means that the team members do not need to be a member of either of the hosting clubs so any one is eligible to participate.  “The fishing in Geneva has really started to take off and is only going to get better between now and July 7^th.  We are looking for a really good turnout with a lot of big fish brought to the scales for that event” commented Marc Hudson WBSA President.

There are spots available for the remaining LEWT events in 2007.  For more information about the LEWT you can visit www.wbsa.us   The LEWT is sponsored by Starcraft Marine, Evinrude E-TEC(BRP), West Marine, Reef Runner Lures, Cranberry Creek Marina, Gander Mountain,  Sportsmans Outpost, Erie Outfitters, Ole Pete's Tackle, Dixie's crafts, Maxed Out Enterprises, Yant Beef Jerky,  Navionics, Renosky Lures, www.OhioGamefishing.com , Buckeye Rod Maker, Michigan Stinger Spoons, Sharpnack II Chevrolet, Jim’s Taxidermy, Cisco Fishing Systems, LPG Fishing Systems, Rich’s Hook Line and Sinker, and Dave’s Bait.