Photo Album ( Not All Photos Available )

The final qualifying tournament of the eighteen event regular WMT season was held on Lake DuBay on September 9th and 10th. Ten muskies would be measured for the tournament with Phil Schweik and Pete Hilman registering four muskies, tallying 165.75 inches and setting a new WMT record for the most inches measured in a two-day event. This team at the 2002 Invitational Championship previously held the record, where they had racked up 158.25 inches.

A severe cold front that passed through the Lake DuBay area on the day before the tournament dictated tough conditions for all the competitors. The temperature on Saturday morning was 38 degrees, assuring a slow bite early in the day and leaving the competitors waiting for warmer weather and the muskie action to heat up. But the muskies had other plans in mind! Only 50 minutes into the contest at 7:20am, Jim Carlson Sr. and Jim Carlson Jr. would score early on a dandy 44 incher. John Steckel and Randy Machtan would tally a 37-inch muskie on a weed bed that they had to themselves all day long. At 8:57am, Bob Charlier and Bill Melanson would land the biggest muskie of the event with a hefty 48 incher that they caught on a jerk bait. By 12:30pm, the last muskie of the day would be tallied by Schweik and Hilman when they measured a 39 incher to go along with their earlier 47 ¾ inch monster at 9:06am. As the day progressed, the weather broke and warmed up and the muskie activity cooled way down.

Sunday’s productivity would duplicate the previous day’s performance with five fish registered, but the size of the muskies wouldn’t match the big muskies of Saturday. The team of Steckel and Machtan, returning to their honey hole (the big weed bed), scored on two more muskies with a 36 incher at 9:35am, along with their first coming at 6:58am that measured 38 ½ inches. But Steckel and Machtan’s lead would last for four minutes when Schweik and Hilman scored on their third for the event at 9:39am, a 41 ½ incher that would add to their final muskie at 11:20am, measuring 37 ½ inches. The brother team of Doug and Don Grant would score a fifth place finish with their 34 ¾ muskie caught at 7:37am.

The WMT’s Lake Dubay tournament finished as follows:

1st place: Phil Schweik and Pete Hilman 47 ¾ + 39 + 41 ½ + 37 ½
2nd place: John Steckel and Randy Machtan 37 + 38 ½ + 36
3rd place: Bill Melanson and Bob Charlier 48
4th place: Jim Carlson Sr. and Jim Carlson Jr. 44
5th place: Don and Doug Grant 34 ¾
6TH place: Scott Spangle and Paul Peterson
7th place: Tyler Titus and Steve Lighthart
8th place: Mark Lijewski and Mark Gillich
9h place: Joe Vanden Elven and Brad Breuer
10th place: Chuck Lamaine and Kevin Miller

Sponsors of the Lake Dubay tournament are: Heckel’s Marina, Saloon Dubay, Ranger Boats, Minn Kota, MidWest Outdoors, Fittante Taxidermy, G Loomis, Smokey’s Muskellunge Shop and Rollie and Helen’s Musky Shop.