Cedar Valley Walleye Club Forum

Well the first 2-Day CVWC Tournament went great! We had a good turnout, we had two beautiful fall days for fishing, and some very nice fish were brought to the scales! I handled more big fish at the scales than any tournament we have ever hosted!

On Saturday we had the biggest and maybe the second biggest bags of fish brought to any CVWC weigh-in. Doug Bonwell and his cousin Lynn Bonwell weighed four fish for 16.58 lbs & Dave Asche and George Schaefers weighed a 5 fish limit for 19.22 lbs. Yes, those weights are real! Great job Doug & Lynn and Super Great Job to Dave & George on some record weights!

On Sunday the teams went out again to hold their positions, improve their positions, and/or just hoping to put a keeper in the livewell! Everyone was expecting the same if not better weights on Sunday with a front moving through the area and every team knowing the kind of fish that were able to be caught on Saturday. We did not have the monster bags come to the scales on Sunday, but some nice fish were caught. The team of Jim Dengler and Tony Jochumsen had the best weight of the day with 3 fish for 13.56 lbs., anchored by a 8 lb. plus kicker! The team of Jeff & Darwin Heltibridle had the second best weight of the day with 2 fish for 6.24 lbs. and 4 others teams brought 4-5 pounds in.

Here are the final results! For fifth place with a total 2-Day weight of 6.24 lbs. was a tie between the team of Jeff & Darwin “Team of the Year” Heltibridle and the team of Matt “The Handliner” Vlasak & Brad “Cedar River Rat” Behrens. For fourth place with a total 2-Day weight of 9.90 lbs. was the team of Al “Big Red Lund” Clausman & Rob “I’m Back” Gilstrap. For third place with a total 2-Day weight of 15.96 lbs. was the team of Jim “Wingding” Dengler & Tony “Big Fish” Jochumsen. For second place with a very nice 2-Day weight of 21.16 lbs. was the team of Doug “I’m the Man” Bonwell & Lynn “Get the Net” Bonwell. For first place, anchored by the biggest single day weight in CVWC tournament history, was the team of Dave “I Need a Luffa” Asche & George “Big Buck” Schaefers with a total weight of 24.78 lbs. Congrats to the top finishers and thanks to all the anglers for fishing. Be sure to attend the November club meeting to hear how the top finishers caught their fish.

To my extreme personal dissatisfaction, I have to congratulate and honor the 2011 CVWC Team of the Year to Jeff & Darwin Heltibridle! Great job guys! Thanks to all the anglers that fished this year and that wraps up the tournament season of 2011!

Kyle Colbert, Existing CVWC Tournament Director

Kyle,
Great coverage of the final results. I like the added touch of "nicknames"!

I would also like to give a big shout out to Kyle and the excellent job he has done as the Tournament Director. Kyle has run the tournaments to the highest professonial level while making some great improvements to help the tournaments grow and make the club grow. Kyle has shown how leadership is done to the highest level. We should pat Kyle on the back for the job he has done!
Thank you for two great years of leadership Kyle!

M.V.

Kyle--you've done a great job as cvwc tourny director. If you don't make it big time as a pro on the walleye circut try stand up comedy.I'll miss your jabs at the weigh in's. I hope you don't give up tail gaiting for the fish frys. Best times we all had. wingding!

Kyle,
Although I've only been to a few tourneys I'd say you do a real nice job of directing them and keeping things running smooth and organized. Job well done!

Matt V.-- thanks for guiding me around in Lansing and hosting me all weekend. I had a nice time! Learned a few things as well. Too bad the weeds were so thick!

Brenda and Tony--BIG thank you for all the great food you fed me Saturday night, and for saving me a plate on Friday night!! It was awesome! It was like a Thanksgiving feast after a long day of fishing and it hit the spot!

Congrats to everyone who caught fish, they sure were not jumping in the boat!

Just just wanted to say "Thanks" also to Kyle for running tournaments in a professional manner. I like the use of the radios to communicate, take off procedure, the official ruler, 2 day tournament, new locations, Sponsor banner being displayed and more. These are all things which have added to our club tourneys value and success.

Change sometimes seems hard to swallow, but as I look back these changes all have been for the better.

I also have noticed a lot of change in boats. (except Santa) Did you see Trents? Todd's? Al's? and how others have changed?

The CVWC is a great club with great people! Continue to keep her going and be willing to change when needed.

God Bless!

Doug Bonwell

Kyle,
KUDOS! to you for taking the role of tournament director for the last two years. You set us up with new venues for fishing and introduced our first two day tournament, which was very sucessful.
Also a considerable amount of money was raised for our Kid's events over the last two years. I enjoyed every tournament even thought the weather was not sooo good for several last year with flodding water and the 1st three this year with WIND -COLD -SNOW and WIND -COLD - RAIN and WIND -RAIN -HOT. However the comradery of our fellow fishermen was worth the pain and the last tournament's weather was the best a fellow could ask for.

Thanks for all your effort and good fishing! The pic should look familar

Walt E.

Wow guys! Thank you very much for the encouraging words. I mostly enjoyed my time as tournament director, and extremely enjoyed getting to know all the tournament anglers better. But I did not do it without some great help. I have to give a big thanks to all the members of the tournament board. Terry "BlackEagle" Blank for keeping all the tournament stats updated and very well organized, as well as, the FishEye News Reports. Bob "Republican Party" Stewart for his even keeled demeanor, thoughtful ideas, and willingness to listen to me ramble about tournament issues. Tony "Big Fish" Jochumsen for his no nonsense personality and great meals at the Multi-Species Tournaments. And a special big thanks to previous tournament director Matt "Handliner" Vlasak. I was faced with some new challenges that the club had never encountered at multiple tournaments as director and Matt was always there to back me up when needed and provide helpful advice without trying to call me out. And because of Matt I have the river gage chart added as a favorite on my internet account because of all the high water we had in 2010. Thank you board members! I plan to still helping with and attending tournaments as my schedule allows in the future.

Thanks Again, Kyle Colbert

Kyle your my hero!!!