Kevin Worrall Memorial Muskie Tournament
Category: article
Feb 9th, 2005 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Feb 9th, 2005 at 12:00 AM
It was the morning that I looked forward to every year. The day of the Lakeview Inn / Kevin Worrall Memorial Musky Classic on Pelican Lake in Wisconsin. It was Sept. 7th 1996 and I’ve been fishing this tournament for the last 14 years, and even though my fishing partner and uncle, Milo Gregurich, has put us in the money over the years with a 1st and 3rd place finish, I had yet to catch a legal size musky during the tournament. The morning greeted us with a thick fog that delayed the start of the contest for an hour. When they finally released us, I headed for a spot west of Cresent Island. My morning started out with a musky follow on my second cast, and ended, for me, the same way as the last 14 years. At 11:30 a.m. we headed back to Lakeview Inn for lunch. Afterwards we decided to go back to the first spot we had started at that morning. It’s a weedy area in 6 to 8 feet of water, with bull rushes to the west and a rock reef to the south. It was now 1:00 p.m. and my 14 year drought was about to come to an end. I cast my 10″ yellow belly/brown top Suick toward the reef when it happened. On about the third jerk of the bait a good fish smashed my Suick, and about 5 minutes later my partner netted my first tournament musky – a 42 incher. And as it turns out, I wasn’t finished. One hour later we were working the same area, but a little closer to the reef, when a boat sped between the reef and the bull rushes, passing close to my boat. I cast my Suick into his wake. My bait traveled about 8 feet when a big fish grabbed my offering. His head was out of the water, shaking back and forth, and after a short but very intense fight Milo netted the fish. When we brought the fish aboard, we heard a cheer from a couple of the other boats around us. It was like they were aware of my dry spell. The judge boat came over and measured our fish at 48 inches. After releasing our second catch of the day, Milo asked me what I wanted to do next. I thought to myself, the next thing I wanted to do was to stop shaking, and then I suggested we try fishing in Musky Bay. I started up the motor and headed south. As we passed close to Mekanac Point, I noticed that my depth finder lit up like a Christmas tree. I informed Milo that there was a lot of baitfish off that point and he said we should give it a try. I turned the boat around and pulled up on the spot. As I threw my first cast, still using my Suick, over my boats original path, I saw a couple of small baitfish jump out of the water. I told my partner that something was working this school of baitfish. I don’t think that I finished my sentence when I yelled out to Milo that I had another fish on. It was 2:47 p.m. when the judge boat measured our third fish at 41 3/4 inches. As we waited over the area where we released the fish, making sure that the fish was ok, Milo realized that this musky was caught on my very next cast after the 48 inch fish. Two casts produced two muskies! Fourteen years of fishing this tournament without a legal musky and then two twenty pound class and one thirty pound fish in 1 hour and 47 minutes. That’s musky fishing for ya! It was the end of the tournament, and back at the Lakeview Inn someone asked my partner Milo how he did. He said “It was one of my best days of fishing and I never caught a fish”. Due to the fact that this tournament is decided by total inches we ended up taking 2nd place. The first place team caught 4 fish, all around 35 inches. I won big fish honors and received a free graphite reproduction, which was presented to me at the following year’s tournament, from Joe Fittante Taxidermy.The plaque read; WINNER – 1996KEVIN WORRALL MEMORIAL MUSKY TOURNAMENTPELICAN LAKE48″ – 31 LBSCAUGHT & RELEASED BY: JEFF SOMERS Here’s a link to the picture of the biggest fish of the day:http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/photos/photo-thumbnails.asp?albumid=7