Walleye Challenge slated at Fresno next week

The Fresno Walleye Challenge, a two-day fishing tournament with day money and overall payouts for the two-person teams, is a week away, and organizers said the tournament still has a few openings left before reaching the 100-team limit.

The tournament, put on by the Fresno Chapter of Walleyes Unlimited, will be Saturday, May 19, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, May 20, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. with a mandatory meeting Friday, May 18, at the Walleye Pavilion at Fresno Reservoir at 6 p.m. Competitors will be fed dinner Friday and Saturday.

“I’m taking a bunch of calls right now from interested tournament people,” Brian Olson, tournament organizer for the Fresno Chapter, said Thursday. “… I would like to have the full 100 teams, and like I said, I’d like to have different people come out here and take advantage of what we’ve got.”

What the Fresno Chapter has is a chance for walleye fishers to make some good money because, other than paying for some expenses such as boat fuel for volunteers, the entry fees are paid back to the competitors.

“One reason why people like to come and fish this,” he said, “is probably somewhere from 30 to 40 percent actually walk out of here with money. If you have a poor first day, you can still win enough money to at least pay a portion of your entry fee if not all of it.”

The top 20 percent of teams will win day money for their fish and the top 10 percent of teams will win prize money for weekend totals. If the full 100 teams entered that would mean 20 teams would win money each day and 10 would earn top prize money, all based on the amount of entry fee money.

In 2017, Olson said, the day money paid out to the top 20 percent Saturday and Sunday was about $6,000 each day, with the lowest amount $100.

Competitors can also pay to enter the Big Walleye and Big Northern Pike pots, and 100 percent of that money is paid out, half each day he said.

Olson, a longtime fisherman who has been out to Fresno several times this year to fish and monitor the water conditions, offered a tip for this year’s tournament.

Fish just finished spawning and the water is still a bit muddy from spring runoff, he said, so he thinks jig fishermen will have an advantage.

“Your presentation will have to be slower to catch fish, I think,” Olson said, and the jigs are slow moving and present bait right in the walleye’s face where it can be seen.

Anyone interested in checking out the fishing action as a spectator can stop by Kremlin Bay at the main dock or Kings Bay at the first point along the road, he added. The two areas have been set up as shore-based measuring stations for competitors to get their live fish measured and documented before the fish are then released back into the reservoir.

The entry fee is $250 per team, and anyone interested in signing up or finding out more about the tournament can call Olson at 390-2091.