The Moose Jaw Wildlife Federation is once again inviting fisherman out to the Walleye Challenge, taking place this year with rules night on June 7 and all-day fishing on June 8.
The one-day fishing tournament is still taking teams, with a few spots left open for fishermen itching to get their hooks in Saskatchewan’s most popular tournament fish.
The tournament usually sees about 50 teams launch at Buffalo Pound Lake. MJWF president Todd Smith is looking forward to seeing people come out for this year’s event, as he feels it's a great tournament to get started with.
“It's a pretty good introductory tournament for people looking to get their feet wet, if you will, for tournament fishing,” said Smith. “It's a great one-day event that lets them kind of try it out if they're unsure, and hopefully they go on to fish a lot more.”
Walleye is Saskatchewan’s most targeted sport fish, said Smith, which is why there are hatcheries across the province supplementing the populations each year — one of which is actually run by the MJWF at Buffalo Pound Lake.
The tournament has weight prizes, paid out to the top ten, as well as a hidden weight prize sponsored by Moose Jaw RV & Marine: a WC 14 Lund aluminum fishing boat.
MJWF is also partnering with Loney’s Point at Buffalo Pound, as the official launch point for the derby.
“Being that [Loney’s Point is] halfway up the lake, lots of people fish up around there anyway and it gives them the choice of whether they want to run up towards the causeway or down towards the provincial park,” said Smith.
The Walleye Challenge sees teams from all over the province participate, from as far as Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Regina, and even Nipawin. But Smith also sees quite a few folks from this area return each year as well.
Currently, teams have to register by downloading the forms from the MJWF website and mailing them in, alongside their registration fees and Sask Wildlife membership number, although Smith is looking into changing that up in the future.
“We're hoping we'll be able to streamline registration here a little bit next year and get beforehand registrations to be done online,” said Smith. “We get people from Saskatoon and P.A. and kind of all over coming, so it might make things a little bit easier than sending it by post.”
The Challenge is a live-release tournament, so Smith is looking forward to possibly having the University of Regina fish lab crew out to tag some of the fish caught and hopefully see some tags from last year.
“Hopefully, we'll get some of the tagged fish that have been done in previous years back. We can get some comparative data for us to follow what's going on with the fisheries,” said Smith.
