Page 13 – Youth – Conservation

For Immediate Release
2024 Ohio Walleye Federation
Qualifier #2 Pymatuning Lake

The Ohio Walleye Federation presented by Erie Marine Sales held their second tournament of the year
on 5/19/2024 at one of the Northeastern Ohio’s premier walleye destinations. Sunday brought beautiful
high skies and lots of sunshine. 16 out of the 19 teams weighed a 5 fish limit and all but 2 teams
weighed in a fish. Most teams fishing reported catching fish during prefishing from very small to very
large, showing that Pymatuning is one of the healthiest lakes we fish.

Due to many scheduling conflicts with other clubs and circuits, and an already extremely busy spring
entries were a little low for the second qualifier of the year. Even with numbers down the competition
was fierce. The winning team won by .17 pounds!!!!

Winning qualifier #2 of the year was the team of Steve Booher and Mike Schmidt with a weight of 23.47
pounds. Steve and Mike won $1500 for their efforts. Steve and Mike capped their winning bag with a
7.02-pound big fish of the event worth $400. This was the 2nd straight event that Steve and Mike won
big fish of the day. Steve reported at weigh-in that they caught all their fish by “snap jigging” plastics.
They were using ¼ oz jig heads with multiple different types of plastics. Fishing primarily in 3-5 feet of
water. Steve reported catching fish all day long in the sunny day. With the win that propelled the team
into a tie for 1st place in the season long points race as well.

The 2nd place team of Christopher Durkin and Anthony Naples came in a very close 2nd place winning
$900 with a weight of 23.30 pounds. Christopher stated at weigh-in that they caught fish the way they
always due. With a 1/16th and 1/8th oz jig and a night crawler. Christopher informed everyone that they
caught over 50 fish throughout the entire day.

In 3rd place, that paid out $700 was the team of Jason Fischer and Lucas Hahn with 5 fish that weighed
20.77 pounds. Their bag included 2nd big fish with a 6.60-pound fish. The 2nd biggest fish provided the
team with a $50.00 Presta Marine sponsorship gift card. Jason stated that he caught that big fish with a
few minutes left in the day utilizing Forward Facing Sonar to “Snipe” it. Jason and Lucas caught the rest
of their fish with a combination of snap jigging plastics and a jig and crawler.
In 4th place with 5 fish for 19.32 pounds was the team of Jim Leigh and Shane Doughty. Jim stated that
they caught all their fish snap jigging plastics in 3-6 foot of water. Jim and Shane took home a check for
$500.

In 2024 the OWF is also giving away an out of the money $50.00 gift certificate this time to Runzo’s
Outdoors was awarded to Ciprini Donici and Norman Wickline.

For our last qualifier of the season the OWF will be in Western NY at Chautauqua Lake on June 9th.
Registration is currently open. This is our 3rd visit to Chautauqua and each of the first 2 years the event
has grown as have the bag sizes.

The Ohio Walleye Federation would like to thank our title sponsor Erie Marine Sales for all the support
that they provide to us. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be able to provide 100% payout at all
tournaments. For 2024 we would also like to thank our other sponsors of Whitetails Unlimited, Walleye
Nations Creations, Ego Nets, Presta Marine, Church Tackle, Flynn’s Tire and Auto Service, Snakebite Snap
weights, FishUSA, Fisherman’s Central, Runzo’s Outdoors and Kerr’s Automotive.

For additional information or to sign up for an event please check us out on Facebook – Ohio Walleye
Federation or on our website; www.ohiowalleyefederation.com.