OWF 3rd Qualifier Results on Berlin Lake

This past weekend’s showdown for qualifier #3 brought the Ohio Walleye Federation’s teams to the shores of Berlin Lake. Berlin is the sight of the historic championship from 2022 where record bags were weighed. Oh, what a difference a year can make.

The pre-fish was reported to be less than stellar from everyone that I talked to. The prior weekends highs in the 80’s was met by a 50-degree temperature drop mid-week with lows in the 30s and frost reported on the ground. Berlin Lake and river has nearly 80 miles of shoreline between the lake and all of the creeks that flow into it which give the fish the upper hand in this one.

The consistent thought on Sunday morning was that the fishing had to get better. Though there was a great positive attitude amongst competitors, the walleye did not cooperate for most teams. Catching fish and cashing a check in an extremely tough bite is something to really hang your hat on. These were the teams that were able to do just that.

It is “rinse and repeat” for Anthony Naples and Christopher Durkin. They pulled out a squeaker of a win by .05 pounds with 3 fish for 9.59 pounds for their second consecutive OWF win. Naples and Durkin have gained a reputation of being one of the top teams in Ohio when it comes to catching fish with a jig and crawler. That expertise came in handy as they reported that they caught their 3 fish doing just that. They told the crowd at weigh-ins that they were jigging in anywhere from 2-8 feet of water. Christopher actually told the crowd that he owes his success to a lucky shirt. This is the 4th consecutive tournament that the team has won including 2 tournaments that weren’t with the Ohio Walleye Federation. They are 1 hot team.

The 2nd place team of Nathan and Lyle Miller narrowly missed out on their 1st OWF win. They were in 2nd place with the only 5 fish limit weighed in of 9.54 pounds. They too were jigging in shallow water. They reported catching their fish with a combination of live bait and plastics.

In 3rd place, was the team of Aaron and Randy Hall. They weighed in 3 fish for 8.52 pounds bringing home a good check and 3rd place plaques. They reported catching all of their fish “cranking”. They said that they had to throw their crankbaits all the way up to the bank and bring it back from there. The team leaned on their local knowledge to grind out the bites that they got.

In 4th place with 2 fish for 7.26 pounds was Adam and Carl Momirov. They reported using a jig and night crawler in the many willow bushes around the lake to catch their fish.

Rounding out the top 5 was the also extremely hot captain Rick Mulraney with teammate and daughter Emily Mulraney fishing with him at Berlin. Rick and Emily weighed 2 fish for 7.09 pounds. This was Emily’s first tournament fishing with her dad, and she seemed to really enjoy herself! Rick reported catching his fish in shallow with 1 coming on a jig and night crawler and the other coming on a blade bait.

In total the 26 teams fishing there was one 5 fish limit weighed in and a total of 27 fish with grand total weight of 76.58 pounds from Berlin Lake.

The OWF is now taking a couple of weeks off due to the holidays and to allow the teams from the club fishing the National Team Championship a chance to compete in that. Good Luck to the teams representing the club on the National stage. Hopefully everyone brings home a Top 25.

Our next event will be on June 11th at Chautauqua Lake. After last year’s inaugural event on the lake, we are anticipating it to be bigger and better than last year. There is speculation that if the fishing cooperates it will take north of 30 pounds to win that event! Can’t wait to find out and make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunity to fish in it.

The Ohio Walleye Federation would like to thank our title sponsor Erie Marine Sales for all of 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 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.

For Immediate Release

2023 Ohio Walleye Federation

Qualifier #2 Lake Milton

The Ohio Walleye Federation just concluded the second tournament of the season on Lake Milton. As is usually the case with the 1700 acre reservoir the anglers were concentrated to small areas and the fish were spread out throughout the lake.

Teams that got a chance to get out and pre-fish the few days before the event were rewarded with beautiful sunshine days and high sporadic clouds. Reports were given that there were many fish over the 15” minimum length being caught with a few of those fish 20”+ that would be needed as a “kicker” to push you from an average bag to being able to compete for a win.

After a minor boat ramp adjustment that was made at the last minute on Saturday evening, teams arrived to Millers Landing Boat ramp with some definite changing conditions. Clouds had filled the sky and the temperature in the morning was about 20 degrees warmer than had been the past few days. Looking at the weather forecast it was told rain was coming and they weren’t lying. Anglers were faced with a few hours of rain during the competition day.

The team of Anthony Naples and Christopher Durkin persevered  through the raindrops to pull out an impressive win. The team weighed 3 fish for 10.95 pounds with a Lake Milton giant kicker of 6.49 pounds. Naples and Durkin were 2 fish short of their tournament limit and still won by almost 3 pounds. Taking home $1700 for the day’s fishing. Talking to Christopher at weigh-in, he stated that they were fishing one of their favorite stretches in the river and jigging, live bait, either a minnow or night crawler on a jig. He said that they would cast up onto the bank and work the jig back to the boat that was sitting in roughly 12 feet of water. The team also wanted to give out a huge assist to Joe Yackmack for his lending them a landing net on tournament morning when it was realized that the team had left theirs at home. Durkin told the crowd that they would have never been able to land that big fish without borrowing that net.

The 2^nd place team of Rick Mulraney and Chaun Martin trolled leadcore in 10-14 foot of water to pull in a 5 fish limit that weighed in at 8.21 pounds good for 2^nd place plaques and $1050. Rick and Chaun were pulling flicker shads in a variety of colors on the lake’s south side. Rick was also the winning captain in qualifier #1 and after this impressive showing has taken commanding lead in the OWF points thru 2 events.

In 3^rd place, that paid out $800 was the always consistent team on Lake Milton of Bobby Honaker and Kevin Kalinowski with 5 fish that weighed 6.57 pounds. Bobby and Kevin said that they bounced around to multiple different spots looking for fish to jig up. They two used a combination of live bait, minnows and night crawlers. Bobby and Kevin were also the winners of event #2’s NTC Side Pot winning a paid entry into the 2024 Bass Pro Shops and Cabelas National Team Championship, presented by the TWF.

In 4^th place with 5 fish for 6.35 pounds was Dan DeBenedictis and Ciprian Donici they won $600. They were also jigging, and said that most of their fish came jigging boat docks with live bait. Dan stated that after a productive morning jigging they then switched to trolling to the shallow waters next to the boat docks as well. Dan stated that there was no particular lure or color that worked better when they were trolling.

Rounding out the top 5 was the team of Matt Simunick and Tommy Delvecchio with 5 fish for 6.09 pounds good for $400. This is Matt and Tommy’s 2^nd season fishing with the OWF and their first top 5. Good job gentlemen! Matt reported that he caught all of his fish trolling flicker shads on the south end of the lake as well. He said that his fish were all from 8-12 foot of water.  

In total the 26 teams fishing there were five 5 fish limits weighed in and a total of 67 fish with grand total of 97.91 pounds from Lake Milton.

The OWF season now moving its focus to Berlin Lake on May 21st. Berlin was the sight of last year’s Inland Lake Championship and there were some impressive bags weighed in. The OWF record for largest 1 day bag ever weighed of 31.54 pounds was pulled out of Berlin last summer.  Make sure to get your registrations in.

The Ohio Walleye Federation would like to thank our title sponsor Erie Marine Sales for all of 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 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.