All three days of events went off successfully leading with the Ladies and Kids event of Friday where 30+ plus boats went out to compete and they had to - compete with the weather which had the heaviest rain storms I've seen in some time but also had good to great fishing. The Ladies and Kids was won on the Pro side by Hot Spot followed by Reel Action and Thunderduck, and the Am side the winner was Water Dog followed by Slip Knot and In Pursuit.

Click Here - Pro Ladies and Kids
Click Here - Am Ladies and Kids

The Pro/Am looked to be more of the same as a thunderstorm cell swept in on the competitors as they waited outside the pier heads for the tournament to start. Luckliy the weather committee had the full use of technology including Radar and Sirius Satellite Weather integrated with their Raymarine electronics to indicate that the storm was moving fairly quickly and was a small cell that had nothing behind it. The weather committee smartly chose to keep the competitors outside the piers and start the tournament on time instead of risking having the boats in the channel and being slammed by the storm in there with no room to maneuver, placing the boats at further risk. Fifteen minutes after the start the storm had moved through and wonderful blue skies greeted the competitors as they began setting up on their spots.

Day one teams were required to donate their catch and that donation amounted to 3600 raw pounds of fish to the Teen Challenge for their food bank. Sunday was optional but many teams donated their fish so another great amount was donated resulting in some valuable chartiable giving from the tournament and its competitors

The Pro Division was taken by Ludington's Blue Fairways with a wire-to-wire win putting up a big number on the first day following up with just enough to hold off the competition. Blue Fairways posted a winning score of 371.5, no bonus points for trout were awarded just simply ten points per fish and a point per pound, followed closely by The Edge with 369.85 in second and Best Chance Too with 368.8 in third. The Pro field was as tight as it gets with just over 10 points seperating the Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Blue Fairways
2. The Edge
3. Best Chance Too
4. Get Some
5. Sea Flea

The Huntington Championship Point Series (GL2S.CPS) had 9 boats take scores in Grand Haven and some reshuffling in the top of the series. Blue Fairways the leader of CPS after the previous event and Pro winner decided against taking a cull in Grand Haven and missed receiving the ever important first place points which allowed Sea Flea to leap into first with a total of 396 pts. The field is tight with many opportunities for movement with five events still to go. (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard)

Am Division winner Early Bird brought in two nearly identical boxes for a total of 361.35 points followed by Team Reel Deal with 357.15 and Silver Addiction with 342. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Early Bird
2. Reel Deal
3. Silver Addiction
4. Squirrel Cage
5. Too Fish

The Huntington Grand Haven Offshore Challenge was the fifth stop of the Gander Mountain 333 and Gimme 5 awarding prizes for biggest fish and combo 333 catches.

The 333 event had a fanatstic turn out with nearly 70 boats registered to compete in this fun format where anyone can win by putting together three big fish.  The Gimme 5 challenge has really brought a new level of fun and opportunities for teams to compete and win, teams are beginning to figure out new strategies for weighing fish that may give them a shot at winning the $500 Cannon Big Combo of three fish of different species.  No Michgan Stinger Brown Trout was weighed so that $500 will rollover to the Bud Pro/Am in Manistee.

Fish ##### weighed the best three they had taking the win at 37.8 lbs followed up closely by Rawhide at 36.1 lbs. and KC-1 at 35.8 lbs.

(Click Here - Full 333 Results)

The Gimme 5 awards of $500 cash went to:

The South Haven Big Jon Pro/Am is in the record books and after all the weather that Michigan has to offer the scores are in.  Day one started with a hour delay as the tournament committee pondered weather reports, that delay turned into a cancellation of the fishing day.  But as Michigan weather goes, if you don't like the weather now wait five minutes proved to be true as available weather forecasts were completely wrong and the day turned out to be fabulous and water conditions settled within a couple hours of the decision.

Day 2 revealed windy initial conditions again but the forecasts indicated that the winds should tail and settle down the water.  Refer back to the Michigan Rule. Those forecasts proved to be wrong again as the winds stayed on the offensive delivering consistently building seas throughout the day forcing the tournament to be called more than an hour early.  Stop fishing was set for 11:30 leaving 45 minutes for boats to return to pierhead at 12:15 after that period.

This early call of the tournament threw a wrench into many strategies as the offshore fishery consistently had produced good catches during prefishing and teams that were ready, willing, and able made the run some in excess of 30 miles.  Those teams had to let everything hang out and take the abusive, and I don't think anyone would say abusive was an overstatement, run back in seas that had wave sets in the 10' neighborhood - perhaps more in cases.  As with any strategy sometimes it works out and some times it doesn't as you'll see some negative weights as penalties of 10 points (pounds) per minute were assesed for late arrivals.

The Pro Division crowned a new champ - Living the Dream - who beat it in from the offshore waters they had fished the entire week bringing an 11 fish box that weighed 94 lbs. resulting in a score of 234 points to secure first place.  Second place was taken by 2007 champ Best Chance Too with a total of 206.05 points, and Manistee Mama in an extremely close third with 205.15 points. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Living the Dream
2. Best Chance Too
3. Mansitee Mama
4. Hunter
5. Blue Fairways

Nine professional teams took points in the Huntington GL2S.CPS Championship Point Series for this event reshuffling the leaderboard landing Blue Fairways in the lead.  (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard).

The Amateur division was split into 2 divisions for the first time with the traditional Am and the 24' and Under division.  Spend A Buck did the toughest thing in tournament fishing by delivering a back to back win bringing the overall tournament wide highest score of 278.1 points and earning the travelling trophy as well as the champions trophy.  Giv-n-In took second with Coho's Aim in a distant third.  The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results )

1. Spend A  Buck
2. Giv-n-In
3. Coho's Aim
4. Bonaventure
5. Therapy

The Under 24' Division's innagural champion was 1/2 Time all the way from Traverse City with a score of 145.8 pts followed by Lucky Five and Rocking Robin.

The South Haven Steelheaders Big Jon Pro/Am was the third stop of the Gander Mountain 333 and the all new Gimme 5 awarding prizes for biggest fish and combo 333 catches.

The 333 event had a great turn out as 44 boats registered to compete in this fun format where anyone can win by putting together three big fish.  Now with the Gimme 5 challenge coupled with 333 the strategies at play make it even more interesting and fun.  Scenarios such as weighing a fish that may not be one of a team's three largest but might give them a shot at winning the $500 Cannon Big Combo of three fish of different species.  Fred MacDonald and the whole 333 crew has really kicked it up a notch for 2008 with all of these new opportunities to win cash and prizes.

Manistee MaMa took the one-day shoot out where all strategy was out and it was time to put up or shut up and weigh your best three.  Competition was tight as Manistee MaMa beat Spend A Buck by .35 lbs and Living the Dream by .5 lbs.

(Click Here - Full 333 Results)

The Gimme 5 awards of $500 cash went to: