Nate Capton and Dave Waldeck Win The MWC Lake Erie event in Dunkirk, NY!

Nate Capton of Niagara Falls, NY  and Dave Waldeck of Sanborn, NY trolled with Dipsey Divers with crawler harnesses to bag another big limit weighing in at 33.61 pounds today, for a total weight of 58.99 pounds. Clinching the win by 2.50 pounds!  Nate and Dave won the "big check" for $12,688.00 along with the Oxygenator Bonus Award of $250.00, for being the highest placing team running an Oxygenator system in the livewell.

They thanked their teammates for their success, and said they couldn't have won it without their help.

Juls: Congratulations on your win today gentlemen! So, how does it feel to win your first MWC event.

Nate: It took a long time, it feels pretty good right now. It was our first tournament win after 10 years fishing together, so we've paid our dues.

Juls: What was your pattern or presentation that helped you win this weekend?

Dave: We were pulling Dipsey Divers 160-180 feet back over 100-125 foot of water. We were using purple crawler harnesses with #5 Gold Colorado blades behind the Dipsies. The fish were anywhere from 50-75 feet down.

Juls: Were you using real crawlers or artificial?

Nate: Worms....Nightcrawlers.

Juls: Some anglers I talked to felt the lake had turned over already, making it a tough bite. Did you find that to be true too?

Dave: No, I don't believe the lake has turned over yet.

Nate: Prefishing was tough.

Dave: Yeah, we had a Northeast wind for three days, but we caught almost 20 fish yesterday and at least that many today.

Juls: How far from Dunkirk were you fishing? How long was your run?

Nate: 22 miles.

Dave: We were fishing along the Pennsylvania border.

Juls: What would you say was the most contributing factor to your success this weekend?

Nate & Dave answer at the same time: The Teams! Teamwork, definitely.

Juls: How many boats were you working with here?

Nate: Four other teams.

For more interviews with the winning team, and clips of the day 2 weigh in, watch for the video uploads to show up soon!

The day one leaders, Bob Henton and Lance Conner, both of Spartansburg, PA weighed their basket of 5 fish,  and even though it weighed in at 24.40 pounds it wasn't enough to overtake the team of Capton and Waldeck, landing them in second place overall for this event. Bob Henton won the Ranger Cup Bonus Award of $1,000.00  for being the highest placing Ranger Boat owner.

In third place is the team of Rich and Mark Fike of Farmington, PA. They brought a limit of 5 fish to the scales, which weighed in at 31.85 pounds, for a total weight of 52.21 pounds.

Moving into fourth position was the team of Ryan Rieger of Elizabeth, PA and Greg Knopick of Warren PA with a two day total weight of 50.97. Ryan Rieger won the FCIS Bonus of $250.00.

Rounding out the top 5 is the team of Bob Devine of Winsor, ON and Steve Velte of Belleville,  MI with a total weight of 50.08 pounds. Bob won the NPAA Bonus of $100.00 for being the highest finishing NPAA member, and also won the Ranger Cup/Mercury Bonus Award of $500.00, for being the highest placing Ranger/Mercury owner.

The $1,000.00 Toyota Bonus Award went to the 19th place finisher Alan Baumgardner for...(you guessed it!)...being the highest placing angler that owns a Toyota Tundra.

Big Fish Awards were handed out both days with awards paying out 4 places each day. The biggest fish for day one was a brute brought in by John Ciszkowski and Gary Marcinkowski, weighing in at 9.48 pounds. Day two's biggest fish weighed in at an almost identical weight of 9.47 pounds, and was caught by Jeff Manz and Gregg Yarbrough.

Mike Miller and Jason Kopf win the Eastern Division "Team of the Year" title!

The Eastern Division Team of the Year title was won by Jason Kopf of Avon Lake, OH and Mike Miller of Brunswick, OH. They finished this tournament in 7th place, and it was enough to secure their position as Team of the Year.

Yesterday they told me they would tell me what they were doing different in this tournament, and they were true to their word.

Jason and Mike ran crawler harnesses behind Dipsies with #5, 6, & 7 Hatchet blades in copper color, with red beads.  They were fishing an area Northwest of Barcelona onthe Northeast side of a contour called, "The Mountain". They ran thier Dipsies at the number one setting 100 foot back and the number 2 setting at 125 foot back.

One other successful harness was one that utilized a double Colorado blade. The only bead combination they used was red.

I have a video  interview with Jason and Mike talking about their experiences, so watch for that to be posted soon too.

Congratulations to all the competitors here this weekend! It was a very well run event that was a lot of fun to attend...other than the heat, of course, but hey, that's what summer is all about, right?

Thanks for joining us here on Walleye Central. We hope you can join us again when the MWC visits Lake Erie for one last event this season, as they travel back to the West end of the lake for the Cabelas MWC Championship!  We're working on getting the connection we need at that location, so we can once again bring you the best coverage possible....a real-time webcast of the event! Check back on the WC tournament message board for coming announcements regarding that.

Walleye Central's next tournament coverage stop is the PWT at Sault Ste. Marie September 11th-13th.