2020 Vanity Cup

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Just curious to see if anyone here will be competing in the Vanity Cup at Tobin Lake Oct 3-4 this year? I am entered with my buddy from Nipawin whom is an excellent fishermen and very experienced with Tobin but I have butterflies in my stomach already thinking about the tourney. Usually the tournament attracts anglers from all over North America but obviously this year the 160 team field will be made up of all Canadian residents. This will be my first year in this tournament - 100K to the winning team. :scared0015:

If anyone is not competing and would like to share some wisdom, I am as always, very happy to receive any. Cheers.

[Freedom55]

You put me on the fish and I'll put 'em in the boat. All I can say.

Free (except G.L.)

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Anyone?....Bueller?

[EZM]

Have fun with it. That's my best advice.

Have not fished that lake in the fall, so anything I tell you may be irrelevant.

You know what you are doing, and are a solid fishermen, so just get out and have some fun. Be prepared to present your offerings in different ways and see what they are reacting to - if it's not working - switch it up - don't invest too much time on water that doesn't hold active fish and presenting something that they are not reacting to.

Keep us posted ......... we are rooting for you.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Well thank you for the positive encouragement EZM. It was a wild one this weekend up at Tobin. Pre-fishing was excellent and we hammered a number of overs (70cm+) and some perfect unders (less than 55cm). then when the tournament started we got off to a hot start, landing an over (73cm) and a couple unders in the first hour! We upgraded our unders a couple times throughout the day but were unable to find another over. At the end of day one, and some tough fishing throughout the tournament for everyone, we were inside the top 40 and less than 4 pounds out of the money...A big day on day 2 and we would have been golden....Alas, it was not to be as the fishing seemed to shut right off for us. Our spots were not producing so we moved, we tried different methods, the only fish we caught were red zoned including one 55 and 1/10 cm....bottom part of the tail juuuuuust over...so back she goes. heartbreaking. We caught a couple red zones and finally landed a decent eye for the tourney but was too little too late and we dropped to around the middle of the pack and that is where we finished. All in all a great experience though and one i wont soon forget...Been thinking about it non stop since sunday....lot's of what if's LOL. Way she goes.....Cheers.

[Zip-in-Z]

L.F. .... tks for the update, had a few similar experiences back in Mb fishin tourneys on the Wpg River near Pine Falls or the Red River near Selkirk. it's a learning & sometimes a humbling experience and there's always next year, at least you had fun and sounds like you did better than most.

The article didn't say, how many fish per team were weighed in daily?

Did the winners at least buy a round of drinks for those that stayed for the presentations ?

Cheers

D.


Googled the article, interesting read. $100K Winners were local boys with two day total was 48.60 pounds of fish. Second place from Bonnyville, took home $30K with 44.84 pounds.


Link .... https://www.nipawinjournal.com/news/local-news/vanity-cup-stays-in-the-region




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[Lowrance Fishburn]

[QUOTE=Zip-in-Z;4243619]L.F. .... tks for the update, had a few similar experiences back in Mb fishin tourneys on the Wpg River near Pine Falls or the Red River near Selkirk. it's a learning & sometimes a humbling experience and there's always next year, at least you had fun and sounds like you did better than most.

The article didn't say, how many fish per team were weighed in daily?

Did the winners at least buy a round of drinks for those that stayed for the presentations ?

Cheers

D.


Googled the article, interesting read. $100K Winners were local boys with two day total was 48.60 pounds of fish. Second place from Bonnyville, took home $30K with 44.84 pounds.


Link .... https://www.nipawinjournal.com/news/local-news/vanity-cup-stays-in-the-region




Unfortunately there was no banquet this year and no presentations due to covid. So that sucked a bit. the format was 5 fish, 2 allowed over 70 cm and all others under 55cm. No fish between 55-70 cm can be retained. Lots of DQ's this year from people breaking the rules on lengths of fish. the overall weights were down this year as well as the fishing in general was a bit tougher than usual. Still some monster fish caught and overall a very enjoyable time..

[Zip-in-Z]

[QUOTE - Unfortunately there was no banquet this year and no presentations due to covid. So that sucked a bit. the format was 5 fish, 2 allowed over 70 cm and all others under 55cm. No fish between 55-70 cm can be retained. Lots of DQ's this year from people breaking the rules on lengths of fish. the overall weights were down this year as well as the fishing in general was a bit tougher than usual. Still some monster fish caught and overall a very enjoyable time..[/QUOTE]



Interesting slot #'s, I could see teams getting D/Q'd, that would be a real learning experience for them.

Pleased to read you enjoyed the tourney.

Cheers

David


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[EZM]

Well thank you for the positive encouragement EZM. It was a wild one this weekend up at Tobin. Pre-fishing was excellent and we hammered a number of overs (70cm+) and some perfect unders (less than 55cm). then when the tournament started we got off to a hot start, landing an over (73cm) and a couple unders in the first hour! We upgraded our unders a couple times throughout the day but were unable to find another over. At the end of day one, and some tough fishing throughout the tournament for everyone, we were inside the top 40 and less than 4 pounds out of the money...A big day on day 2 and we would have been golden....Alas, it was not to be as the fishing seemed to shut right off for us. Our spots were not producing so we moved, we tried different methods, the only fish we caught were red zoned including one 55 and 1/10 cm....bottom part of the tail juuuuuust over...so back she goes. heartbreaking. We caught a couple red zones and finally landed a decent eye for the tourney but was too little too late and we dropped to around the middle of the pack and that is where we finished. All in all a great experience though and one i wont soon forget...Been thinking about it non stop since sunday....lot's of what if's LOL. Way she goes.....Cheers.

We were all pulling for you BUT sometimes the fish don't cooperate and there's nothing you can do. I bet it was a exciting tournament to be a part of and probably taught you something.

Locals usually win these things. They get the benefit of fishing the lake in all conditions, water temps, times of year and know the lake better too.

Thanks for the update - I'm glad you had a blast.

[walleye guy]

Well thank you for the positive encouragement EZM. It was a wild one this weekend up at Tobin. Pre-fishing was excellent and we hammered a number of overs (70cm+) and some perfect unders (less than 55cm). then when the tournament started we got off to a hot start, landing an over (73cm) and a couple unders in the first hour! We upgraded our unders a couple times throughout the day but were unable to find another over. At the end of day one, and some tough fishing throughout the tournament for everyone, we were inside the top 40 and less than 4 pounds out of the money...A big day on day 2 and we would have been golden....Alas, it was not to be as the fishing seemed to shut right off for us. Our spots were not producing so we moved, we tried different methods, the only fish we caught were red zoned including one 55 and 1/10 cm....bottom part of the tail juuuuuust over...so back she goes. heartbreaking. We caught a couple red zones and finally landed a decent eye for the tourney but was too little too late and we dropped to around the middle of the pack and that is where we finished. All in all a great experience though and one i wont soon forget...Been thinking about it non stop since sunday....lot's of what if's LOL. Way she goes.....Cheers.

never fished this tournament,so you are allowed to cull fish?

[Freedom55]

Unfortunately there was no banquet this year and no presentations due to covid. So that sucked a bit. the format was 5 fish, 2 allowed over 70 cm and all others under 55cm. No fish between 55-70 cm can be retained. Lots of DQ's this year from people breaking the rules on lengths of fish. the overall weights were down this year as well as the fishing in general was a bit tougher than usual. Still some monster fish caught and overall a very enjoyable time..

Careful with the loose talk new guy. There is a number of ways to end up with zero scores at the end of a tournament and at least 3 of the boats listed as 'no score' were pro anglers and not playing at cheating their way to a win. Care to elaborate on that bolded comment?

Free

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Careful with the loose talk new guy. There is a number of ways to end up with zero scores at the end of a tournament and at least 3 of the boats listed as 'no score' were pro anglers and not playing at cheating their way to a win. Care to elaborate on that bolded comment?

Free

Sure, there were boats which entered no weights as they were unable to land any fish outside of the red zone or simply chose not to weigh in the fish they had - their choice...There were also a number of DQ's because people were pushing the limits and bringing in slot fish. Some were just over the 55 cm "under" limit, and some were just under the 70 cm "over" limit. I know this first hand as my fishing partners friend was DQ'd for this exact reason. Not to mention the whole thing was streamed on Facebook Live and there were disqualifications broadcasted right on there for the reasons I just stated.

On day 2 we caught a beautiful 55 cm fish that with the tail pinched, the top of the tail was still under 55 cm but the bottom juuuust crossed the line. Im talking about 2 mm here. We elected to throw that fish back whereas some may have not measured correctly or decided to risk it for the biscuit and see if they get busted. The officials at the weigh shack were being very precise this year and examining every fish that was close and did a very good job. No loose talk here, just facts.

[Lowrance Fishburn]

never fished this tournament,so you are allowed to cull fish?

Yes you are allowed to cull fish in this tourney with no more than 5 fish ever allowed in the livewell at one time. Most who caught an over (70 cm+) would weigh it in almost right away as they tend to dominate most of a livewell anyway and its especially bad for those big girls to spend a long time in a livewell.

[fish99]

what is the entry fee?

[Lowrance Fishburn]

Entry fee is $2,000 per team so 1 grand each. Plus if you wanna enter for all the other draw prizes and the 50/50 it works out to $1150 per guy... not exactly cheap but it’s an amazing tourney. Few more fish like this (the one over 70cm we landed during the tourney) and we might’ve won lol. This one went 73cm and 8.79 lbs

[Zip-in-Z]

Bty Walleye, great pic's .... said those same words after a tourney back home.

D.

[deschambault]

I'm confused, the regulations state that you cannot keep walleye between 55 and 86 cm yet it appears that this tournament allowed walleye over 70 cm. How does that work?

[rasbok]

Permited and it's CR


I'm confused, the regulations state that you cannot keep walleye between 55 and 86 cm yet it appears that this tournament allowed walleye over 70 cm. How does that work?

[fish99]

Entry fee is $2,000 per team so 1 grand each. Plus if you wanna enter for all the other draw prizes and the 50/50 it works out to $1150 per guy... not exactly cheap but it’s an amazing tourney. Few more fish like this (the one over 70cm we landed during the tourney) and we might’ve won lol. This one went 73cm and 8.79 lbs

nice wally thanks for the info,.

[EZM]

I'm confused, the regulations state that you cannot keep walleye between 55 and 86 cm yet it appears that this tournament allowed walleye over 70 cm. How does that work?

These tournaments as mentioned, are catch and release, and, the tournament is required to submit the proposed format and rules, they (Sask F&W) evaluate them, make any changes as needed, then approve and sanction the tournament.

There have also been circumstances where the tournament rules have been approved by F&W that would actually contradict the regulations.

You have to remember these are licensed, regulated and sanctioned events.