Matt Davis and Dan Gies Are The 2009 MWC Team of the Year and the New Cabelas MWC World Walleye Champions!
It's been a five year journey for Dan Gies and Matt Davis to get to this point in their career. They have just won two major fishing titles in one season! Has that ever been done before on the MWC circuit? I don't know. What I do know is, how hard these two men work at the sport of tournament Walleye fishing. And, today, it's paid off for them, in the form of a big cardboard check in the amount of $25,000.00!
After a bit of a slow start on day one with just under 20 pounds, Team Number 5 put together two consistent heavy weight baskets of 33.32 pounds on day two, and 32.82 pounds today, for a total weight of 85.26 pounds.
Juls: So, how does it feel to have just won the championship guys? Does it feel incredible?
Dan: Oh, yeah! Especially after getting "Team of the Year". We're excited, and we don't know what to do next. (laughs)
Matt: For me, it hasn't sunk in yet. (He shakes his head and shrugs) I'm usually not at a loss for words, but I am right now.
Juls: There's a long history with the MWC. It started back in 1989, so there's been years and years of anglers who have won the World Walleye Championship, and now your names are on that list too. That's got to feel pretty good...
Matt: Yep, we actually set a goal back in March...to win "Team of the Year" (he starts to choke back emotion) and the Championship. (He needs a rescue and Dan jumps in and continues)
Dan: Like you said, there's a lot of history and people who have been here and did this, and we feel honored to be named among them now. A lot of great people in the past have been standing here so....
Juls: Let's do this...tell me how your day on the water was today? Did you know when you were coming in that you might have a chance?
Matt: (Laughs with relief to get on to an easy question) We knew we had good fish. We don't typically weigh our fish in the boat during the day, so we're sometimes left to guess what they might actually weigh when we get in.
We had our limit right away, but we had 4 really small fish in the box. And, Dan said, "We've got to go. We've got to go back where we started. The fish are there. Just stay with it". We went up, and in twenty minutes we had a twenty minute stretch where we upgraded one fish right after the other, and that gave us our bag.
Dan caught the first fish in the first ten minutes this morning and that fish was our 5th weigh fish. Then we caught those other 4 and it was just an unbelievable day.
Dan: It was hard out there. We took long runs and it took us an hour and a half to get there. We knew it would take at least an hour and a half or so to get back, so that leaves you with a short fishing day. You can't stay out there and play around...you've got to get them in the boat.
Juls: How was today's ride compared to the last two days? I know the last two were pretty rough.
Matt: (Laughs) They've all been bad! We left, and we thought it was way early. We had 65 seconds left when we got to the "check boat".
Juls: Aaaccchhkk! (Everyone laughs)
Matt: We argued a little bit...no fights...but, we argued a little bit...on, "should we go now? Or, should we stay"? We left in what we thought was WAY early. We left an hour and 45 minutes to get in. The wind was blowing a lot worse on this end of the lake than on the other end of the lake where we were. We made it, but it was very tight, and very....there was a lot of watching the gps, and wondering when we were going to get there. Luckily it laid down the last three miles.
Juls: Boy! You guys don't like to take it easy...there's a lot of drama there (I say teasing...they laugh).
Matt: More than we wanted!
Juls: What does this win mean to you guys, personally?
Matt: Even to get to the championship, is an accomplishment that you try for every year. And, if you look at the anglers that were in this field...past World Walleye Champions, Team of the Year teams....um, there's just awesome...awesome anglers. And, to end up with the win is just unbelievable!
Dan: We've been doing this now for 5 years, together. We didn't know much about the tournament business when we started, and just took our lumps as we went. We learned about it, finished at the low end of the scale there for quite a while. You just gotta keep learning and pick yourself up and go on from there and keep trying to get better.
Challenge yourself. That's why we're here. We're challenging ourselves against the best anglers out there, so I guess we're one of "them" now. (smiles)
Juls: I was just going to say, "You are now some of the best anglers in the country, and don't ever forget that!" And, on that note, I'm going to say Congratulations Guys! Go let it sink in. Go have a nice dinner, and have a few drinks... just enjoy it!
Matt and Dan: (Laugh) That sounds good. Thanks Juls!
Matt and Dan also won two of the Sponsor Bonus Awards. They are:
*NPAA Bonus Award.............................................................$100.00
*Oxygenator Bonus Award.....................................................$200.00
To view the above interview please go to the Live Leader Board at www.liveleaderboard.com and click on "video2" in the info section of the MWC Championship event listed there.
 As the teams weighed in, it was apparent that the finish was going to be a nail biter. Yesterday's leaders, Wayne Butz (R) and Don Frederick(L), weighed in one of the only four 5 fish limits this afternoon. Their 5 fish weighed in at 18.79 pounds, for a total weight of 77.65 pounds. Wayne and Don were pulling crawler harnesses with one splitshot and sometimes 2. They were targeting the top ten foot of the water column. They were running brighter colored spinners in pinks, purples, and chartreuse combos about 15-20' behind an in-line planer board.
Wayne and Don won a handful of Sponsor Bonus Awards, and are listed below:
*Ranger Bonus Award for the highest finishing Ranger owner....$1,000.00
*Ranger/Merc Bonus Award..................................................$500.00
*Lowrance Bonus Award......................................................$500.00
*FCIS Bonus Award...........................................................$..100.00
 Bob Devine(L) of Windsor, ON and Steve Velte(R) of Belleville, MI took over the third place spot when they managed a 3 fish basket for a day's weight of 15.60 pounds, and a total weight of 67.58 pounds.
Juls: Hi Bob, how did yours and Steve's day on the water go today?
Bob: It was lumpy and tough fishing!
Juls: How bad were the conditions compared to the past couple of days?
Bob: They've been the same. Yesterday was the only good day. Running back in yesterday was a nightmare. You know, bouncing all around. But, we're fortunate, we've got the big 621 and it runs...better. You know, this morning, everyone was beating us, but once we got into that chop in the slop chute by the islands, now the 621 was shining. That extra foot in the length of the boat makes a big difference.
Juls: What were you two doing to catch your fish this week?
Bob: We were fishing Kelly Island Shoal with crawler harnesses with Northland Perch and the "SilverStreak" blades. Pink Panties, a painted blade by "SilverStreak" was our hot color this week. We were running them with one ounce inline weights and anywhere from 12 to 32 back behind Off Shore Tackle in-line planer boards.
 The Bodinger Brothers left this morning in second place, but only brought one 8.68 pound fish to the scales today, for a total weight of 62.83 pounds...landing Steve and Dan in 4th place.
 Rounding out the top five is the Wisconsin team of Kevin Carstensen and Rich Olds with only two fish to the scales today, they still managed to secure a 5th place finish with a total weight of 59.59 pounds.
Big Fish Awards were given only to the team with the biggest fish each of the three days of competition. Cabelas paid out $1500.00 in $500.00 gift cards for the daily winners. The teams that won today was the Father and Son team of David and Joe Okada of Fitchburg, WI. For day one and day two big fish results please see the previous days articles.
The total payout for this event was $105,150.00. There were 33 teams that competed. All places were paid out for this no entry fee championship:
1st Place: $25K
2nd Place: $12K
3rd Place: $8K
4th Place: $7K
5th Place: $6k
6th Place: $5K
7th Place: $4K
8th Place: $3K
9th Place: $2K
10th Place: $1750.00
11th-15th Place: $1500.00
16th-20th Place: $1300.00
21st-25th Place: $1100.00
26th-33rd Place: $1000.00
To see the Cabelas MWC 2010 Season Schedule, or for more information on becoming a member of the MWC, please visit their official site at www.masterswalleyecircuit.com for more information.
Thank you for joining us here on Walleye Central this season. I hope you enjoyed the coverage as we watched our friends fish the MWC's Central Division, Eastern Division, Western Division, the FLW Walleye Tour, and the AIM Pro Walleye Series events through the Live Leader Board here on WC.
Without all of you, there would be no reason to do this, so thanks for your patronage and I hope that we can bring you even better coverage of next year's tournament season, which will probably be upon us before you know it! So until next season...keep your lines wet and your flies dry! :)
Have a safe and healthy winter everyone!
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