Congratulations Wayne Butz!

[Juls_OH]

With great anticipation, Wayne Butz waited on the side of the stage where the current tournament leader is asked to stand while he waits out the last remaining competitor to cross the stage. Up last was the day two and three Green Bay FLW Walleye Tour leader, Veteran Pro Walleye Angler, and President of the Legendary Lindy Tackle Co. Ted Takasaki!
Ted only needed a 14 pound basket to win the event, and in an "undercover" (literally) fashion he brought his basket containing a 5 fish limit to the scales with a blue blanket covering his catch, so no one could see what he had.
Kevin Hunt, the tournament director proceeded to ask Ted questions which added to Wayne's anticipation.

Finally,Ted was asked to pull the blanket off the basket and the button was pushed, revealing Ted's weight of 13 pounds. Wayne excitedly shook Ted's hand and hoisted a big card board check for $85,000.00 above his head!

Congratulations Wayne on your "come from behind" Green Bay FLW Walleye Tour VICTORY! Job well done...;)

Juls

[Richard Ramm]

It should be noted that Ted had a 2 or 2.5 pound penalty because of dead fish on day one. Talk about an expensive penalty. Would have won the tournament with those extra pounds.

[Kristine Houtman]

Way to go Wayne -- a veteran MWCer! All of us at the Cabela's MWC are very proud of you for putting this win together. Wahoo! And congralations to Ted Takasaki, MWC sponsor with Lindy, for his 2nd place.

[Kristine Houtman]

Way to go Wayne -- a veteran MWCer! All of us at the Cabela's MWC are very proud of you for putting this win together. Wahoo! And congralations to Ted Takasaki, MWC sponsor with Lindy, for his 2nd place.

[S.Allen]

Congrats Wayne! Let it be known Wayne also was penalized 3.5# for 7 unreleaseable fish over a three day period. With the wermer water and the depths some fish were caught there were zuite a few dead fish.

[S.Allen]

Congrats Wayne! Let it be known Wayne also was penalized 3.5# for 7 unreleaseable fish over a three day period. With the wermer water and the depths some fish were caught there were zuite a few dead fish.

[Shannon Larson]

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding, Way to go Wayne, you ROCK. When we talked at the registration meeting you said "It's gonna be a challenge, I've never finished lower than my boat number" Well you meet that challenge, in a BIG BIG way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Shannon Larson

[Shannon Larson]

Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding, Way to go Wayne, you ROCK. When we talked at the registration meeting you said "It's gonna be a challenge, I've never finished lower than my boat number" Well you meet that challenge, in a BIG BIG way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Shannon Larson

[Richard Ramm]

I wasnt aware of Wayne losing any weight so thanks for adding that. It wsnt brought up at the final weigh-in so anyone not in the loop so to speak wouldnt be privy to that information. They made it sound at the final weigh-in that Ted lost because of his losses. But once again congrats to Wayne.

[Richard Ramm]

I wasnt aware of Wayne losing any weight so thanks for adding that. It wsnt brought up at the final weigh-in so anyone not in the loop so to speak wouldnt be privy to that information. They made it sound at the final weigh-in that Ted lost because of his losses. But once again congrats to Wayne.

[hgmeyer]

Congrats Wayne... I didn't think there was any way for anyone to catch up to Ted... Very impressive consisten catches were a great performance to watch..

And, as an added note, the FLW did a fantastic job... Thanks to everyone from the FLW, I had a great time... ANd, thanks to the City of Green Bay (and thanks to the fish) and my partners for all three days...

[hgmeyer]

Congrats Wayne... I didn't think there was any way for anyone to catch up to Ted... Very impressive consisten catches were a great performance to watch..

And, as an added note, the FLW did a fantastic job... Thanks to everyone from the FLW, I had a great time... ANd, thanks to the City of Green Bay (and thanks to the fish) and my partners for all three days...

[Just Wondering]

With all the Dead Fish, what did they do with them all. It was a 100% kill, 0 % release due to the weather.


Just Wondering

[Just Wondering]

With all the Dead Fish, what did they do with them all. It was a 100% kill, 0 % release due to the weather.


Just Wondering

[Shep]

It was not 100% kill. I don't have the final numbers, but many more were released than died. The dead fish went to a local food pantry, so none of the fish were wasted.

Congrats to Wayne on the win. His face as they announced Ted's weight said it all. Great winn, especially since not all his fish were caught trolling!

Tight Lines All,

Shep

[Shep]

It was not 100% kill. I don't have the final numbers, but many more were released than died. The dead fish went to a local food pantry, so none of the fish were wasted.

Congrats to Wayne on the win. His face as they announced Ted's weight said it all. Great winn, especially since not all his fish were caught trolling!

Tight Lines All,

Shep

[Kalimino]

Way to go Wayne!!
Anyone know what happened to Ted's fish on the last day - 3 days of SOLID limits and then 13#'s? I know how fishing can go, but looked like he had a pretty good program going.
Only problem I see with FLW weight system is the box isn't going to hold a 40-50 lb stringer:) Some of those big ones had to roll up to fit(from the pics)
Nice fish!!
Congrats to the winners!!
Kalin

[Just wondering]

Sorry, but Jason said that it was almost 100& kill. I know the weather and waves were against them, just wanted to know, who was eating the glow in the dark fish. Wherever they went, they won't need lightbulbs for a while
LOL

just wondering

[local gb guy]

I heard the kill wasnt as high as poeple were saying it something like this 4 dead fish out 46 day 4,day 3,2 and 1 were all under 15% of total catch each day. Not bad for those nasty hot conditions.

[hgmeyer]

Let's even double that figure of 15%... Lees than 600 fish each day so that is less than 100 dead fish a day... That is a legal limit for 15 boats with two anglers a day... 30 limits on a body of water the size of Green Bay... The cormorants and pelicans at Gaeno do a lot better than that in 20-30 minutes.....

This is a non-issue... Especially since all 300 fishermen had a right to a legal limit of 3 fish so that could have been 900 fish in one day.

I am the first person to support every effort to lower mortality. But, we need to keep this in perspective. Sounds a little like the anti-gun folks "statistical arguments" about firearms accidents. Bathtubs are a lot more deadly than firearms in statistics and so are meat fishermen compoared to tournament anglers.

Finally, imagine the "best" voluntarily limiting themselves the way tournamnet anglers do... Where is our "voice" in this debate. Be careful of the "rhetoric" by our academic and other allies.

[wbutz]

This was a great win for me. A long list of 2nd and 3rd place finishes finally came to and end. Losing out at the last minute on MWC Team of the Year last year was tough. The win was great and being able to have my dad there made it more special. If you know me you know that my dad travels and fishes hard with me as long as the waters permit. He's getting up there in age and getting this one was really special. As all fisherman know it takes a lot of time away for your family and I want to thanks them again!!!!!

PS. NOTHING BETTER THAN HAVING AND 8# WALLEYE RIPE OUT 35' OF LINE WHEN YOU JIGGING.

THANKS WAYNE

[BeFishin]

Wayne,

Great win!!

I hope you give me a chance to get in the boat with you again. If nothing else I look forward to fishing against you in the Fox River Classic.


Congratulations on a great win!


BEllenbecker

[jerry unlogged]

Great job Wayne!!! Congratulations!!!

J Ruffolo

[Captdoug]

Great Job Wayne! I was happy for you and your family that you got the win. Don't spend it all in one place. Doug

[Ted Takasaki]

I would like to congratulate Wayne on a tremendous victory at the FLW event on Green Bay! I would have done this a week ago, but I had to fly to Las Vegas for the annual ICAST industry fishing show immediately after getting back from the tournament last week.

Wayne fished a brilliant tournament with a superb final day catch. When he came in with over 28 pounds, I knew I was in trouble.

"Dead" fish penalties were definitely not the reason for my 2nd place finish. I just should have taken better care of my fish on day one. Wayne had several die on him as well.

I knew I needed one more big fish to close out the tournament on Saturday and I just could not get that "money" fish. Just a bunch of small ones. Wayne's consistency and versatility attributed to his win.

I am certainly very happy to have made my first final 10 cut on the FLW and am excited to move on to the FLW Championship in Oahe in October! It's been a tough couple of years without a top 10 and I am looking forward better finishes in the future. This is a rough and tumble game with the competition getting better every year. These young guns are making it tough on us "old guys"!

I would like to thank everyone who was rooting for me and am sorry that I let some of you down, but there are more tournaments and I'll certainly be okay. $32,000 and the publicity/excitement by leading the tournament for a couple of days has a way of making things seem brighter for me.

Tournament victories are not easy to come by and the right fish at the right time is needed to win. I did everything that I could to stretch out the last day waiting for that right fish, but it just didn't come into my boat doing everything that I did over the previous 3 days. I didn't lose any fish or make any mistakes in execution or strategy that cost me the victory. Wayne just plain outfished me over the course of a 4 day tournament. He deserves all of the credit for his 1st place finish. Well done Wayne!

[INmitch]

Ted I was root'n for ya the whole tournament. Congrats are in order. That 53.20 lb from 4/19/03 sure would have been handy that last day. It still brings a smile to my face. Jan Mitchel

[INmitch]

Ted I was root'n for ya the whole tournament. Congrats are in order. That 53.20 lb from 4/19/03 sure would have been handy that last day. It still brings a smile to my face. Jan Mitchel