In the third, and final, leg of the Professional Musky Tournament Trail (PMTT), anglers traveled to the Detroit area of Michigan and spread out across more than 240,000 acres of water to compete in the event. The featured sponsor of this event was Musky Hunter Magazine, a long-time supporter and sponsor of the PMTT.
Lake St. Clair is known for both numbers of muskies and boasts an average size for those high numbers beyond comparison to most other lakes in the musky range. Several local musky guides and charter captains who make a living making lifetime memories come true for clients on the lake were registered to compete in the tournament, so visiting anglers had their work cut out for them.
Day 1 of the two-day event would be greeted by light winds and zero cloud cover with air temps soaring into the mid to high-eighties. It doesn’t take much to churn up the waves on a lake of this size, and boats were forced to run to their starting spots at a slower speed than normal to safely navigate the chop. As the sun rose high in the sky, the wind laid down and suddenly the lake was calm, but that didn’t stop the playing field from landing a record breaking number of fish before the day was over.
Local guide and charter captain, Chris Mahan, and his partner, Mark Kornosky, led the event leading into Day 2 after registering five muskies, the largest being 46.5-inches, caught trolling Spanky Baits bucktails. In second place and not far behind, local guide and charter captain, Kyle Moxon, and partner, Jason Jackson, would tally four fish, two of which measured over 48-inches. Billy Brumett and Michael Handlogton followed in third, registering four fish that day with their largest measuring over 45-inches.
Other anglers to make the “Top 10” leaderboard after Day 1 included Fred Lederer and Phil Cummings, with five muskies on the board, their largest measuring 41.5-inches. Local guide, Spencer Berman, would also make the leaderboard after Day 1, as well as the team of Matt Raley and Nate Osfar, who measured the BIG FISH of Day 1 (50.5-inches), Max Laski and Justin Hoffman, as well as the Legendary Angler team of Sam Ubl and Bryan Schaeffer, who registered three fish on Day 1, their biggest measuring 47.5-inches and all caught on Lake X Tullibee’s. Local guide, Mike Hulbert, and his partner, Bri Herman, followed in ninth place with three fish, and Mark Lajewski, along with tournament partner, Jeff Piazza, followed in tenth after Day 1.
Day 2 of the Musky Hunter Late Summer Showdown brought similar conditions to Day 1, featuring a light breeze and plenty of sunshine. As if Day 1 wasn’t record setting enough, Day 2 set another record for the most muskies ever registered on the second day of a PMTT event. By the end of the tournament, 111 muskies had been registered by competing anglers, including a behemoth 52-inch musky, also BIG FISH of the day, caught by the team of David Lagman and Troy Dechant.
In first place, with eight fish measuring 38.25, 38.5, 39, 39.5, 40, 43.5, and two measuring 47.5, local guides, Spencer Berman and Matt Quintano pulled through with the win, catching their winning fish on Musky Innovations Bulldawgs casting the deep weed breaks in the river channels. In second place, also with eight fish, local guide and charter captain, Chris Mahan, and partner, Mark Kornosky, pulled their weight by trolling Spanky Baits bucktails over the weed flats. And in third place, with five fish in the boat, local guide and charter captain, Kyle Moxon, and partner, Jason Jackson, caught their fish trolling Ziggy baits.
Of course, we are proud of our Legendary Angler team, Sam Ubl, and Bryan Schaeffer, for holding onto eighth place and their “Top 10” standing in the event. Ubl and Schaeffer ended up registering a fourth and final fish to their total bag during the event. The teams second “Top 10” finish in back-to-back events has risen the teams “Top Gun Team of the Year” standings to fifth place after the St. Clair event leading into the Championship. Way to represent, boys!
Other teams to make the leaderboard included: Max Laski and Justin Hoffman, who took fourth with five fish; Billy Brumett and Michael Handlofgton, who placed fifth with four fish; Ross Korpela and John Adkins, placing sixth with four fish; Fred Lederer and Phil Cummings, who scored seventh with five fish; Sam Ubl and Bryan Schaeffer, who showed up in eighth place with four fish; Matt Raley and Nate Osfar, pulling out three good fish for a ninth place finish; and Talbert Turner and Mike Jones, who earned their way to tenth place with three big fish.
