Hunt's Walleye Shootout

05/17/2026

That’s a wrap! Our 5th Annual Walleye Shootout was a huge success! 🎣

30 teams / 60 Anglers competed for their shot at over 10K in Cash and Prizes!

206 walleyes were registered for the event and the biggest fish (beating all other big fish entry’s over the years) was 26 1/4 inches!

Congratulations to our TOP 5 winners!

🥇1st - Jared Adamovich / Matt Raley

🥈2nd - Tom Zidek / David Zidek

🥉3rd & BIG FISH 🐟- Hunter Kaehler / Cody Reeves

4th - Jeff Oskey / Nolan Pasanen

5th - Bruce Gruening / Brad Pasanen

Was a great day overall other than getting beat up by the wind was had some warm temps and the anglers made it happen! Top team put together a solid bag (20.75in, 19.25in, 19in, 18in, 17.5in) for the win! 🏆

Saturday was not possible with out the help of my wife Sam! She did an awesome job setting up and had a lot to do behind the scenes! Thanks hun! And the others who helped as well, thank you too!

HUGE THANKS to all of our amazing sponsors for their contributions, most importantly Ben Rabenn - State Farm Insurance Agent. Our top spots walked away with awesome additional prizes from St. Croix Rods & FXR Pro Fish along with other prizes from Guide's Choice Pro Shop, AKAR Disposal & Roll-Off Dumpsters,Eagle River,WI, FINS Braids, A+ Driveway Grading and Land Clearing LLC, Kenny's Elite Auto Detail And Tinting, True North Boat Works and several others!!

So glad everyone had a good time and we’re already excited about next year! Till next time have fun on the water! - Brandon Hunt

05/16/2026

Good luck to all teams today. We should have a beautiful day of fishing! 6:00 we are live!

05/15/2026

21 hours until go time! Thank you to all who made our 5th annual walleye shootout brought to you by Ben Rabenn - State Farm possible! We have some awesome payouts prizes, weather, food and a full field! Should be a great time!

When you’re coming to the pre-tournament meeting tonight at Shotskis, Guide's Choice is open till 8 PM for any last-minute tackle or bait needs.

See you all at 6 PM tonight! Must be present to win 😉 🎣🎣

05/13/2026

We’re only a few days away! I was looking back at some pictures of our tournament winners over the years! Fun to see different faces take the top spot!

The hype and excitement is real now! We are so happy to provide some great payouts and prizes and it’s been better and better each year!

Thanks again to Shotskis for the venue and Ben Rabenn - State Farm Insurance Agent our title sponsor!
And again to FINS Braids, FXR Pro Fish, St. Croix Rods, Beaver’s Lures, Nicolet Bank, True North Boat Works , Northland Marine, A+ Driveway Grading and Land Clearing LLC and AKAR Disposal & Roll-Off Dumpsters,Eagle River,WI we greatly appreciate your support and donations!

05/08/2026

Big thanks to Fred and his family for supporting the tournament this year. They have done great things to the building to make it quite an amazing bait shop! Stop in and check them out! Also some great fishing reports from them as well! Guide's Choice Pro Shop

Eagle River & Vilas County Fishing Report: Shallow Bite Heating Up! 🛶

The Northwoods is waking up! While the air is still crisp, the fish are starting to move shallow. Here is what you need to know before hitting the water this weekend:

🌡️ The Temps: Most clear lakes are sitting at 45-46°F. Look for stained water or current to find those "warm" pockets in the low 50s.

🐟 Walleye (The Main Event): It’s a game of hide-and-seek. The bite comes in spurts, but the quality is there—we’re seeing plenty of 24"+ fish.

Best Bets: XL Fatheads, hair jigs, and jerkbaits.

Pro Tip: Check your regs! They vary lake-to-lake.

🎣 Bass: Stick to the shallows (under 10ft). Hair/marabou jigs with a slow retrieve are king right now. Jerkbaits (X-Raps/Mavriks) are also starting to fire up.

🍳 Panfish: * Crappie: Relate to timber and current in the warmest water you can find. The crappie bite is steady on minnows, but if you're looking to switch to plastics, the Z-Man Baby BallerZ and Keitech Easy Shiners have been absolutely putting in work lately!.

Perch: Jumbos (12-13") are being reported on the Three Lakes Chain!

🐊 Pike & Muskies: Pike are hungry and eating everything. Muskies are mostly being left alone to spawn—if you hook one incidentally while walleye fishing, please handle with extra care!

Outlook: Chilly for a few more days, but a warmup is coming. As the weeds start to bloom, this shallow bite is going to explode. 📈

What are you seeing out there? Drop a photo of your catch in the comments! 👇

05/07/2026

‼️ IMPORTANT TOURNAMENT UPDATE ‼️

This year, we’ve decided to turn the live leaderboard off during tournament hours. Our goal with this change is to give all anglers the opportunity to fish without distractions and make decisions based on their own strategy and confidence on the water.

All fish entries will still be verified as they are submitted, and the full leaderboard standings will be revealed during the post-tournament gathering at Shotskis following the event.

Please let your partner know as well, the app may look like it’s not working but it will be working normally even though the leaderboard will not appear during the tournament. Continue entering fish into your bag as usual — you will still be able to view your own fish entries throughout the day.

We believe this will create a more enjoyable and competitive experience for everyone involved. I’ll go over everything again during the pre-tournament meeting.

Thanks everyone, and we’re looking forward to a great tournament!

::

05/07/2026

Hope everyone had a great opening weekend! We’re about a week out and wanted to provide some more key details!

Friday’s Pre Tournament Meeting will take place at 6pm at Shotskis.

We will give out Boat ID cards, other info and go over rules and details. Also there will be a giveaway or two for those who attend! Also one lucky team will receive reimbursement and have free entry thanks to Ben Rabenn - State Farm Insurance Agent! Please have at least one person from your team present but we’d love for everyone to make it.

On tournament day, we will be providing food for the anglers after the event and will have a prizes and things to win along with payouts! We’d love for everyone to make it and hang out afterwards and not have to worry about getting dinner.

Thank you to more of our sponsors! They are the reason we have such great prizes and payouts!!

Finish Line Services
Rock's Rent-All
Lake Nokomis Cranberries
Eagle Family Chiropractic
SpiritView Lakeside
Sweetwater Spirits & Resort
Ahlborn Equipment, INC
Hammer Custom Baits
Hooked & Tagged

05/05/2026

Well folks we have a FULL field of boats!!!

We can wait for a great day of fishing be sure to tell your friends and fellow anglers to follow the page for tournament info and updates!

More to come very soon on tournament details!

Thank you very much to some more of our sponsors:
AKAR Disposal & Roll-Off Dumpsters,Eagle River,WI
Shotskis
True North Boat Works
Mat's Reel Repair
Kenny's Elite Auto Detail And Tinting

04/28/2026

The amount of support this year‘s tournament is absolutely wild guys. I can’t believe the big jump we’ve had from last year to this year.

Time to get even more excited because thanks to St. Croix Rods, 1st through 3rd place teams get a new rod! We can’t wait for tournament day! ONLY 9 SPOTS REMAIN!