Jerry Fox Jr. And Steve Vandemark Crowned Mwc World Champions
The long-time tournament team of Jerry Fox Jr. and Steve Vandemark recently won the Masters Walleye Circuit World Walleye Championship. The 2022 MWC Championship was held on Green Bay in the Wisconsin waters near Oconto, Wisconsin. “At Oconto everyone seemingly is into graphing and targeting individual fish on the many off shore reefs found on Green Bay,” says Jerry Fox Jr., “I’m simply not that guy who is comfortable targeting individual fish. Instead, I’m more comfortable putting out a trolling spread and hunting for fish with the maximum number of trolling lines in the water.”
Fishing conditions before and during the MWC Oconto Championship were extraordinarily tough. Several days of northeast winds had the fish in a funk and the anglers grumbling. “We got on a school of fish early in practice that were holding tight against a deep-water break,” commented Fox. “To catch these fish, we literally had to drive our crankbaits into the bank and dredge bottom. We used Bay Rat crankbaits with Off Shore Tackle OR20 series Snap Weights to get down with the shortest trolling leads possible.”
The Off Shore Tackle Tattle Flag™ upgrade on our OR12 Side Planers played an important role in this tournament win. “The Tattle Flags™ would let us know when our cranks were starting to tick the bottom, helping us position the boat perfectly,” added Fox. “Without the added Tattle Flags™, I doubt we would have been able to put enough fish in the boat for the win.” On day one Fox and Vandemark came to the scales with a five fish limit. Day two Fox and Vandemark duplicated that performance with five more walleye and on day three they could only muster four walleye. Collectively Fox and Vandemark put 59 pounds, 12 ounces on the scales, earning them the World Walleye Championship in 2022.
Fox and Vandemark walked away with $30,000.00 in cash and prizes, a $1,000.00 Lowrance bonus, two Okuma Championship Rings and the World Walleye Championship trophies. Congratulations again to both Jerry Fox Jr. and Steve Vandemark for consistently proving they can win at the highest level of competitive walleye fishing.