Montana boys know how to fish
Duo from Montana win Governor’s Cup for second time
By JAMES C. FALCON
editors@bhgnews.com
For the first time in 21 years, a team has won the North Dakota Governor’s Cup for the second time.
Ken Schmidt of Glasgow, Montana, and Mark Jones of Billings, Montana, caught a little over 40 pounds of walleye between Friday and Saturday, 7.53 pounds more than their winning weight from the 2014 Governor’s Cup.
By the end of the first day of the derby Friday, the Montana duo had placed sixth, with 20.66 pounds of walleye.
For a while, it wasn’t looking too promising as the teams that were in the lead when Schmidt and Jones arrived had racked up accumulated weights in the range of 38 and 39 pounds. For them to advance to first, they would need 18 pounds of walleye – and they got it, and then some. They brought in almost 19.4 pounds Saturday afternoon.
“I’m ecstatic,” Schmidt said after their win was announced. “Today, we were so disappointed because we figured we had 16, 17 pounds because we measure everything in Montana, we don’t weigh it.”
With a few more boats to come, the men weren’t sweating – at least because of their nerves. As they say in “the hot seat” – a fishing boat placed in front of the stage for all to see – they joked with friends and didn’t have a care in the world. In just a few minutes, the two would be $15,000 richer.
It was only when the scale was turned off that the men knew they won.
