Hammond Bay Anglers Award $12,750 in Weekend Tournament
By Amanda Polaski, Staff Writer, Presque Isle County Advance

The Hammond Bay Anglers Association (HBAA) hosted the fist annual Great Lakes Fishing Tournament (GLFT) on Friday, handing out $12,750 in prize money, and promoting the healthy fishing in northern Lake Huron.

“Everything went really well overall,” said co-chairman Dave Saurchek. “We have some fine tuning to do for next year, but it was a real nice tournament. It was well worth the effort, and we accomplished what we wanted—for people from all over to start talking about northern Lake Huron—there really is something up here worth looking at.”

Taking first place in the GLFT was an Ocqucoc team led by captain Dave Hija on the boat, “Emma J.” Hija weighed in three salmon for a total of 36.77 pounds—enough to earn him and his crew the top prize of $8,500.

Hija’s crew included Dave “Gumby” Gumtow of Clarkstone, Brent and Burt Herrinum of Alpena. “We went out right at 5am and had our lines set by 5:30am,” said Brent Herrinum. “We caught all of our fish by 7am—from there on our nerves were wracking.”