Likewise, Lake Erie walleye tournaments have become more numerous, with weigh stations adding more accuracy thanks to modern technology. Tournament angler participation has also grown, positively affecting economic impact for the local areas that support fishing competition — all along the Lake Erie shoreline in Chautauqua County regarding tournament walleye fishing.

Several years ago, the King-of-the-Lake series was created to recognize the winningest walleye angler in Lake Erie. When that ended, Marble-Eye-Madness championships started. The Lake Erie Walleye Series champion title was formatted over the last three years to recognize the winningest angler for the annual honor of being the best. The Lake Erie Walleye Series for this year consisted of three top-tier tournaments held on Eastern Basin Lake Erie. Organizers are considering adding a fourth tournament in upcoming years.

The first tournament for 2023, the WNY Walleye Classic, was conducted by Josh Larsen of Primitive Patriot Outdoors at Barcelona Harbor on June 3.

The Sunset Bay Walleye Shootout was next. This tourney has become one of the biggest purse walleye tournaments in the country, with more than $500,000 in cash and prizes; it was conducted on July 15 from Sunset Bay Grill at Cabana Sam’s by Captain Don Rupert and his crew.

The third and last tournament in the series was the Innovative Outdoor Walleye Challenge held from Chadwick Bay in Dunkirk at the Clarion Hotel Pavilion by Jim and Diane Steel on Aug. 19.

The weather factors were not kind for all three of these tournaments. The Barcelona tourney was canceled, but Sunset Bay and Chadwick Bay went on despite the challenging wind and wave-filled weather for participants.

“The LEWS Walleye Fishing Champion is a no-fee contest designed for fun and bragging rights,” Jim Steel said. “All the anglers are together on this and like to recognize that one lucky Lake Erie walleye angler and his team to finish on top using a system of total box weight and bonus points for scoring. Each year, the angler and his team must register ahead of the first tournament in the series, and the rest is simple tally and track.”

“Each registered team receives 1 point per pound of fish weighed in each event rounded to the nearest whole pound,” Diane Steel said. “Any tournament total box penalties would also be applied. So, for example, if the total box weight was 32.78 pounds, that team would earn 33 points. For example, if the total box weight was 32.48, they earn 32 points.”

Jim Steel explained that a bonus point system is awarded for the top 10 finishes in each event. A first-place finish receives 10 points, second receives nine points, and so on, down to 10th place for one bonus point. The bonus points are in addition to the box weight tally points.

According to many competitors, Jim and Diane Steel are great competition managers who have helped everyone understand scale system accuracy and fair, bold rules developed with the other tournament chairpersons.

The Barcelona tourney event was canceled due to wind and waves that affected safe fishing, and zero points to all anglers registered in the LEWS contest.

Another nasty weather day ensued in the Sunset Bay Walleye Shootout, but angler teams did fish.

Coming into the last tournament in the LEWS series, the Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge, the LEWS leader with 44 points was Randy Jaroszewski, with team Ice Breaker, all thanks to his second-place finish at the Sunset Bay Walleye Shootout. His team weighed in a six-fish box of 34.78 pounds. Tied for second place was Curtis Loveless, with Team Fishmaster with 33 points for their 32.74 pound box at Sunset Bay; then Bobby Rustowicz, 33 points, with Team Forever Fishin, with 32.65 pounds at Sunset. Jim Klein, 32 points, with Team Eye-Fish, had 30.81 pounds, and Kyle Kokanovich, 32 points, with Team Ship-of-Fools, had 31.97 pounds at Sunset. The final standings for all competitors at Sunset Bay can be found at https://walleyeshootout.com/.

Other teams farther down the leaderboard could have won the LEWS Championship with a knock-out day in the final competition, but that didn’t happen.

In the final competition, Team Ice Breaker, with Jaroszewski from Hamburg and his crew of Ron Kozub, also from Hamburg, and John Dirosa of Depew, brought a six-fish box of 31.20 pounds to the scale to finish with 83 points and win the LEWS championship title. In a distant second place was Loveless of Team Evil Eyes with 29.43 pounds and 68 total points, Bryan Dusenbury of Team Creative Woods and Waters was third with 30.02 pounds and 66 points, Daryll MacNeil of Team MacAttack finished with 57 points fourth. Adam Turner of Team Eye Doctors was fifth with 56 points, tied with Peter Szklanka of Team Triple Threat. The final Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge leaderboard can be viewed at https://innovative-outdoors.com/live-leaderboard.

Team Ice Breaker is familiar with the “Best of the Best” championship crown.

Jaroszewski won the crown in 2016 as King-of-the-Lake and in 2021 as the LEWS champion. Repeat champions beg the question from other competitors, “How do you do it?”

Sure, there are secrets, but Jaroszewski is not complacent in sharing his methods and tactics with others, insisting that pre-fish scouting and keeping track of the little things that matter makes a big difference at the scale.

“This was not our typical tournament. We always put the time and money into scouting for these events,” Jaroszewksi said after the final challenge. “On Wednesday, we put 148 miles on, for example. However, Mother Nature had a bad day on Friday, which carried over into Saturday. So much so that Big Fish Friday was canceled. Waves were crashing over the break wall at Dunkirk all day. This threw our plans way off. Saturday morning, we still had steady 4-footers with the occasional 6-foot waves. Travel by boat on Lake Erie that day was not an option. We used our past waypoints to guide us to the Canadian line off Dunkirk. Captain Don Ruppert had the same plans as us. Get out as far and deep as possible to troll with the waves. We both set up in about 129 feet of water about a mile apart.

“Our fish all came deep on sticks and harnesses. Purples and blues were the best. Riggers and Dipseys were set 62-72 feet down. The current was a killer for speed, and wave surge was releasing our lines,” Jaroszewski added. “So we threw out two trolling bags to counter that action. After we set up, Craig Sleeman drove out even further, deeper inside Canada. Waves were so intense that he hydro-locked his main motor. He only fished for about 1.5 hours but beat us by 0.2 pounds on the scale to take the big box and first place. Sleeman used his trolling motor to get back in time for the weigh-in. Don Ruppert of Team Wave Tamer was second. We got third and took the 2023 Lake Erie Walleye Series championship title on our total points.”

Jaroszewski credits such stickbaits as Bandits and Flicker Minnows in purple and firetiger colors for their fish box weights in the two tournaments that counted.

Jaroszewki and Team Ice Breaker were announced with awards following the Innovative Outdoors Walleye Challenge.

To learn more about the LEWS championship series, visit https://lakeeriewalleyeseries.com/.