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The first-place finish that almost wasn’t


Kent Popham and Al Rohrbach

Al Rohrbach (right) of Pierre caught a 10.38-pound walleye on Saturday in the Mobridge Tourism Committee Ice Fishing Tournament, taking first place along with his partner, Kent Popham (left) of Castlewood. The pair put in at Indian Creek and Rohrbach caught his big fish at 5:15 p.m., bringing the team’s total catch to six fish weighing 18.61 pounds.

Imagine it’s 5 p.m. on the Saturday of the 2023 Mobridge Tourism Committee Ice Fishing Tournament and the largest fish you have — a 20-incher — weighs just a little over three pounds. You’d probably find it hard to believe you were about to take first place in the competition and also win the big fish award. But that’s exactly what happened to Al Rohrbach of Pierre when he pulled in a scale-topping 10.38-pound walleye at about 5:15 p.m.

“It was the last fish we caught,” Rohrbach said, referring to the two-person team made up of himself and his friend Kent Popham of Castlewood. “It didn’t even act like that big of a fish. We pulled it in and then we packed up and headed out. I was not about to be late for the weigh-ins.”

Throughout the day, the team caught a total of 19 walleye and four catfish. For the official competition, they weighed in the 10.38-pounder, which was 29-inches, as well as a 20-incher, an 18-incher, a 15-incher, and two 14.5-inchers. Their official catch weighed 18.61 pounds.

Rohrbach has been coming to the tournament for about 10 years, he said, has never placed in the competition. “I’ve been in more competitions where I didn’t weigh in at all than where I actually had fish to turn in. So yeah, I’ve done the ‘Drive of Shame’ a few times,” he laughed.

While he’s an active fisherman and hunter, Rohrbach said catching big fish is new for him. Aside from this Saturday’s winning entry and a 9-pounder he caught recently while on a fishing trip in Canada, he has never before caught a walleye that was bigger than 8 pounds he said.

Rohrbach and Popham fished in Popham’s SnoBear for the competition.

“We put in at Indian Creek, and went straight across to Timber Bay,” Rohrbach said. “We actually did some pre-fishing on the Moreau. We probably drilled 75 holes and only caught a few fish, so we figured there was no reason to go all the way down there again.”

Rohrbach’s rod was a 32-inch medium-action JT Shiver Stick, baited with a flutter spoon lure tipped with a minnow head.

He said he thought the location was the key to their success.

“We were fishing a really good ledge that went from 35-foot to 50-foot in a 40-foot stretch, and we were right in the middle of it,” he said. “We had fish moving around all day long, with a few slow periods, of course.”

Rohrbach may be a familiar face to folks in Mobridge because he does paintless dent repair through Beadle’s as well as Lee & Jundt Auto Body. He lives in Pierre with his wife of 27 years, Barb. They have one son, Hudson, who is 23 years old.

Rohrbach and Popham received $650 for their first-place win. The big fish award came with a $500 prize from Beadle’s as well as an additional $350 from the late Denny Palmer’s wife, Glenda.

“I’d like to thank the Chamber for putting on the competition – they run a really good tournament. Everything is professionally run and weighing in was really efficient. It was a well-oiled machine,” Rohrbach said.

Of the 546 teams on the roster in this year’s tournament, a total of 302 teams turned in at least one fish. This is a 23% improvement over last year, when only 245 teams turned in fish at the weigh-in.

Weighing a total of nearly 1,415 pounds, there were 1,015 walleye that were counted in the tournament, with the average weight being 1.39 pounds.

Top 25 teams

2023 Mobridge Ice Fishing Tournament 2nd place

Second place in the 2023 Mobridge Ice Fishing Tournament went to Kelly Howe and Kellen Manthei of Hettinger, North Dakota. They caught six fish weighing a total of 14.86 pounds. Their largest fish was 9.37 pounds. Shown with the winners are Katy Hutchins (left) and Brent Kemnitz (right) of the Mobridge Tourism Committee.

Several local teams made the top 25, including two top-10 finishing teams consisting of Colton Kosters of Selby and Tanner Masteller of Glenham, who placed fifth and Cody Rahder of Isabel and Tyler Polzen of Mobridge, who placed seventh.

The following lists the results for the top 25 placing teams. Teams placing first through fifth received plaques and cash prizes; teams placing sixth through eighth received cash prizes; the ninth place team received fishing rods in memory of Barry Volk in addition to their cash prize; teams placing 10th through 25th also received cash prizes.

2023 Mobridge Ice Fishing Tourney 3rd place

Third place went to Jennifer and Vern Wuitschick of Rozet, Wyoming, who brought in six fish weighing a total of 14.37 pounds.

First place: Al Rohrbach and Kent Popham — Six fish weighing a total of 18.61 pounds. Their largest fish was 10.38 pounds.

Second place: Kellen Manthei and Kelly Howe of Hettinger, North Dakota — Six fish weighing a total of 14.86 pounds. Their largest fish was 9.37 pounds.

Third place: Vern and Jennifer Wuitschick of Rozet, Wyoming — Six fish weighing a total of 14.37 pounds.

2023 Mobridge Ice Fishing Tourney 4th place

Tourney first-timers Brent Jansen of Rapid City and Wade Jansen of Sioux Falls came in fourth. Their five fish weighed 12.75 pounds.

Fourth place: Wade Jansen of Sioux Falls and Brent Jansen of Rapid City — Five fish weighing a total of 12.75 pounds.

Fifth place: Colton Kosters of Selby and Tanner Masteller of Glenham — Six fish weighing a total of 12.54 pounds.

2023 Mobridge Ice Fishing Tourney 5th place

Tanner Masteller of Glenham and Colton Kosters of Selby took fifth place. They brought in six fish weighing a total of 12.54 pounds.

Sixth place: Erik Shepherd and Ryan Dittus of Gillette, Wyoming — Six fish weighing a total of 12.36 pounds.

Seventh place: Cody Rahder of Isabel and Tyler Polzen of Mobridge — Six fish weighing a total of 11.52 pounds.

Eighth place: Bradley Cole and Scott Ahlemeier, both of Gettysburg — Six fish weighing a total of 11.38 pounds.

Ninth place: Darren Waite and Tami Waite of Osage, Wyoming— Six fish weighing a total of 11.37 pounds.

10th place: Jade Drause and Gabe Janke of Madison, South Dakota — Six fish weighing a total of 11.22 pounds.

11th place: Austin Brandt and Dustin Degreef of Arlington — Six fish weighing a total of 11.17 pounds.

Revyn Reilley

Eight-year-old Revyn Reilley of Selby accepts the 12th place prize envelope from Katy Hutchins. Revyn and his mom, Tandy, brought in six fish, weighing a total of 10.99 pounds.

12th place: Tandy Reilley and Revyn Reilley of Selby — Six fish weighing a total of 10.99 pounds.

13th place: Hunter Gill of Brandon and Dalton Martian of Pierre — Six fish weighing a total of 10.84 pounds.

14th place: Luke Keller and Austin Bowen of McLaughlin — Six fish weighing a total of 10.0 pounds.

15th place: Hayes and Jared Bender of Custer — Six fish weighing a total of 9.93 pounds.

16th place: Todd Ludeman and Doug Bain of Mobridge — Five fish weighing a total of 9.79 pounds.

17th place: Taylor and Laura Anderson of Groton — Six fish weighing a total of 9.4 pounds.

18th place: Quinten Hedlin of Pierre and Andrew Utter of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota — Six fish weighing a total of 9.33 pounds.

19th place: Corey Sandmeier and Brent Reilley of Selby — Six fish weighing a total of 9.32 pounds.

20th place: Jason LaFave of Aberdeen and Justin Karst of Selby — Six fish weighing a total of 9.25 pounds.

21st place: Kevin Stark and Jon Ekern of Faulkton — Six fish weighing a total of 9.18 pounds.

22nd place: Cody Stoner of Redfield and Dustin Otto of Tulare — Six fish weighing a total of 9.17 pounds.

23rd place: Marty Gienger and Terry While of Mobridge — Six fish weighing a total of 9.13 pounds.

24th place: Jesse Brown of Ipswich and Jordan Brown of Madison — Six fish weighing a total of 9.06 pounds.

25th place: Brian Beaman and Chad Schilling of Selby — Six fish weighing a total of 8.97 pounds.

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