Awards : PMTT 2006 Second Event - Press Release

PETENWELL FLOWAGE, WI
May 13th & 14th, 2006

Team Rusteberg / Bowman Score Big
at PMTT Petenwell Event

"Team Steve Rusteberg (Naperville, IL) and Ron Bowman (Carol Stream, IL) score "in a big way" in the second event of the Professional Musky Tournament Trail at the Petenwell Flowage Wisconsin. This was the first ever event for the Professional Tournament Trail on the Petenwell Flowage. Most teams had very little knowledge of the flowage or its muskie population. Many teams only had one week in order to pre-fish due to the southern muskie season opener in Wisconsin being the first weekend in May. Most knew very little about the fishery going into this event.

Team Rusteberg / Bowman finished in second place, taking home a check in excess of $3,500. They also won the Ranger Cup adding an additional $1,000 to their purse.

Rusteberg credits Bowman for his diligence, and persistence prefishing several days before the tournament in very inclement weather. Ron often times will fish separately from Steve in order to increase the amount of time spent on a body of water before an event. Both will find a partner and prefish out of separate boats in order to cover as much water as possible before an event. This time Steve had trailer trouble so he was unable to prefish this virtually unknown body of water. At times, Ron will prefish without hooks in order not to hook or spook a fish before an event. Without Steve being on the water helping him prefish it was going to be all up to him to find the active muskie.

"Yea, Bowman did all the prefishing this time. I went on the body of water almost blind. The first time I put my boat in the water was the tournament day. I had never been out there before and only was able to research the body of water thru phone calls to local fisherman and the internet. Ron found the fish for us!", Steve added.

The first day Steve and Ron caught three fish a 34", 34.5", and a 35" muskie. This team almost boated half of the fish reported caught the first day. Fishing, and fishing conditions were very tough. Thirty mile an hour winds and freezing rain was the call of the day by the local weatherman. There was only one team ahead of them for the win. The team, made up of two local fishermen would be hard to beat. With only two fish that were worth more points this team would be in first place on the first day. They placed higher in the standings because their fish were slightly bigger.

It was Rusteberg's chance to "Three peat". He could have been the only one in PMTT history to win first place in three events, however fate would only allow him to come so close.

The second day of the tournament met more of the same inclement weather, including rain and snow. The 30 mph winds had died down but the cold had set in not only for the weather system, but for the two anglers.

Rusteberg and Bowman were unable to boat a fish for the win on the second day. Boating pressure had increased on their productive areas and the cold front had truly set in for good. The water temperature dropped over six degrees in one night in the small bay thy were fishing.

"Second is good!", replied Ron. "We had no knowledge of the body of water and between first and second place we almost boated half of the fish caught in the tournament. Any local fisherman no matter who they are are going to be hard to beat on their body of water. It's almost like having home field advantage", he added.

"Yea, it would have been nice to repeat", said Steve. "But I will settle for second. It puts us in excellent place to win the prestigious reward of PMTT Top Gun. It is rewarded to the team with the most points at the end of the year for the most wins. I just look to be a consistent angler, tournament or not!", Steve added.

Pictures of the event or for more information about the PMTT go to the following web page. See Steve and Ron's catch at www.promusky.com or www.muskiefirst.com. "