Records Shattered at 32nd Annual Governor's Cup

It was early Friday morning, July 12, and 200 boats had filled the waters of the Fort Peck Marina waiting for their wave to get flagged out. The skies were clear and the winds were slight as the cannon sounded the official start of the tournament and a team of volunteers waved the boats on by. By the end of the weekend, all 200 boats will have landed fish, averaging over 3.5 lbs per fish, topping out with the largest walleye landed at 12.7 lbs and over 32 inches.

"A ton of nice fish were measured," said Chairman of the Glasgow Area Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture Josh Sillerud. "Over 800 fish were weighed in the first day, and no teams were shut out."

According to Sillerud, the event was one of the smoothest he had seen in the time he has been involved in the tournament. He said, "It went off, almost, without a hitch," adding that there were far too many people and far too much money involved to not have at least a few issues. Still Sillerud was very pleased with the results of the tournament and how well all the festivities surrounding the event went down. "It was a very, very smoothly run tournament. It's fun when it goes that smooth."

This year's event became notorious for bringing in so many large fish. Before the end of Saturday, only one team had ever hit the 60 lbs. mark, however when the final totals came in at the end of the tournament, the top five teams had bested the previous record. Adam Morehouse and Matt Poole, both of Glasgow, achieved first place finish clearing the record by over 10 lbs. and totaling 70.04 lbs. The second place finish, by only 4/100 of a pound, went to Kris Keller, of Wolf Point, and Cody Strohm, of Richey, with a total of 70 lbs even. Third was 66.58, fourth came in at 60.52, and fifth, with a number that on any other year would have claimed the grand prize, finished with 60.28 lbs.

In the end, Sillerud said that some 19 teams totaled in at over 30 lbs on day one and another 31 teams topped the 20 pound mark, making it one of the heaviest days in the tournament's history.

For Sillerud, one of the best parts was watching the local teams top the charts. "It's cool how many local teams did so well," said Sillerud. In all of the top 20 teams only five had no members from Montana and none of the teams came from states outside of North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana. One team had a member from Nebraska, but he was teamed with a member from Watford City, N.D. Each of the top five teams had a member from Northeast Montana. Sillerud attributes the success of those teams to a knowledge of the lake that can only come from countless hours hunting fish on the reservoir.

The Gov. Cup Tournament at Fort Peck Lake is the flagship walleye event in Montana and for much of the region. With top place payouts in the tens of thousands, the prize draws a crowd each year and leaves little room on the water. For the 2019 season the registration had opened the morning of November 1 and had filled the entire roster of 200 boats in only five-and-a-half hours. According to Sillerud, the nature of trying to register 200 teams has led to the future implementation of registration changes for 2020, but plans are still in the works for the effort.