Montana Couple Lands $15,000 at Major Walleye Fishing Tourney

The Montana couple that fishes together wins big money together!

At least that's been the case twice recently during a couple major fishing tournaments in the state.

You may recall the 2021 Fall Mack Days lake trout fishing tournament on Flathead Lake, where a husband and wife team landed one of the tagged money fish. Okay, not just any tagged money fish: the grand prize fish worth $10,000.

And now we extend our congratulations to Carly and Whit Rush of Wolf Point, the 2022 Governor's Cup Walleye Tournament winners, whose consistent fishing strategies netted them the $15,000 first prize from the field of 201 teams! The "Gov Cup" was held this past Friday and Saturday on Fort Peck Lake.

One of Montana's premier fishing tournaments, the Governor's Cup requires a $300 entry fee. It is typically sold out within about an hour once registration goes up online. Prize money is distributed in descending amounts to numerous contestants. Anglers submit their best weights of five walleye caught each day. The competition is tough and if you can't land some big fish both days, you probably are not going home a winner.

But Carly and Whit did just that, turning in a Day One weight of 40.52 pounds and a Day Two weight of 39.04 pounds, for a combined winning weight of 79.56. It doesn't get much more consistent than that. And we don't have to tell you that an average weight of nearly 8 pounds per fish is pretty impressive.

While not revealing much about what area of the massive Fort Peck Lake they were working, Carly Rush tells us that she and Whit stayed strictly with shiner minnows as their bait of choice the entire tournament. Another interesting little nugget, Carly's dad, Lane Pickthorn was the 1995 Governor's Cup Winner.

Rounding out the Top 5 teams:

Second Place: Joshua Johnson of Williston, North Dakota and Cody Roland of Crosby, North Dakota, with 75.72 pounds.

Third Place: Jason Plouffe of Saco, North Dakota and Levi Plouffe of Billings, with 67.24 pounds.

Fourth Place: Nate Chappell of Miles City and Mike Chappell of Glasgow (Day One leaders) with 63.62 pounds.

Fifth Place: Jesse and Monica Reuter of Sidney with 62.76 pounds.