The EPSFA is proud to present...

The 2025 Erie, PA Sport Fishing Association “Fall Trout Challenge”

One Day Competition

Sunday October 19th, 2025

Captains meeting Location: None

Weigh-ins: Sloppy Duck Restaurant beginning at 2:30 pm

Registration and rules coming soon

RULES SUMMARY

1) Fee: $250 + $ 15 registration fee required (Option to double down)

2) Membership: 2 Team members must belong to the EPSFA and be in good standing at the time of the competition

3) Entry deadline: By midnight on October 17th, 2025

4) Trolling only tournament

5) Points system is 10 points per fish, 1 point per pound

6) Maximum of 6 legal fish, steelhead, brown trout, or salmon (no lake trout)

7) Open communication tournament

Downloadable copy of the Fall trout challenge rules and regulations coming soon

AWARDS

This is a 90% pay back tournament. 1st Place will receive a large award check and more

2024 Fall Trout Challenge

1st Place - TEAM POKERFACE

Congratulations to Captain Ken Rodland and Team POKERFACE who beat the competition with 6 trout weighing a total of 37.50 pounds!

We asked Captain Ken to give us some insight into the weekend and he was happy to fill us in

10-18 Pre-fishing with the birthday girl, Dozer, and Tony Gerg (Captain of Team Necessary) We had to blow the cobwebs off, being this was our first trout trip and first day out since September 22nd. We left home port around 7:30 and started deploying gear. The bite was on fire and we struggled to get 6 rods in the water. This was a good sign! We had a few tourney boats down our way and wondered if we would have company for the weekend? We went through the day dialing in our best set ups going 19/26. Then a birthday song, and pumpkin pie before calling it a day. Happy Birthday to my wife and first mate Rhonda!!

10-19 Fishing the Ditch Challenge with the Pokerface Team. We departed at 7:15, with everything ready to go for the 7:30 start time. We all stood in awe looking at the completely flat glass lake conditions. Trout were rising and crashing bait all around us. We got going and went 7/9 on our first pass. Good deal!! Confident in our area we released all fish that weren’t tournament grade. Releasing fish before you have your initial 6 in the box?? Who even does that??!! It was a great day with constant action. We dropped two very nice fish, which would have changed our outcome. We were still happy going to the scales with a good box to finish a solid third place.

10-20 Game day and we were stoked to say the least. The early morning was spent talking with Team Necessary at the dock. (Capt Tony, my daughter Rylee, Tony’s Dad Steve, and friend Bob, both of which was their first time fishing in a tournament). The talk about the strategy was a really cool deal for me. Getting more people to join EPSFA just to fish this tournament, was also a bonus. Rods in at 7:30 and we got going. It was the biggest fish class bite of the weekend, going 4/11 on the first pass. Those big boys sure have a way of getting the best of ya. The morning was also filled with shouts of joy and hooting and hollering by Team Necessary, who was within earshot most of the morning. Almost seemed like they were out fishing us!! Proud Dad and coach moment for me!!. I can’t remember an EPSFA Trout Challenge where the weather conditions and lake were perfect, or a time where the struggle was to not limit out too early without a good weighing tournament box. Congratulations to my team Rhonda, JB and Dozer!!

2nd Place: Vision Quest

3rd Place: Bite Force

Team Nemesis Wins the Weekend

Captain Joe gives us the scoop...

10/20/23: With the forecasted big blow on Saturday and Sunday we decided to burn some gas and fish Elk creek just to get a few reps in for the team, knowing this area would be unfishable come Sunday. We fished 8 to 16 fow placing spoons and plugs in the top 6'. This trip helped the team get a feel for the program, fighting fish, lure color, and lure type. Getting the bugs out 🐛 we roped 14/26 including a brown trout. We need help on that landing rate!

10/21/23: this was an abbreviated day, fishing the shelter of the bay and east avenue area due to high winds and waves outside. We made a few more tweaks to the game day program based the 6 bites we got (boated 2). With the high winds we made the change to use Team Dreamweaver ninja boards for our 1/3 core (10 feet) spoon stealthcore rigs. At this point we have a good idea on where to start and what to use. Bites in the FTC are usually hard to come by in the bay, so #flawlessexecution will be important to win 🏆.

10/22/23: Game day, we had a mixture of small shallow plugs on the big board and on the other side our ninja boards and FishUSA stealthcore spoon rigs. With the big winds, water color is important... we tried to keep our lures in the clearer green water as much as we could. It was primarily a spoon bite for us so eventually our plugs got replaced as we dialed in our program. Small bright colored spoons seem to be the ticket today in that dingy green water. We outperform my bay expectations today boating 9 out of 11 steelhead bites plus a bonus smallmouth bass. We won big fish honors at 7.8# and our 6 fish 🐟 box earned us a 1st place finish 💪!