The 2024 Erie, PA Sport Fishing Association “SUMMER SLAM”
Professional and Amateur divisions
One or Two-Day Competition
2-day overall division winner
Big Fish Kids Awards
Saturday July 27th and Sunday July 28th , 2024
Captains meeting Location: Friday, July 26th, 5:00 PM at Bayfront Park and Ride
Weigh-ins: Bayfront Park and Ride (located between Sloppy Ducks and Perry’s Landing, Erie PA)
beginning at 2:00 pm.
REGISTRATION WILL OPEN May 1st, 2024
1) Fee: $250 per day (Option to double down each day)
2) Membership in the EPSFA is not required for this tournament
3) Entry deadline: July 19th, 2024
4) Trolling only tournament
5) Points system is 10 points per fish, 1 point per pound
6) Maximum of 12 legal fish, walleye, steelhead, brown trout, or salmon (no lake trout)
7) No communication tournament
Click here for a full list of the summer slam rules and regulations.
Questions? E-mail our tournament director, Aleasha Nemet.
This is a 90% pay back tournament. 1st Place will receive a large award check and more.
Captain Pete Alex and Team Vision Quest got the victory with a 2 day score of 377.50 with a total of 24 fish weighing 137.50 pounds!
Captain Scott Bielanin and Team Renegade took the title after bringing in 12 fish weighing 69.60 pounds for a total score of 189.60.
The V.Q. 2023 Summer Slam Victory Recap
Going into a typical Summer Slam, I know that steelhead can play a major factor in winning. They seem to be a bit larger on average than the current average walleye in the Lake and there seem to be a higher % of fish over 7# than walleyes, so landing a “big” steelhead boosts your average even more, if you can get em.
We headed offshore on Saturday am after a weather delay. The balance of the day’s forecast was calling for rain and moderate winds as we headed out. The Lake was decent as we traveled north. Eventually, the wind picked up, then laid down to almost nothing. We were set up by then and we were into a HOT steelhead bite even though we had a dual program out, we were getting mostly bit by welcomed steel.
Eventually the lake started puffing hard. Like, where’s this coming from. The bites and wind kept coming and coming tho and we didn’t pay much attention to the building seas. Eventually, our bite slowed, and we decided to do a return up troll. The 36 Tiara had a tough time trolling into them, but we continued to get bit and land fish. I was stuck at the helm driving because “auto” would not hold. Eventually, I said, OK boys, were doing a one-way slide to the SE and hope we land upgrades along the way.
Fishing remained good and as we angled SE, our walleye bite improved, and steelhead bite slowed. That was perfect tho because we had plenty of steelhead and were looking to poke big eyes.
When it was time to stop, we had boxed a boat limit of steelhead (18) with 3 released and (21) walleyes with several released. It was tremendous fishing for the shortened day. A 50 plus bite outing and we felt good about our chances of winning day 1.
At the weigh-in, all of the pro’s weighed their best 12. Some guys toughed it out most of the fishing period, some shortened their day due to the big waves. V.Q. won day #1 and was sitting in 1stby about 4# with the overall in our sights.
On Day 2, we were met with much more favorable conditions, the Lake was calm, and the skies were blue. A perfect day 2. We headed back to our Day 1 spot expecting things to be a bit different due to the prior days wind and moving water.
Day 2 was another great day of fishing, not as intense as day 1 but we boxed another boat limit of steelhead and a brown along with 24 walleyes.
At the weigh-in, all of the pro’s weighed their best 12 again. The scores were heavier than Day 1, including ours. We weighed a 12-pound heavier box, however, finished 3rd on Day 2 by 1.3#. However, it was still good enough for another overall win in Erie PA.
A big thank you to my team (Doug, Wes, Wyatt, Trevor and Carlton), the EPSFA, sponsors, tournament director (Aleasha), S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie and volunteers for putting together another great event in Erie, PA. What a fishery!
Team Renegade was excited for this year’s Summer Slam. The past two years we could only fish one day of the event due to other Walleye Tournaments on the same dates as the Slam. When the schedule came out and we could fish both days, we were going to be ready for sure.
The week of the Tournament we covered a lot of water and our Walleye spots were not producing a lot of 6-9 pound fish so we ended up straight off the Point fishing to the East. The Steelhead bite was really good but not a lot of big Walleye. Day 1 was really hot for the first two hours and then the lake got treacherous and we decided to stop fishing at 11:00 a.m. Good thing, because it took us 1½ hours to get back to the dock, completely water logged but safe. Day 1 resulted in us sitting in second place but, with better conditions for Day 2, we knew our fish were going to be scattered. On Day 2 we started 4 miles East of where we set up on Day 1 and, after about 40 minutes, we found them and it was game on! We caught a lot of 5-7 pound fish and couldn’t land a “kicker” fish. Day 2 results had us sitting in second place and that was enough to seal the victory.
We are really excited about the upcoming year and hope to lock up another Slam victory. Team Renegade would like to thank the EPSFA and staff that put this event together, and we appreciate all the hard work that goes into these Tournaments. A shout out to Team Renegade members Joe, Mike, Ray and Scott. A big shout out to the other fishing teams that competed and make it a grind to win – there are a lot of good guys and really competitive teams. Good luck to all and bring on the 2024 Slam!
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