Father and son team take first in the Last Chance fishing tourney

A father and son team from Alpena won the 2005 Last Chance Super Tournament over the weekend in Rogers City. Bill and Ben Skiba, who caught a 17-pound salmon Saturday and a 16-pounder Sunday, had a two-day weight total of 79.25 and won the top prize of $1,000. The three heaviest salmon are used to determine the winner. ?We?ve been fishing the tournament the last four or five years and we finally figured out that they have been catching a lot of the fish in close,? said Bill Skiba. ?It was just the two of us. Usually we?ve got four guys fishing. The other guys couldn?t make it so it was my son and I.?

The Skibas reeled in five fish on the final day of the tournament to move from second place Friday to first place. The 16-pounder was caught between 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.

?WE SAID WE needed a catch like we had yesterday and we ended up being in pretty good shape,? said Bill Skiba after receiving the $1,000 check at the Rogers City Marina parking lot. Since there were only 30 boats entered in the tournament, the Presque Isle County Tourism Council allowed the participants to vote on a change.

?We took it to the captains on Thursday night and asked them what they wanted to do, so they decided what the payouts were going to be. It worked out really good,? said Tourism Council executive director Kammie Dennis. Instead of handing out checks to the top 10 teams, the captains voted to make it top five only, to increase the payouts. It was a close, busy final day of the tournament.

?You could tell the fishing was better,? said Mark Schuler, Tourism Council events coordinator. ?They were bringing in fish right up until the cutoff time. There was a lot of activity right up until the very end.?

BETWEEN THE fi

ve days of the Rogers City Salmon Tournament in August and the Last Chance tourney, Saturday provided the best fishing competition. Less than two pounds separated first place ?Anchors End? and second place ?Demented,? which had a final weight of 77.85 pounds. Captain Jeffrey Schlott and crew took home $500. In third place was ?Castaways? with captain Mike Dole, who won $400 with a winning weight of 76.40 pounds.

In fourth place was Eugene Krueger on ?Mai Tai? with three salmon weighing 73.60 pounds. Krueger and his crew won $300. Bruce Miles on ?Daredevil? won $250 for taking fifth place (71.50 pounds).

A FAMILIAR NAME won the $1,000 for having the most weight for the five days of the two tournaments. Dennis Cook on the ?Cookie Man? had a total weight of 170.35 pounds. Cook has won more than $10,000 in Rogers City fishing tournaments over the years. Mai Tai was second (136.05-pounds), while ?Short Fuse? was third.