Author: tonyacharneski

What a season it’s been. Five tournaments. Five different bodies of water. Hundreds of walleye. And one heck of a group of anglers representing Tweet Garot Mechanical from Green Bay to Marquette and everywhere in between. Here’s how the 2026 season looked from start to finish:

Petenwell Lake – April 25
The season kicked off with 12 teams and over 100 walleyes caught on the day, with 42+ legal fish brought to the net. Justin Beck and Chandler Whitmore took the top spot with 108″, with Beck doubling up by claiming the biggest fish award with a 25.5″ walleye. A great way to kick off the season!

Deer Lake, Marquette County – May 30
History was made with the very first Marquette TG Walleye Tournament. Seven boats and 17 anglers hit the water, and the top three teams finished within 1.25 inches of each other — it doesn’t get much tighter than that. Team Carter Peterson claimed both the top stringer at 119.50″ and the biggest walleye at 22″. Jim Vitort stole the show with a jaw-dropping 37.25″ Northern Pike. The crew celebrated at Jasper Ridge Brewing Company in Ishpeming, and a huge thank you goes to Standard/Wittock Supply for donating a Milwaukee Impact Set as the door prize.

Lake Wissota – June 27
A great day on Lake Wissota saw Greg “Dauber” Backhaus and Tate Brown take first place with 109.35″ and the biggest walleye at 21.5″. Zach Leiser and Aaron Bravick came in second at 100.75″, with Justin Beck, Cody Dziekan, and CJ Thurner rounding out the podium at 83.5″. The pizza was good too.

Bay of Green Bay – August 15
The season finale on the Bay brought nine boats to the water and did not disappoint. Joey Hartjes put together a dominant performance with 164.5″ to claim the 2026 championship, with Justin Beck, Cody Dziekan, and their co-angler finishing a strong second at 152.5″. Hartjes also took home the biggest walleye of the day at 29.25″.

Lake Nokomis, Tomahawk
And then there was Nokomis. Five boats hit the water on a beautiful day, though low water levels kept everyone cautious from the moment they left the launch. Tyler Knauf and his co-angler wife built an early lead with a solid 6-fish limit, but Justin Beck, Jim Vitort, and co-angler Iggy had other plans — coming roaring back late in the day with a couple of 17-inchers to claim 1st place with 96″. Steve Blixt earned serious respect by fishing solo and still landing on the podium at 68.25″. Everyone wrapped up the day at the Loop Hole Bar and Grill, and a big thank you to Heath from Liebavich Steel for the pizzas and drinks. A perfect way to close out the 2026 season.

A Note of Thanks
None of this happens without the people who put in the time behind the scenes. There are too many helping hands to name them all, and we wouldn’t want to leave a single one out — so to everyone who helped organize, coordinate, and support these events throughout the season, you know who you are and we appreciate you more than you know. Your effort makes it possible for everyone else to just show up and fish, and that means everything.

The 2026 season is in the books — and with a new 3-person team rule taking effect going forward, 2027 is already shaping up to be something special. See you on the water!

Saturday on Lake Nokomis brought beautiful weather and a great day on the water, though low water levels kept everyone on their toes! Five boats joined in on the fun, making for a great day of friendly competition to close out the 2026 season!

Tyler Knauf and his co-angler wife came out swinging, putting together a 6-fish limit early and holding the lead for a solid stretch of the day. It was looking like their tournament to lose — until Justin Beck, Jim Vitort, and co-angler Iggy came roaring back late in the day with a couple of 17-inchers to steal the show and claim 1st place!

After a great day on the water, everyone gathered at the Loop Hole Bar and Grill to celebrate, hand out prizes, and swap stories from the day. A big thank you to Heath from Liebavich Steel for generously sponsoring the pizzas and drinks — what a way to wrap up the season!

Final Standings:
1st: Justin Beck, Jim Vitort & Iggy — 96″
2nd: Tyler Knauf & wife — 87.5″
3rd: Steve Blixt (solo!) — 68.25″

Special Awards:
Biggest Non-Walleye: Justin Beck — 22.25″ Northern
Shortest Walleye: Steve Blixt — 12.5″

Shoutout to Steve Blixt for gutting it out solo and still podiuming, and to Justin Beck for snagging the big non-walleye prize on top of the win! Fun was had by all, and we’re happy to report that despite the unusually low water levels, everyone made it through without incident. It was a fantastic way to wrap up the 2026 season — see you all on the water next year!

Written by Tyler Knauf

A Bay of Green Bay Legend in the Making – Aug. 15, 2026

Seven AM sharp. Nine boats rumbled to life at the launch on the Bay of Green Bay. The sun was climbing fast, and the water was a bit choppy to start. Seven hours. That’s the window. The kind of day where the walleye either bite like they owe you money or ignore you for seven hours like an ex-partner. Today was going to be interesting.
Tweet Garot Mechanical had thrown down the gauntlet. A full tournament. Bragging rights. And most importantly: a massive pile of fish to brag about for the rest of the year.

The Contenders Leave the Dock

Joey Hartjes pulled away from the dock with his co-angler, already pointing toward the deep water with the confidence of someone who’d done this a thousand times. “Six fish,” he said to himself. “Six big ones.”

Two boats back, Justin Beck and Cody Dziekan compared notes with their co-angler, their tackle boxes already organized with the precision you’d expect from BAS guys—everything labeled, everything backed up, everything tested. A year of learning a thing or two from Tyler Knauf and the BAS department had sharpened their edge.

Steve Dickey and Doug Wagner settled into their rhythm with the steady focus of a maintenance crew running through a checklist. Calm. Methodical. No drama.

The rest of the fleet spread out: Zach Leiser, Wyatt Malsin, Tyler Knauf, Arnold Simonar, Leann Claus, and Mike Podnar—each boat a potential upset, each skipper convinced their fish were biting today.

The Bay of Green Bay stretched out before them, 1,400 square miles of walleye territory. Nine boats. One champion. Let’s go.

Weigh-In: The Final Tally

Special Awards:
Biggest Walleye of the Day: Joey Hartjes, 29.25″
Smallest Walleye of the Day: Zach Leiser, 11.5″

The Winner Takes it All

Joey Hartjes stood on that dock with a grin that said it all: 164.5 inches. Champion.
That six-fish stringer was the measure of his skill, his knowledge of that bay, his ability to find walleye when they didn’t want to be found. It was a 12-inch margin over second place. In tournament fishing, that’s dominance.

But here’s the thing about a 9-boat tournament on the Bay of Green Bay: everybody did something right. Everybody caught fish. Everybody earned their place in the standings.

Back at Tweet Garot

Monday morning rolled around. The trophy hardware gleamed on Joey Hartjes’s desk—silver and blue catching the light, the weight of it settling in nice and hard. Champion. 2026. Bay of Green Bay. Steve Dickey walked by, saw it, and nodded. Last year’s champion passing the torch to this year’s. That’s how it works out on the water. You bring your A-game, you execute, and if you’re better that day—164.5 inches worth of better—the hardware comes home with you.

But here’s what everyone at Tweet Garot already knew by Tuesday:
Next year, the competition will be back on the Bay.
Word travels fast in a mechanical contracting shop. BAS guys, HVAC technicians, sheet metal fabricators, plumbers—the Tour de Green Bay has a way of making people who’ve never held a fishing rod suddenly interested in learning. Because that’s what the Bay of Green Bay does. It calls to you. Those walleye are out there, waiting, hiding in the structure and the deep water, and somewhere across the company, someone’s thinking: “Next year, that hardware is mine.” The challengers are lining up. The office is already buzzing with talk. New faces will show up at the dock. Proven competitors will refine their strategies. And Joey will wake up next August 15th knowing that everyone else is coming for him.

That’s the beautiful part of a tournament like this. It’s not just about 164.5 inches on a measuring board. It’s about the incredible walleye that the Bay of Green Bay has to offer. It’s about the strategy, the skill, the luck, and the grind. It’s about nine boats on the water, seven hours of focus, and the kind of friendly competition and great comradery at the award ceremony that makes a team better.

Next year, the Bay will be waiting.

And Tweet Garot will be ready.

This weekends fishing tournament on Lake Wissota was great. We saw a fair number of fish caught.

1st place with 109.35” for 6 walleye Greg “Dauber” Backhaus and Tate Brown
2nd Place with 100.75” was Zach Leiser and Aaron Bravick
3rd place with 83.5” was Justin Beck, Cody Dziekan and CJ Thurner

Largest walleye Dauber and Tate 21.5”
Smallest walleye was Dan Cater at 11.5”.

Great time. Pizza was good.

The first ever Marquette TG Walleye Tournament is in the books and it did not disappoint. On May 30th, 7 boats and 17 anglers hit the water for a day that delivered stunning scenery, fierce competition, and what we are pretty confident amounted to hundreds of Walleyes caught. Not a bad way to kick off a tournament tradition.

With a six fish stringer format, every inch mattered and the standings proved it. The top three teams finished within just 1.25 inches of each other, keeping the competition alive from the first cast to the last weigh in. A special shout-out goes to the two boats and four anglers who made the trip all the way up from Wisconsin. That kind of commitment to compete means the world to us, and we hope it was worth every mile.

After a full day on the water, the crews gathered at Jasper Ridge Brewing Company in Ishpeming for pizza, apps, and well earned awards. Congratulations to Team Carter Peterson for taking home both the biggest stringer and the largest Walleye at 22 inches. And hats off to Jim Vitort on Team Justin Beck for landing an absolute gator of a Northern Pike at 37.25 inches. That fish had people talking all night.

🏆 Six Fish Stringer Results

Place	Team	Total Inches
🥇 1st Place	Team Carter Peterson	119.50″
🥈 2nd Place	Team Justin Beck	118.75″
🥉 3rd Place	Team Braden Reinhart	118.25″

Sponsor Thank You

A huge thank you to Standard/Wittock Supply for donating a Milwaukee Impact Set as our door prize. Your generosity made the day even more special. We could not do events like this without partners who show up for the community.