That’s a wrap for Walleyes for Warriors 2025, and what a great year it was! Mark your calendars for June 6 & 7 for the 2026 event.

Our 2025 event was a huge success and yielded the largest catch to date. Mother nature was much nicer to us this year, scaling back on the winds enough to make fishing much more enjoyable. The morning started out a little bumpy but as the day progressed the seas calmed to just a beautiful walleye chop.

Calmer seas and great weather lead to our record setting catch. While the final numbers were initially said to be an all-time high of 1987 walleye, that total grew a bit more when a tally sheet was discovered that was not included in the 1987. The addition of the added count pushed the total over the two thousand to a new total of 2,009 walleye.

But wait, there’s more….. We now have news that the total has climbed a bit higher. We received a call from a boat captain that discovered 2 fish still in his livewell when he took his family out on the Saginaw River to watch the fireworks on the 4^th of July. Yes, this is the first time he has used his boat since the event.  Let’s just say his boat was a little ripe and the filets were not salvageable. We can now say our total walleye harvest for the 2025 event ended at 2,011, smashing the previous record of 1,683.

2025 was a great year for turnout. We had a full showing in all areas with 107 Boat Captains, 104 First Mates, 217 Veterans, 74 volunteers and 88 sponsors who made this event possible. The longest walleye was 26 inches reeled in by Veteran Bill Morrison on Captain Ron Kutchy boat.

Our oldest in attendance was Richard Gruss, a Korean War Veteran, 94 years young, who served in the Army. Our youngest was Amy Sekelsky age 24, who also served in the Army.

Our mission at Walleyes for Warriors is to show appreciation to our veterans, thanking them for their love and dedication to our country, by organizing a special day of fishing and comradery on Saginaw Bay. We are proud of each and every person and company who played an important role in making 2025 a great success.

WELCOME HOME, and GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

The Bay City Elks Lodge #88 and The Walleyes for Warriors Board of Directors.