The Midwest Walleye Challenge kicks off April 1, 2025 in the five Midwest States of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and South Dakota, with Michigan joining in once their Walleye fishery opens on May 15. These citizen science fishing events are a fun way for anglers and biologists to join forces in support of their State’s Walleye fishery. The event is open to anglers of all skill levels with $10,000 in prizes to be awarded in each state, including “Tough Luck” prizes for those anglers who don’t catch anything but still report their fishing trip (see rules for details).
“What makes these events unique is how we combine the fun of fishing for prizes with the ability to collect high quality data on the Walleye fishery across each State,” says Sean Simmons, founder and president of MyCatch.“By having the anglers actively engaged and leading the data collection, it demonstrates how the angling community can play a meaningful role in the management and conservation of the resource.”
This event uses the mobile app MyCatch where anglers report their catches and trips to qualify for prizes. There is a $25 entry fee, and thanks to our generous sponsor Discount Tackle, every angler that reports a valid trip automatically wins a $20 gift certificate. New this year are “Referral Prizes” where anglers who refer their friends to the event also qualify for cash prizes or gift certificates, as well as “Early Bird” prizes for folks who sign up early.
See the rules for complete details.
“It is important that anglers report all fish they catch in order for biologists to properly understand the population structure,” says Simmons. “That’s why we offer a range of prize categories that reward reporting all fish, such as “Random Draw Prizes” and a ‘Most Fish Caught’ category.”
Another example of this unique prizing strategy is the “Most Waterbodies Fished”category that incentivizes anglers to collect data on as many different water bodies as possible. The reason we include “Tough Luck” prizes is to help the biologists know how often there are “zeroes” (i.e. the times when no fish are caught), which is important information when assessing a Walleye fishery.
“During our follow up discussions with anglers, we learned many of them value catch and release fishing, so this year we are also offering a prize category for folks who provide a “Release Video” when reporting their catches, as a way to reward those anglers,” says Simmons. Of course everyone wants to know who catches the “Longest Walleye” and so there are prizes for that category
too. Check out last year’s events at AnglersAtlas.com/events to see who placed first in each of these categories.
“Secret spots stay secret,” adds Simmons, “We never share exact location to the public and the biologists only receive waterbody level data, which is anonymized.”
For further details, please contact Sean Simmons at sean@anglersatlas.com, or visit the web page.
