By Steve Weisman

I.O.W.A. Publicity Director

When you talk competitive walleye fishing, teams take a look at the cash payout, the special awards and the sponsor list. For Iowa Organization of Walleye Anglers (I.O.W.A.), the list of special awards and sponsors continues to grow! “In addition to our normal 80 percent payback from entry fees,” said I.O.W.A. Tournament Director Dean Higgins, “we are going to pay out nearly $35,000 in cash and special awards.”

With new sponsors joining the already impressive list of past sponsors, Higgins says this year will be the best ever. “We have worked very hard to increase the size of the purse, to increase the number of sponsors, to add more prizes and to provide new opportunities for our teams."

With less than a month before the first qualifier scheduled for Sunday, April 6 at Storm Lake, it now becomes a waiting game for the teams as they begin fine-tuning their game plan in order to capitalize on taking their share of the cash and special prizes for each qualifier and the year-long awards. Listed below are those sponsors and special awards.

Lund Boats will be offering the $500 Lund Bonus for the highest placing team at every I.O.W.A. event for teams fishing out of a Lund boat, while Algona Marine and Sport will offer the 30 percent Lund Bonus Match of any check received at one of the tournaments to teams that purchased their Lund boat from Algona Marine and Sport.

ABU Garcia will sponsor the ABU Line Counter Lunker Award of a 5500LC reel to the team that weighs the largest walleye during each tournament. If the team already has an ABU Garcia line counter reel on board, the team will receive a second reel.

Smooth Moves Seat will sponsor the Smooth Moves Seat Award of two-$100 certificates to the winners of each qualifier. The winners of the State Championship will each receive a Smooth Moves Seat Mount.

EZEE Step will provide the EZEE Step Contingency Award of $100 to the highest placing team with EZEE Step Mounts on their boat trailer. They will also provide an EZEE Step Mount at the state championship.

King’s Point Resort at Storm Lake will award the winners of each qualifier with a two-night stay in a standard lake view room and four water park passes, while the state champions will receive a two-night state in lake view suites, six water park passes and two $50 gift certificates.

Mack’s Lure will offer the Need Mack’s Lure Award of two $100 certificates to a team that does not weigh a fish at each of the qualifiers and the state championship.

FCIS Anglers Choice Insurance of Forest City will be the title sponsor for both Clear Lake qualifiers. FCIS will provide three paid entries to three random places out of the money at each Clear lake qualifier. In recognition of the FCIS 30th Anniversary, the team that gets 30th place at each Clear Lake Qualifier will receive an entry for a different qualifier or Championship (if they qualify for the Championship) and an additional $250.00 in cash. The paid entries can be used for future I.O.W.A. qualifiers or the championship.

At each tournament, Line X of Mason City will provide two $100 certificates toward the purchase of a bed liner or topper. These will be randomly drawn at the end of each weigh-in.

Wright County Motors will offer the $500 Wright County Motors Contingency Award to the highest placing team at every tournament that has purchased their tow vehicle from them.

At the Cabela’s I.O.W.A. State Championship, which will be held on the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien on October 11-12, the tournament champions will receive two $500 Cabela’s gift certificates.

“These are all awards for each of the tournaments,” noted Higgins. “We also have some awesome year-long awards.”

Mercury Outboards will offer the Mercury Heavy Weight Award of a Mercury 9.9 Pro Kicker to the team with the highest total weight at the end of the four qualifiers.

Humminbird will sponsor the 2008 Humminbird Team of the Year award of two Humminbird 797c2SI Combo fishing units with Side Imaging Technology.

MinnKota will offer two year end awards. The first is the MinnKota Family Team of the Year of a MinnKota Vantage 80 Transom-mount Trolling motor, featuring 24 volt, power trim, power stow and deploy and 4:1 Steering.

MinnKota will also sponsor the MinnKota Rookie Team of the Year to the highest placing newcomer team that did not fish an I.O.W.A. event the previous two years. The team will win a MinnKota MK101/EM 36 Volt, 101 Pounds of thrust, which is an engine mounted electric trolling motor.

“This is the list of all of our sponsorship awards to date,” noted Higgins. “We are very proud of the partnerships we have built, and we hope to add even more before the season opens in Storm Lake.”

To learn more about the 2008 I.O.W.A. circuit, check out the website at www.walleyepromotions.com. To get answers to specific questions, call Higgins at (515) 571-1085 or email the I.O.W.A. staff at walleyepromotions@hotmail.com