The Kewaunee/Door County Salmon Tournament committee met in Sturgeon Bay Monday night to hash out the 2019 tournament and plan ahead for 2020, and beyond.

Dates for 2020 and 2021 were set, and the vote was near-unanimous to stick with the Friday start. The dates are July 17-25, 2020, and a week later in 2021, July 23-31. There was also discussion about expanding the contest for the 40th anniversary in 2022, but nothing yet set.

We need to connect with the winners of the 9.9 Yamaha from Shipyard Island Marina and the DJI drone package from K/D before announcing those, but the rest of the 2019 Tournament is a wrap!

As expected (due to Kewaunee's high water closing the public marina and spotty salmon catches this summer off all ports), ticket sales were down slightly from last year. Final numbers won't be official until we locate a misplaced book from one of the ticket outlets.

Earlier this year coordinators agreed to increase the payouts near the top. Even with reduced sales and higher expenses this year, the committee still paid down 100 places. The payouts ranged from $10,000 cash, a mount from Twin Rivers Taxidermy and a silver salmon ring from wisconsincharm.com for first to a $100 West Marine gift certificate for 100th. Including the cash, port prizes, early bird prizes, 9.9 kicker, Fishin' Magician and Kinn's charters, $500 Nicolet Bank anniversary bonus cash, West Marine gift card, and tackle and shopping sprees from Howie's Tackle and Accurate Marine & Tackle, more than $50,000 in cash and prizes will be awarded.

The first place salmon, Josh Kramer's 36.70-pounder caught off Baileys Harbor, was the biggest in 20 years and the fourth heaviest winner in the K/D's 37-year history, trailing only three 1990s giants. There were 13 30-pound-plus fish officially registered this year, and six others either with no tickets or not enough tickets for all the anglers on the boat.

It was the fifth straight year of a 30-pound-plus winner — second only to a string of 11 in a row from 1989-1999 — and seventh since 2011.

Nearly 500 chinooks larger than 20 pounds were registered, including 148 that topped 25 pounds! A year ago, 51st place was 25.04 lbs. This year, 25.04 was 144th place and out of the money. A fish that size, 25 pounds, is bigger than K/D winners in 2007 (24.96) and 2008 (23.82).

Next up is a small tournament in Algoma, Aug. 7-11, a multi-species contest with adult and youth categories, shore and boat. Tickets for that one will go on sale this weekend. Check out https://www.facebook.com/ShantyDaysFishing/ for updates later this week.

K/D Salmon Tournament 2019 Payout

1st Place
Josh Kramer, 36.70 lbs.
$10,000, mount and salmon ring

2nd Place
Gary Welch, 34.27
$6,000 & Howie’s Tackle Okuma combo prize package

3rd Place
Keith “Buck” Felhofer, 33.59
$4K & Accurate Marine & Tackle $200 shopping spree

4th Place
William Kidd, 32.88
$3,000

5th Place
Jeren Ostrowski, 32.06
$2,000

6th Place
David Zazeski, 32.00
$1,000

7th-13th — more “30-plus”
7. Wesley Hansen, 31.98, $950
8. Austin Novak, 31.51, $900
9. Austin Alberts, 31.11, $850 
10. Mike Eder, 30.62, $800
11. Mike Cornell, 30.61, $750
12. Zach Mendyke, 30.33, $700
13. Alex Nemetz, 30.08, $650

14th-22nd Places
14. Rod Dain, 29.89, $600
15. Cody Krueger, 29.83, $500
16. Brian Tomes, 29.52, $400
17. Andy Kress, 29.40, $300
18. Kenneth Schultz, 29.22, $200
19. Chris Naze, 28.98, $150
20. Adam Salmon, 28.91, $125
21. Mark Baumann, 28.75, $100
22. David Zazeski, 28.75, $100

23rd-30th Places, $50 cash
DuWayne Rauen, 28.71
Caleb Cornell, 28.67 
Steve Ravet, 28.62 
Nick L’Huillier, 28.53 
Troy Combs, 28.51 
John Bohmann, 28.48
Dave Meier, 28.39
Linda Jezierski, 28.26

31st-99th Places, $30 cash

31st-39th
Austin Lipsey, 28.23 
Jon Ohnesorge, 28.22 
Jeff Stepanck, 28.20 
Ben Geiger, 28.19 
Jonson Kraus, 28.03 
Todd Brauer, 28.01

Joel Goham, 27.90
*$500 Nicolet Bank 
37th anniversary cash*

Cam Isaacson, 27.62
Michael Englund, 27.60

40th-49th
Rob Joniaux, 27.58
Russell Hill, 27.55
Nate Thoreson, 27.52
Jennifer Jadin, 27.50
Bryan Sheets, 27.50
Kevin Prien, 27.46
Dan Jambor, 27.45
Eric Schferl, 27.45
Thomas Neely, 27.45
James Blum, 27.44

50th-59th
Jordann Isenhart, 27.36
Rick Holden, 27.35
Jaxin Lindgren, 27.35
Kyle Schuettpelz, 27.34
Riley Thill, 27.33
Dan Paye, 27.31
Cruz Anschutz, 27.22
Gene Muse, 27.21
Dwayne Mullins, 27.14
Louie Renteria, 27.03

60th-69th
Terri Delarwelle, 27.03
Robin Johnston, 26.97
Randy Luek, 26.96
Harry Saxton, 26.94
Darren Collin, 26.89
Brent Edundson, 26.87
Paul Vandermazen, 26.82
Jay Gorton, 26.80

Joe Verihe, 26.79 
+ *Late summer/fall 2019
Fishin’ Magicians charter*

Jason Fryar, 26.75

70th-79th
Lawrence Brostowitz, 26.71
Ross Wagner, 26.71
Dwayne Mullins, 26.67
Beth Dreas, 26.64
Caleb Cornell, 26.61
Ed Hocking, 29.60
Ryan Gunderson, 26.49
Mike Nielson, 26.48
Heather Last, 26.44
John Wanner, 26.42

80th-80th
Matt Detampel, 26.29
Steve Ravet, 26.24
Brian Hughes, 26.21
Eric Blom, 26.14
Cole Schley, 26.11

Alex Anderson, 26.10
+ *Kinn’s Sport Fishing
spring ’20 coho charter*

Chad Loritz, 26.08
Nate Jensen, 26.08
Doug Gronski, 26.06
Guy Kramer, 26.03

90th-99th
Jeremy Ostrowski, 26.02
Dale Hallam, 25.98
Brent Edmundson, 25.97
Jason Kais, 25.97
Scott Lindgren, 25.96
Nate Gilliam, 25.93
Josh Johnson, 25.93
Lorin Vreeland, 25.90
Mark Stoeger, 25.90
Bill Balwinski, 25.88

100th Place
Dick Dorow, 25.88
*West Marine $100 gift card*