Event shortened, raffle expanded
By John Faucher
The New London Fish and Game Club’s 42nd Annual Big Whopper Weekend event will see some significant changes over previous years, according to Club President Tim DeShaney.
“We’ve listened to feedback from folks these last few years and some of the younger guys in the club who were looking at the future of the event wanted to make some changes,” said DeShaney as he hung posters around town last week.
“These young people are willing to do some work and they’ve got some good ideas,” said DeShaney.
The historic three-day event on the banks of the Wolf River, held always on the third weekend in April, will now become a two-day event.
Whopper Weekend 2020 opens at 6 a.m. Friday, April 17, and runs around the clock until Saturday night, April 18 ,after the raffle drawing.
That’s right. Saturday night raffle drawing.
For the past 41 years, Whopper Weekend ended on a Sunday afternoon in Riverside Park following announcements of the fishing contest winners and a raffle drawing.
“This year the drawing will be held on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m.,” said DeShaney. “It’s pretty much over after the drawing. Sunday will be a day of rest and event clean-up.”
“We looked at the numbers from the past several years and Sundays have always been slow,” said DeShaney. “That gets to be a pretty long day for the handful of volunteers who been working round the clock since Thursday’s set up,” he said.
The fishing contest that always included the longest three-day stringer of walleye will be changed to the longest two-day stringer. There are also prizes for the longest one day stringer, longest walleye and longest bass.
A DNR rule change reducing the walleye daily bag limit from five walleye to three effective April 1, will also change the dynamics of the longest stringer categories calculated by total length.
Fish registrants will no longer receive a free grand prize ticket for registering a fish DeShaney said. Angler entries will be kept track of separately for their own prize.
Change in raffle
The grand prize raffle drawing typically has featured one grand prize boat and trailer or utility terrain vehicle, and numerous small dollar donated prizes.
DeShaney said this year the drawing will include over $13,000 in prizes with an emphasis on 29 “bigger ticket” outdoorsman prizes including numerous hunting guns, long range trail cameras, rangefinders, Yeti coolers, 3-D Targets, a crossbow package and more.
Participants need not be present to win.
DeShaney said the club is working with Scheels Sporting goods to manage all prizes this year. Winners will have 10 days to claim their prize or take the cash value of the prize in gift certificates for other items in the store.
“Scheels has been just fantastic to work with which helps us out a lot,” said DeShaney.
“In the past we’d have to store prizes that people didn’t pick up in basements and it was just a headache making calls and calls trying to track people down for a $10 item.”
“I mean, we had prizes that were 20 years old that nobody wanted,” said DeShaney. “We’re done playing that game.”
“Having Scheels manage that end of it is huge for us.”
He also said it gives prize winners more options to fit their personal outdoor interests.
“If you win the $1,800 Browning X-Bolt Hells Canyon 7mm rifle and you don’t hunt, you can change it in for credit in another section of the store,” DeShaney said.