Father-son Duo Hooks Top Prize At Wyoming Walleye Stampede

It was a great weekend to fish, camp, hike, or hang out outdoors. Nearly 270 anglers were on the water at Glendo Reservoir for the first Wyoming Walleye Stampede of 2025, enjoying the sun, warmth, and competition.

The Stampede, now in its 17th year, has become one of the elite walleye circuits in the country. The circuit works by having two angler teams compete in three two-day tournaments to qualify for the circuit championship's fourth event. Not all anglers can enter all three events, and that's ok; it's only a requirement to enter all three if you want to fish in the championship.

If you like to fish for walleye, like a chance to win thousands of dollars in money and prizes, and have fun while hanging out on the water for the weekend, the Wyoming Walleye Stampede is right up your alley. The best part is that you don't need to be a professional or have the most expensive boat or fishing equipment to be part of the Stampede. Walleye fishing fanatics created it for other walleye fishing fanatics.

The teams comprise fishing buddies, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, brothers, and other interesting pairings. The winners of the first tournament weekend were a father-son team.

Here's how the Stampede works. The teams can measure twelve fish daily and turn in their five best fish at the end of the day. The measurement of each fish is converted into weight—the team with the best weight at the end of the two days wins.

The total prize purse was $42,900. That includes the payouts for the top 26 teams, divisions, shoot-outs, top Ranger boat finisher, top Skeeter boat finisher, and a 40x2 from tournament sponsor Bellwood Boats in Glendo.

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Weekend #1 was full of excitement, frustration, and satisfaction. At the end of day one, it looked like 36.18 pounds was untouchable.

The team of Dake Smith and Kale Shelver led by 11.63 pounds, but if you've ever fished, you know it's called fishing, not catching. Day two went south for them, and they only managed to catch two fish for a total of 5.62 pounds, for a total of 41.79 lbs, which brought them a third-place finish.

The second-place team was Dale Andreen and Taylor Schmick. They also had a strong day one, with a total bag of 24.42 pounds. However, like the third-place team, they didn't have as good a second day and checked in at 17.39 lbs. Their total was 41.81 lbs.

The winners, a father and son team, waited until day number two to bring in the big weight after putting together a solid day one.

Lee and Anthony Apodaca had two quality days on the water (19.73 lbs on day 1 and 25.42 lbs on day 2). Their combined weight of 45.15 was good enough to take home the wooden fish trophy and a check for $10,000. It's not a bad payout for father-son bonding time on the fishing boat.

Here's a look at how all of the teams finished.

Next up for the Wyoming Walleye Stampede is the Governor's Cup, the second and final Stampede event at Glendo for 2025, from May 31 to June 1. Then, event number three is at Pathfinder June 28-29, which still has slots available. The championship will be at Boysen Reservoir from August 9-10.