I grew up fishing off docks at Lake Sammamish in Western Washington for everything from bass to bluegills to perch to trout, pumpkinseed sunfish, and more. Little did I know that much later in life, I would be fishing off a dock again for multiple species of fish, but this time, for a potential monetary payout!
MarDon Resort is a multi-generational family-owned resort located on the south shore of Potholes Reservoir in Eastern Washington. For years, they have been putting on an annual dock tournament the second weekend of September. This is a popular event, with anywhere from 125 to 160 participants, many of them coming back every year.
The tournament is very affordable ($60 per entrant in 2025), and there is an 80-percent payout to the winning anglers. It is a vastly different tournament than most. Instead of catching a limit of five or six fish and weighing in the bass or walleye, you are fishing for the two biggest fish of eleven distinct species of fish.
The species you can catch off the dock are numerous. There are categories for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, rainbow trout, perch, crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, carp, channel catfish, and yellow bullhead. This year, the first-place fish in each category netted the winner $375, and the second-place fish was worth $125.
The groups participating in this event are very diverse. There are families and extended families, couples, fishing buddies, senior citizens, women, and children all fishing off the dock day and night, and all trying to get a big fish.
The tournament kicks off with a potluck on Friday at 5 PM. MarDon Resort provides fried chicken tenders, water, and cookies while participants bring side dishes and more for a nice dinner. At 6 PM, anglers hit the docks and you fish as much or as little as you want from Friday night until 10 AM on Sunday.
There is a weigh-in station at the marina staffed 24 hours a day, this year by Russ and Kim Anderson, who took turns sleeping during the night. Some of the winning fish were caught right off the bat! Georgia Goss was using a crappie jig when she hooked into a monster walleye at sunset on Friday. The 5.56-pound fish netted her first place by a long shot. The only other walleye caught was by her niece, Madison Shopbaugh, and that was only six inches long but still worth $125. It was nice to see kids reel in winning fish!
On Saturday morning, 12-year-old Levi Garza caught a gigantic channel catfish that weighed 25.4 pounds, easily beating out a 16-pound catfish that took second place. And then there was Jaxon Pech. I met him last year when he reeled in two huge carp, earning him a $500+ paycheck. Jaxon, who is 13 years old, takes this tournament seriously. He lives in nearby Moses Lake, and he told me he fished twenty-nine times off the dock this summer, preparing for the tournament. Jaxon was fishing a sizeable pile of bait off the bottom, hoping to catch carp again. However, when his rod bent with a fish, he found out after a frantic 10-minute fight that he had caught not a carp, but instead, a 4.8-pound rainbow trout. Since Jaxon caught the only trout of the tournament, he got $500 for that fish!
Over the course of the event, the lead would change multiple times for different kinds of fish. For example, I was briefly in second place with a ½-pound bluegill on Saturday morning but was bumped within an hour by a bigger fish. At the end, both of the winning bluegill weighed in at over a pound. The final second-place winner was caught on Sunday morning.
At 10 AM, the event ends, and the whiteboard with the final results is brought up to a grassy area above the boat ramp and docks. Co-owners Levi and Annie Meseberg prepare checks for the winners as well as raffle prizes. Raffle tickets are sold for a dollar each, and at 11 AM, all sorts of raffle prizes are given away. The event wraps up with awards and checks being given out to the winners.
Talking to anglers during the event, I learned that everyone hoped to come back again next year. The mood on the docks is light, anglers are willing to share space, and everybody catches a whole bunch of fish over the weekend. Put it all together, and this unique dock tournament is chock full of fun!
