TCO Win at Ft. Smith Goes to Dustin and Hunter Estochen with Nick Foster
by Ron Presley,
Photos courtesy of Twisted Cat Outdoors by Tom Stolze
Big Fish honor and two new personal bests also claimed by the first-place team.
Junction City, Kansas, and Milford Lake were the destinations for a Twisted Cat Outdoors (TCO) catfish tournament. The event was part of a series of 12 events planned for the year that culminate with the TCO Classic which will host 50 qualifying anglers.
The event attracted 48 teams representing more than 100 anglers. Milford Lake is a popular destination for catfish anglers. The lake is regulated by a 25- to 40-inch slot limit with anglers allowed 3 under-slot fish and 2 over-slot fish for a total of 5 at weigh-in. Those teams were composed of 110 anglers who caught and brought 1036.2 pounds of catfish to the scales from Milford Lake.
Anglers were greeted with a cool and breezy morning for the livewell check before fishing began at 7:00 am. Legal fishing ended at 3:00 pm and anglers had to be back to the weigh-in by 4:30.
When all the weights were recorded, two teams had posted more than 100-pound bags and a big fish of nearly 50 pounds won Big Fish honors.
First Place and Big Fish 
Dustin Estochen, Nick Foster, and Hunter Estochen teamed up to take the win on Milford. They brought 108.25 pounds to the scales to claim the top spot and earn the 1st place money of $5,760. Their bag included Big Fish of the tournament at 48.11 pounds to add the Castaway Customs MWSC Big Fish award of $500 for total earnings of $6,260.
It was 5 weeks ago when Dustin, Nick, and Hunter fished their first tournament of the year on Milford Lake. They were humbled in that first tournament of the year and finished without catching an over. As they made the 5-hour drive from home to fish Milford Lake again, Dustin was hoping and praying for redemption.
Needless to say, his prayers were answered. The team got to the lake around 11 am on Thursday and spent a couple of hours catching bait before testing the bite.
“We got enough bait to fish the afternoon and Friday morning,” reported Dustin. “We started shallow like we typically do this time of year and were only getting a lot of small short bites so we worked ourselves a little bit deeper.”
After the move, they were targeting 13 feet deep or less and began to get a few better bites. They were encouraged as they hooked into a few unders and a slot-fish. On Friday morning the shad were playing hard to get so they headed out to the same area they fished on Thursday. They picked up a few fish before deciding to go a little deeper again.
“We moved somewhere closer to the 20-foot mark,” explained Dustin. “We were able to catch our first over of the trip so we figured it was best to go search for bait again so that we could have fresh bait for Saturday’s tournament.”
They successfully netted some nice shad and caught a few white bass. Friday was a relatively warm day approaching 80 degrees with a south wind and the team members all experienced the effects of their first good sunburn of the year before enjoying some pre-tournament camaraderie with other anglers.
“The Acorn Lodge is a terrific place to stay with very nice amenities,” recalled Dustin. “We finished Friday hanging out with friends, eating some food, telling stories, and looking at the forecast. We knew we had a good storm rolling in that would bring rain into the early morning hours on Saturday.”
The weather forecast was frontmost in Dustin’s mind as the team worked on Saturday morning’s strategy. The Saturday morning weather was chilly with a strong north wind and a few sprinkles. It didn’t warm up much until early afternoon and the high was 14 degrees less than the previous day.
“We mapped for about 30 minutes before the tourney hours began and were able to locate some fish,” reported Dustin. “We started the day with the nose in the wind and up shallow. We had very little success so we moved deeper to where we caught our over the day before. We continued to fish with the nose in the wind but with little success.”
At this point, Dustin decided to switch to drift socks and let the wind take the boat across a deeper flat. Hoping that things would change for the better they continued their drift.
“By 1:00 and with only 2 hours left to fish we were pretty humbled with only 2 under’s in the boat,” offered Dustin. “I said I would drift until something changed. In the next two hours, we boated around 14 fish with nonstop action of singles and doubles.”
“During that time we caught three overs in a 20-minute span,” continued Dustin. “My son Hunter broke his personal best twice in 20 minutes. Shad seemed to be the bait of choice and our Uncle Lou rods went on full bend time after time.”
All the action lifted the team from a mental low to a high rather quickly. With good fish in the boat, they realized that they had a chance to win the tournament against some very good catfishermen.
“While reeling up our rods at 2:58 the very last rod got taken down very hard,” reminisced Dustin. “The hook pulled after a brief fight where the fish made a huge run that I couldn’t stop. I was hoping that fish wouldn’t decide our fate.”
The team made the trek back to the ramp for the weigh-in. While Dustin and Hunter waited in the cove for Nick to get the truck and trailer it started to sink in that this could be a win for them as they listened to other fishermen talking of their struggles on the day.
“Once in the weigh-in line and having roughly 20 more boats in front of us and about 10 behind us, we heard the current leader had a little over 101 pounds. The math game began and I expected we would weigh around 107 pounds, but wasn’t quite sure!”
Things began to get serious as they pulled up to the scales. Dustin and Hunter pulled their two overs out of the livewell and the spectators began to cheer. Their weight put them in the Hot Seats where they sat and watched the remainder of the field weigh in.
“The next 30 to 40 minutes in the hot seats was a good time and we were feeling confident,” concluded Dustin. “A little while later we were crowned first place and also Big Fish — and the rest is history! My son is still living on cloud 9 and not sure when he will come back down but I am going to let him ride that out!”
The team sent thank yous to Uncle Lou’s Rods, Roadkill Custom Jigs, and Scheels Outdoors for everything they do to help the team be successful on the water.
NOTE: Dustin’s son Hunter has a YouTube channel where you can view some of the action on tournament Saturday. Click the link to visit the page @HUNTFISHNE. And don’t forget to give it a like and subscribe.
Second Place 
The runner-up spot went to David Goss and Jay A Yeager. They put their talents together to bring in a bag that weighed 101.02 pounds to earn the 2nd place check for $2,880.
Dave and Jay had a good day of fishing. They caught more than 50 fish on the day and 6 of them were outside the 25 to 40-inch slot that regulates Milford Lake. Their biggest blue weighed about 45 pounds, just a little shy of the 48-plus-pounder that won Big Fish of the day.
Third Place 
Third place went to Craig Norris and Tyson Burnett. They brought a nice 41.88-pound blue cat to the scales but couldn’t find the fish they needed to go with it. They finished the day with 58.11 pounds to earn the 3rd place check for $1,920.
Fourth Place 
Chase and Lance Nolan pulled down the 4th place money with a total weight of 57.49 pounds to earn a check for $1,008.
Fifth Place 
The 5th-place team was Kirk Luckey and Josh Adams. They teamed up to bring a total weight of 55.00 pounds to the scales and earn the 5th-place check for $912.
Note: To view more Tom Stolze photos and more winners from the event visit the Twisted Cat Outdoors Facebook page.
Final Thoughts
Milford Lake was the fifth stop on this year’s TCO schedule. The next scheduled event is in Pekin, Illinois with fishing on the Illinois River. The May 24th, 2024 event adds one more stop for anglers to claim a win and move up in the points race. Anglers can qualify for the championship based on their top 4 finishes during the year. Then the points race winner will be determined at the Championship.
Qualifying anglers always look forward to the year-ending, no-entry-fee, invitation-only, TCO championship. This year’s championship will be held out of Helana, AR on November 2, 2024.
“Milford was a great event this weekend,” concluded tournament director Alex Nagy. “The weather was rough with wind and rain plus a nasty cold front but a few of the anglers adapted quickly and had a great day!”
For more information on Twisted Cat Outdoors visit their website or follow them on Facebook.
