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‘It happens to somebody else; it doesn’t happen to me’

An Albert Lea woman last Saturday caught the surprise of her life when she pulled in a walleye worth $43,000 during Walleye Weekend, a tournament held by the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.

Dawn Ingvaldson has lived in Albert Lea for almost her entire life. She currently lives in a house with four generations of her family — her mother, her son and her son’s family.

“When I was growing up, we went camping and fishing all the time,” Ingvaldson said. She added she lost interest in the sport when she became an adult.

This changed about two years ago when her boyfriend, Shawn Haley of Milford, Iowa, encouraged her to take up fishing again. Haley runs his own fishing guide service, Angling Adventures, in Okoboji and the other Iowa Great Lakes.

Ingvaldson said she enjoys fishing now more than when she was a child as Haley knows the best places and techniques to catch fish, along with having more advanced equipment.

Haley and Ingvaldson participated in Walleye Weekend last year as well, but did not catch any prize-winning fish.

The Iowa Great Lakes Area Walleye weekend opens walleye season for the year, said the website for the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, who hosts the event. Participants have from midnight May 3 to 11:59 p.m. on May 4 to catch one of 10 tagged walleyes. The first three people to bring in a tagged walleye receive $43,000. Other categories and prizes were also available, according to the website.

Ingvaldson said she was incredibly surprised when she caught the tagged walleye. It happened at around 2 a.m., just two hours after the tournament started.

She explained she was using a 12-foot rod, which she does not have a lot of experience handling. When she caught the walleye, she said, she had to swing it around and ended up knocking it into the side of the boat a few times.

However, when she was able to get her hands on the special fish, it was all worth it.

It was Haley that first noticed something was different, Ingvaldson said, adding she only knew what the tags looked like from photos of past Walleye Weekends.

“‘Hon, you’re not going to believe this. I think you just got a tagged fish,’” she remembers Haley telling her.

Sure enough, the fish was tagged with a small yellow barb, the official color for the 2025 tournament.

“I just stood there in amazement,” she said.

Ingvaldson said she had planned on continuing fishing, but Haley convinced her to get the fish looked at right away. The two made their way to Stan’s Bait and Tackle to have the walleye authenticated. When they got there, she said, the store’s owner, Mason Wharton, was on the phone with Blain Andera, the CEO of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.

Ingvaldson said she and Haley stayed at the store until after 5 a.m. She remembers Haley was happy for her and was smiling a lot.

Ingvaldson said her first plan for the $43,000 she won is to purchase a new car, as the one she currently drives is on its last legs. She said she has been car shopping and researching to find what will best suit her needs and those of her family.

Ingvaldson also said she does not usually like being the center of attention and has had to get used to the newfound publicity.

“It happens to somebody else; it doesn’t happen to me,” she said of the experience.

Ingvaldson said she and Haley plan to participate in future Walleye Weekends and see what the future holds.