Two weekends ago, Paul and I fished our last MWC qualifier of the year on Winnebago and pulled off a 53th place out of 135 teams, which should be good enough to get us in the championship next year.  The tournament didn’t come with out some drama though…

I was not able to fish day 2 of the tournament as I had to attend a family wedding, but being that it is Paul’s home water, and we only needed a top 50% finish to get us in the championship, we decided to fish it anyways.  After at pulling a solid 15.3 lb bag day one, and sitting in 35th place, Paul was set to go solo on day two.   We were trolling Jr. Thundersticks  and Flicker Shads behind leadcore and Off Shore Planner boards in the river mouth that feeds connecting Lake Butte des Morts of the Winnebago system.   Paul showed up Saturday morning, and the tournament directors told him he was only allowed to keep 3 fish, contrary to state regulations of 5 per angler.  This came as a total shock to us, as it was not listed in the rules, and we knew we were in a tough place because all other teams were allowed to keep 6 fish and weigh in 5.    However, Paul caught 3 nice fish for 10.33lbs, good enough to keep us in the top half of the field.  It was truly remarkable that he was able to do that given the circumstances, I couldn’t be prouder.

I was fortunate to get a good chunk of last week off and get some good local fishing as well.  There was a good bite of smaller walleyes from Avon point to Bay Village in 20-35 fow that provided some fast action.  We even caught several walleyes in the 8-16″ range, which is really good to see for future Erie fishing.   On Weds, Julia and I took our newly engaged friends out to to the 42 08 where we heard of a hot steelhead bite, and it was on!  We had 18 hook ups, and landed 10 beautiful chromers.  Had a champagne toast to the new engagement, did some swimming, and just had a blast.  There is something about a reel screaming and chromers coming 5 feet out of just never gets old.

Over the weekend, my buddies and I got together for my bachelor party and had a tournament of our own.    While the fishing slowed a little for us, we all scattered around and ended up catching some decent fish at the 48 02.  All boats caught some nice fish, and it was great to show all my friends what we do on a regular basis on the lake.  Thanks to everyone involved.