National Walleye Tour on my home turf out of Huron, OH on Lake Erie is in the books and I ended up 17th/114. It’s a blessing when you get to see the family every night, host the guys at your house, and still compete in a major at the sport you love so much. I’m a lucky guy. A couple weeks ago, it became very apparent that the strategy in this tournament was going to require being as efficient as possible with 4 rods, culling out every ounce possible, and capitalizing on a couple big bites a day. As the game plan came together, I felt with only 4 trolling rods per NWT rules, I could fire through more fish quicker and efficiently at the depths we were targeting with spinners and in-line weights as opposed to the long leads, snap weighted crank baits, and endless short fish that like to hitch hike on your crank baits. It was refreshing to get back to pulling spinners on Erie, that’s where my roots are when it comes to tournament fishing on Erie, and honestly, it’s a lot more fun way to fish. Although I did enjoy the heck out prototyping the new Berkley crank bait this week, this sucker is going to be a killer!
Then it came to spots…. Try to get away from the shorts, and give yourself a chance a couple hawgs. The southern shoreline migration is simple, the further east you go, the bigger they get, everyone knows that. Fairport Harbor area 70 miles away seemed to be the zone that we thought was a reasonable balance of allowing enough time to fish and giving the best chance at a some bigger bites. Then there is the sand bar off Lorain / Vermillion that is just enough ‘structure’ extending across the offshore central basin to hold onto some of those bigger fish this time of year. We definitely got some bigger fish in practice on the sandbar, and I opted for that day 1, being that the conditions were nice and I could maximize fishing time out there with it only being 15-20 miles from takeoff.
The day started off with a flurry. 5 fish in the boat in what felt like about 5 minutes. Cull, cull, cull all morning until we had 5 in that 23-24” range. Rich, my co-angler, was awesome at helping me keep up with all the rods. I told myself I’m not turning on anything until we get a key bite. I would do a pass after graphing around with my Lowrance electronics. It seemed like the better fish were on the bar, and not in the motherload schools of fish. That’s what I keyed in on and ended up plucking away with an upgrade here and there throughout the day, however I never got that 1 or 2 key bites and ended up weighing all cookie cutter 4+lb fish for just shy of 22lbs. Not the start I wanted, but sitting in 39th/114 and within striking distance to make some noise on day 2.
Day 2 was one of those days I was split on my decision the night before, when I woke up, and even driving to the ramp. If conditions were the same as day 1, I’m sure I would have ground out the sandbar. However, we had BIG southerly winds that I knew could make that sandbar 15-20 miles off shore pretty nautical. Hugging the south shoreline and running wide open at 60+ mph to Fairport and fishing in a nice 1’ walleye chop was the other option. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Heck, that’s why you get a 622 Ranger with 400 ponies of Mercury Verado pop. It was the day to let her eat.
As soon as got there, I just knew I made the right decision. I graphed around for a few minutes and my Lowrance screen was just loaded with the right marks. We put the lines in targeting 25-30’ down in the water column with 1&2oz Off Shore Tackle Company guppy weights. The chaos commenced. 5 hours of fire drill. My co-angler Greg was a veteran, he pretty much knew exactly what he needed to be doing all day to help me keep up. And just about mid day, what I had been hoping would happen, it happened… An Off Shore Tackle board went back and I just knew right away. After an epic fight, we put boated one of those key fish, a 28”er that was built like a tank. As afternoon came around, a line of whether was between us and takeoff, and not knowing exactly how quick the refueling process was going to take, I opted to give us 2:45 to fuel, get back, and stop on perhaps a couple little honey holes on the way back. The second honey hole stop just east of Avon produces a 25” in the middle of a downpour! My co Greg was fighting the fish and said you better get the net as I was setting lines. The water was white with rain pellets, and I never even saw the fish until it surfaced, what I sweet pound and a quarter upgrade that was! We zipped the rest of the way in, weighed 25.5lbs and I moved up in to 17TH place to cash a nice check.
I always aim for a top 10, but I’m proud of this one. First, because I feel I made the right decisions. Second, because we fished clean, never lost a big fish or had any major mistakes, I’ve got to thank both of my co’s for this. My strategy no doubt could have won this tournament with those 2 key bites a day I was looking for that didn’t happen, sometimes you just need a little luck. A HUGE congrats to some of my buddies that had great finishes in the top 10, just awesome! Also I wanted to give a shout-out to Jason Fischer of the Big Water Walleye Championships – Lake Erie Walleye Trail and Vic’s Sports Center. I had a battery that wasn’t performing up to standards, Jason showed up at my house mid week at 8:00 and stayed until after dark to swap my battery and help get some of my teammates electronics tweaked out, what a guy, what a boat dealership!
The kids seminar after is always a win. Thanks to the NPAA and the Future Anglers Foundation for making me a part of this event. Thanks for reading…
