NWT recap… Prefish wasn’t great, but we did have good success throwing glide baits on rocky wind driven points. Day 1 we had a little wind first thing in the morning on one of my favorite points 1 mile from takeoff. Being boat number 7 and first out of the gates, I had a 20”er in the livewell probably before half the boats even took off, and before some even launched!!!

Not long after that, I had 5 cookie cutter 20s in the livewell. It seemed I was on just that grade of fish, I took a 20.5” super chunky fish as my 6th around 9:30 and decided with only 2 slots in my livewell left to fill, my best chance at a mega 27+ that we had caught a few of, was up in the Van Hook arm rigging creek chubs. I took my 6 lively friends and stud Co-Angler Steve for a the 55 mile ride in search of a monster bite. We ended up getting a 22” upgrade later in the day, but never the monster I was looking for. I was still happy to be in the hunt sitting about 35th/120 with 16lbs. Day 2, I knew we were going to have more wind and I just had this feeling I was going to crush them, I absolutely couldn’t wait to get out there. I felt committed to just grinding on the local fish within about 6 miles on either side of Garrison. Conditions were perfect, everything I feel I know about fishing said it was going to happen…. Here’s the not so happy ending to this part of story, it didn’t, ugh, utterly disappointing. Some people would say ‘that’s fishing’, I’m still scratching my head.

The emotional roller coaster of tournament fishing is for real. Emotions of… Being excited to get there! Frustrating crazy winds! This place is absolutely beautiful! Why aren’t we catching these fish? This is my dream! You mean I gotta to what to to get bait? Ok now it’s easy to get fish! We’re in the hunt for day 2! Ugh, I blew it day 2! Then the intrigue of finding out what everyone did and how they got them after! Now I have to drive 18 hours home? But probably the best part of this weeks roller coaster is when I get home later today, I get 4 of these hugs! Big congrats to fellow Vic’s Sports Center and Mercury Pro… ‘Papa’ Scott Geitgey on his top 5!