Boom! There goes another Lake Erie Walleye Trail event out of Sandusky, Ohio. Jason Kopf and I squeaked out another solid finish with a 2nd/113! Practice was a little all over the place, some good, some bad, which a lot of times is a good thing. It set us into the tournament with an open mind, and the mindset to just fish the conditions. Honestly, fishing the conditions is always what you should do, sometimes it’s just easier than others.There are a lot of 25-27” fish in the system from those big 14-15’ year classes. The goal was to catch as many of those as possible and hopefully get some fat ones, then maybe squeak out an elusive kicker fish. We made a long run out east to fish some structure that current was ripping along. Right away, it was on. We had 5 fish in the first 15 minutes, including a 27”er. We just kept banging away at them for the next few hours, and next thing we knew, we are looking a a pretty good bag in the Ranger livewell of all 26-27” fish, plus a solid 28”er. I have to admit, we were at a little bit of an advantage over the rest of the field. I was able to get my hands on the new Berkley Fishing Deep Hitstick, which is yet to be released. It hard to tell how many, but at least a couple of our weigh fish came from that bait. I believe we are the first guys to use this final version bait in a live tournament. I’d say a 2nd/113 is a pretty good debut!!!! It definitely has a place in the lineup going forward. I’ve only been using it for a week, but I’m excited to see how it does throughout the season! The boat and gear were great. I’m using a new rod this year, the Fenwick Elite Walleye Casting Rod, 7’6”. I have to say, it’s the nicest trolling rod I’ve every used for this kind of fishing. We are starting to pick up the speed trolling, and with a lot of current, that means working the trolling motor harder and longer. Someone asked me the other day how long I can run on the Dakota Lithium Batteries I’m using this year. I said “I don’t know, I haven’t been able to kill them yet!” Thanks to the group of guys we work with, you know who you are, all the hard work goes along way! I look forward to the next LEWT, it’s definitely the most well run and fun tournament circuit out there. Thanks to all my sponsors!
