NWT Green Bay Recap

Pre-fishing

My preparation for the third stop of the NWT on Green Bay was delayed for good reason. I had the honor of hosting an episode of Lund The Ultimate Fishing Experience. We had two days set aside to make sure we had enough footage for the show. Unfortunately, the Lake Mendota walleye's had moved off of structure and they were camera shy. Luckily, we caught a lot of nice smallmouth bass and I think it will be a great show! 

Because of the show and a busy time of the year with work I wasn't ready for Green Bay. I spent Sunday morning preparing my gear and packing and finally got on the water around 4. I picked up my Co-angler, Sargeant Rich and we hit some structure on the east side. We had a perfect wind for the spot and we got into fish right away, nice ones too! Catching fish on the first spot in pre-fishing is like winning your first hand of poker! At a minimum I was going to have some sleepless nights wondering if those fish would still be there for the tournament.

These fish were fat as they had an all you can eat buffet of alewives that were being blown into the structure. In two hours we had three fish over 7 pounds, including a double, along with fish from 14" to 25". I would guess over 30 pounds. Hmm this is easy!

Strategy

My past tournaments this time of year on Green Bay usually went like this: Catch big fish in the mud during pre-fishing, fish move, I don't adapt, crappy finish. I changed my approach last year at the NWT on Little Bay de Noc and concentrated on structure. I followed that same approach and concentrated on east shoreline structure. This was all new water to me as I had not fished much north of Vincent Point. I was really optimistic especially after day one of pre-fishing!

My back up plan was to look for fish on the mud flats. Again, we found fish right away! My cousin Sam joined us on Monday of pre-fishing. Because I fish alone it is nice to have others in my boat to help me search for fish. Only those that are fishing in the tournament can fish the last two days of pre-fishing so we got Sam in the Lund to search for fish in the mud.

We caught 12-14 fish from 23" to 27". I think Sam thinks this walleye fishing is easy. He pre-fished with me last year in the Cedar River area and we crushed them.

My buddy Mark Michael joined us the rest of the week. This area was hot with some monster fish caught like this 10 pounder.

I checked the area and by Thursday I had lost them. It was a blast catching them though!

I checked my spot on the east side two other times and only caught one 22" walleye. However, the wind wasn't right if there was wind at all. The wind was forecasted to be out of the SW at 10-20 for day one of the tournament. That is the wind I wanted so I spent the rest of practice looking for other places on the east side. I was nervous going into day one but I thought I could pull 25-30 pounds in my primary spot. If time permitted I had a few spots on the way back that made me feel better.

Day One

I drew a great partner on day one, John Kukulka. We made the 30 plus mile trek to my primary spot. The wind was blowing as predicted but we were fishing by 8:00. I always try to find spots off the beaten path and this was one of them. In the two days of fishing only one other boat fished the area and that was only for about an hour. 

The bite wasn't fast and furious but we were catching a walleye on every pass. At first they were 15"-22" but then we caught a 25 and 26" walleye on consecutive passes. We slowly put a decent basket of fish together and made the trip back. We ended up weighing 24.64 pounds good for 35th place. I was only 3 spots out of the money and was confident that I could catch at least what I did on day one. Usually if you match your weight on day one you will move up in the standings. If I could get to 50 pounds for the two days I was confident that would make for a nice check!

Day Two

On day 2 I drew my pre-fishing partner, Sargeant Rich. I couldn't have been happier as Rich knows how I fish, knew the spot we were fishing and happens to be a good fisherman. The wind had switched from the NW. As long as there was wind I was confident. 

We got to the spot and the bite was slower than day one. Most of the fish came on the shallow side of the break. We did get one around three pounds that I threw back but that was it. After three passes I moved out to the deep side of the break and we caught a 22" walleye that I kept. We caught a 25" and a 26" walleye each of the next two passes. We caught another 22" that I threw back as I thought we had them figured out. I was sure we were going to get 2-3 more 25 to 26 inchers.  That was around 11:30 which also was about the time the wind died and we did not catch another fish! After seeing weights that came in I was really bummed that I threw those fish back. However, I am sure there were a lot of people that did the same.

Disappointing Finish

The three fish weighed 14.96 pounds which dropped me to 50th place NWT GB Results. I had a great game plan and executed well for a day and a half. Unfortunately, that is not good enough when you are fishing against a talented field of anglers. I will learn from this tournament and apply my learnings in the future. I am looking forward to fishing the championship on Devil's Lake. This will be my first time on Devil's Lake. I will have a lot of water to cover by myself in a short amount of time but I think I can put a plan together to finish the year strong!

2015 Schedule - Here's My Chance

I have been anxiously waiting for the 2015 fishing season since November, 2008. New Years Day 2015 marked the start of the seventh year with my employer. I love my job and I love that I now get four weeks of vacation! This extra week will allow me to fish all four National Walleye Tour Tournaments along with one of my favorites, the MWL IL River. With gas prices at the lowest level since I began fishing tournaments and a schedule that fits my strengths, my opportunity is now.

MWC IL River - March 20-21

The longest running walleye tournament almost ended after last year's decision to have an artificial bait only tournament. The Spring Valley Walleye Club walked away from the MWC and will be holding the IL River Walleye Classic on the last weekend of March. This has always been the MWC weekend. Thankfully, politics aside, the MWC was able to find support in the community and moved up the tournament a week ensuring the streak will continue.

My partner Shooter and I have been in the hunt to win here three times including last year when we finished 3rd. I couldn't be happier with the week earlier start. The last three years I have been on a great bite the week before the tournament only to see those fish disperse when it counted. If conditions are right they will be there again. Unfortunately, that is a big IF as rapidly changing water conditions are the norm. This river will humble you in a hurry!

NWT Mississippi River Pool 4 - May 7-8

If you call your blog On the River with The Viver you better get excited about this one. I learned how to vertical jig plastics on Pool 4 and it is my favorite destination. I have fished 3 major tournaments here and have cashed two checks. I have had two really good tournament days but I haven't been able to put two really good days back to back. Fish will be in transition and will be difficult to catch in the same areas two days in a row. I am hoping to learn from past failures and have two consistent days. This will be the only NWT tournament that I will be sharing information with another angler. This will be a great help as he is a river rat and one of my fishing mentors.

NWT Leech Lake - June 12-13

Even though I have never fished Leech Lake I am really looking forward to this tournament. Fishing a lake for the first time that has 112,000 surface acres can be a bit overwhelming. This task is even more daunting when you are fishing alone. Fortunately there are resources available like Fishidy that allow me to identify areas that I will target long before I wet a line. If you are not a member of Fishidy I highly recommend becoming a member, it is worth every penny! I will also be reaching out to a few of my friends who have knowledge of Leech. I hope that I can also use what I have learned fishing deep structure on Lake Mendota to catch the "overs" along with some shallow water tactics for the "unders". Leech Lake has a slot limit, no fish can be kept between 20"-26" and only one can be kept over 26" per person.

NWT Green Bay - July 24-25

I have had some of the best fishing days of my life on Green Bay and the worst. Unfortunately, a few of the worst came on tournament days. One of my goals in 2014 was to be competitive on the Bay of Green Bay and I accomplished that at the NWT Bays de Noc. In fact I had a shot at the win sitting third after day 1. I wasn't able to make the adjustments on day 2 but did hold on to cash a check. I learned from that experience and I look forward to applying those learnings in July. We are launching out of Green Bay which should help me. I am assuming that the DNR will put a boundary at 45 miles north of the launch. This would take most of Door County out of play. There is so much structure in Door County that it is difficult for me to cover enough water. In the past I have tried to fish everywhere instead of concentrating on a few areas. 

NWT Championship Devils Lake - September 17-19

The 2015 schedule will finish with the Championship on Devils Lake. I have never fished here or the Missouri River system. From everything I have heard and read this is going to be a blast. Just about every tactic will come into play. I will be fishing this one alone as well and don't have any friends that I can go to for information. I will be leaning on tips, forecasts and marked catches from Fishidy. Once there I will be relying on my past experiences to see if I can come up with a plan that will be a little different.

I can't wait to get my Lund and Mercury Verado on the water. I love the schedule now I have to maximize my opportunity. Follow my season here and on my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/RoyVivianProWalleyeAngler?ref=hl. 

NWT Sturgeon Bay Pre-Fishing Recap

I had high hopes for the NWT Sturgeon Bay tournament. I was fishing alone and with the tournament boundaries stretching from the southern end of Door County all the way to Death's Door on the northern tip. That meant I had to cover a lot of water as efficiently as possible. My plan was to stay north and hope the fish had migrated to their late summer home.

Day 1

The final day of the AIM tournament was underway out of Oconto. Despite the forecast for 3-5 ft. waves with some to 8 ft. I decided to go north and stay out of the way of the AIM anglers. This turned out to be a mistake as I did not get much accomplished. I marked a lot of bait and some fish but did not catch a fish.

Day 2

Because I wasn't on a team it was really important that I had someone with me so I could get more lines out which allowed me to experiment with colors, depths, presentations etc. I had a friend of mine from Madison, Scott, with me on Saturday and Sunday and on Sunday we added the son of a co-worker of Scott's. Richard will be a freshman at UW Superior where he says he is majoring in Walleyes and Whitetails.  We put Richard through Walleyes 101 on the bay.

We went south and found plenty of drum but no walleyes. Part of majoring in Walleyes is dealing with sheepshead so we made Richard reel in everyone! He didn't seem to mind but we need to find walleye's. After a few stops we started marking fish and caught one 18" walleye. We set up a little deeper and then it was on.

We were pulling crawler harnesses and were able to identify colors with the biggest fish coming on a certain depth. The depth we targeted was just above the fish we were marking. Although the other baits did catch fish I felt like I was honing in on a pattern.

Our best 5 were all over 27" with the exception of one 26-1/2. I have fished this area before and fishing can seem so easy and the next day is another story so I hoped to find something up north but at least I had a spot with big fish. I slept pretty good Sunday night.

Day 3

I fished with an old co-worker of mine and we went north. I was surprised to find water temp in the low 70's. Due to changing winds temperatures in the southern bay were all over the place, when we found the warmer water we found the walleyes. 

The wind was perfect as I checked areas I caught fish last Labor Day weekend. There is a ton of structure and I covered as much as I could. I did mark a fair amount of bait and a few fish but nothing like I did down south. We lost 2 fish that I think were nice walleyes but the rest were sheepshead. I decided to spend the afternoon between Sturgeon Bay and Egg Harbor with nothing to show for the effort. In retrospect I wish I would have stayed north of Egg Harbor.

Day 4

A small craft advisory was issued for the bay. Winds were out of the NW at 20-30 MPH with gusts higher. I wasn't going to fish but the thought of sitting around the hotel all day got the best of me. I only fished from 9 to 2 and I was happy I had one fish on. I never felt unsafe, thanks to my Lund but the conditions were not the best. I didn't accomplish anything fishing wise but it beat sitting around the hotel.

Day 5

I wanted to fish north so bad but I chickened out. I wasn't confident that I could put something together up north especially when the fishing was so easy on Sunday. I decided to go all in on the south bite and would spend the next two days trying to hone in the pattern.

One of my favorite things about fishing tournaments is you get to meet some great people. I shared the boat with one of my co-anglers from last year, Sargeant Richard Wright who serves in the National Guard. Rich is character and we have a similar sense of humor. It also helps he brings beef jerky!

We tried a couple of different spots but the water temps were colder than I liked. I headed over to where I was on Sunday and there was nothing there. Just like years past these fish move. There is no structure and the fish roam around chasing bait fish. Once you found the bait you would see the walleyes with them. In some cases you could see where the walleyes were feeding as the bait fish were scattered instead of in a ball. When we found that we usually hooked up.

Just like Sunday, once we found them the bite was awesome. We had a double of 28's and just after taking a picture we had another one on of that size or slightly bigger that got off. I made Sargeant Rich drop and give me 20 for dumping that one. You hate to lose a fish like that but we knew what was there and we were happy!

Sargeant Rich Drops and Gives Me 20

Even better we were catching are fish quite a ways from other boats. I don't like fishing in big groups and it is always my goal is to find fish away from the crowds. Normally I don't net fish during pre-fishing if I can help it but because we were fishing away from everyone I was able to put the Frabill to use! 

Day 6

I fished the last day of pre-fishing with Rich and Mark Michael, the owner of EZEE Steps. We only had until 2 O'clock so my goal was to hone the pattern and get ready for Friday. We went where the fish were on Sunday, nothing. Next we went where Rich and I got into them, we marked fish but not like the day before. We caught a 28" and a 25" when we moved shallower but I was getting nervous. 

I decided to move to another area. About two miles later I was going about 30 MPH when I noticed a couple of blips on my locator. I slowed down and noticed there were quite a few marks and some bait fish. We set up and made a pass. We caught one big catfish and a drum but I knew there were walleyes in there. We made another pass and we caught two good walleyes. That made me feel better for the tournament. It was clear that fish were moving and all I had to do was spend the time to find them on the electronics and go from there.

I will post the tournament re-cap later in the week. Thanks for reading!

FLW Green Bay Recap – SOFA Not So Comfortable

After the rules meeting was completed I headed back to the hotel to finish my preparation for the opening day of the tournament. To say I was I little anxious would be an understatement. After five days of being on the water I knew it was going to be boom or bust. I did not sleep well as I was wondering if the fish I was catching were going to be waiting for me in the morning.

Day 1

I was in the first flight, which meant I was one of the first to go out and would be one of the first to weigh-in. I ran about 15 miles south of the takeoff and set up on a mudflat outside of Geano’s an area that reminds of the S.O.F.A. (Strategic Offshore Feeding Area) from Shark Week on National Geographic Channel. Early in the morning there were a fair amount of boats fishing the flat but not near as many as there were two days prior during pre-fishing. By 10 AM most of the field fishing the area moved in much shallower. I had been fishing out further than most and basically had the area I wanted to fish by myself.

I caught a 21” walleye around 8:30. This was a disappointment as I had not caught a walleye under 23 inches in this area but I decided to put it in the live well anyway.  I continued to work my waypoints but it was becoming obvious that the fish I was catching have moved.

I could have moved into the large group of boats that were working from Little Long Tail Point up to Geano’s but I don’t like fishing in big groups. I knew they were catching fish in there but I think the fish they were catching had been there. I did pre-fish some of the area but I don’t believe the fish I was catching would have moved in. The problem was it is a big, big area so I had to cover a lot of water to find them.

I kept looking with only drum to show for my efforts. Finally I went through one of my primary areas but a little further out and I caught a 4-1/2 pounder. Too little and too late, I headed back to the weigh-in with my tail between my legs.

The leaders were around 30 pounds and many in the top 10 were fishing down by Geano’s. Even though I only caught two fish I thought I could turn it around on day 2.

Day 2

I spent the morning as I left off Day 1, fishing the area where I had caught my last fish. I was marking fish but I just could not get them to bite. I tried everywhere in the water column and fished new spots, nothing was working.

What happened next summed up my tournament fishing season. I moved in a little closer to the pack of boats and fished the inside edge of my primary area. There was a dead drum that was floating in the water close to my planer boards. If you are not familiar with a planer board it is a plastic board that is used to move the line to the side of the boat.  This allows an angler to fish with several rods with out tangles. The more line let out the further the board is from the boat. The line from the 9ft rod angles down to the board, which was about 75 feet from the boat. A seagull flies right over the boat and swings in to pick up this dead drum. Much to the surprise of the seagull, and myself, the seagull gets caught in the line between the rod and the board.

I had my co-angler reel in the seagull. I cut the line behind the seagull and tied the line to a rod holder. My co-angler had me hold one wing of the bird as he held the other. He then worked on unraveling the line. In the process the not so happy seagull was biting him. How this bird got so tangled I will never know but, after about 5 minutes, he was able to remove the line and the seagull flew off unharmed.

Are you kidding me? I am on Green Bay, it’s 11 AM and I have caught more seagulls than walleyes? I could do nothing but laugh. What else can you do?

Believe it or not I did not have a walleye at 3:30. I thought the fish would follow a break line and move north so that is where I spent most of the two days fishing. I finally moved east and immediately caught a 4-1/2 pounder and it was time to leave. Shortly before I caught that fish I saw a really nice fish caught. I think I finally found them and they were less than a mile away. I should have known that as I was given a clue with the second fish I caught on day one. That fish was about a ½ mile east of my main spots. I fished that area again with no luck, I think they slipped out another ½ mile.

As disappointing as my finish was, and I was very disappointed, I feel I gave myself a great chance. When fishing at this level the margin of error is so small. Fishing by myself, and a changing pattern makes it even more difficult. However, I am not making excuses. I pre-fished this tournament almost perfect. The only thing I would change is spending Wednesday in my primary area.

Knowing how long to fish your primary spot prior to a tournament is something that I have always struggled with. In an area as big as the area I was fishing fish will roam depending on the movement of baitfish. If I would have been fishing structure that would have been a different story as those fish are more likely to be on the same spot with subtle movements relating to wind.

This tournament concluded my worst year ever. To use a baseball reference I felt like I was hitting line drives right at the opposition (Atom Balls we use to call them), knowing if the ball was a foot one way or the other it would be a hit. I am getting close and am hoping to “break out” next year!

FLW Green Bay Pre-Fishing

FLW Green Bay Pre-Fishing 7/16/11-7/20/11

I had high hopes going into my last “major” tournament of the year. I was not teaming with anyone for this tournament so I knew that I had to have a strong pre-fishing plan to cover as much water as possible in an efficient manner.

To cover as much water as possible I was able to get at least one of my friends to fish with me each day. This allowed me to double the amount of lines (3 baits per person) I could use. This is critical when fishing Green Bay as the walleyes can be anywhere in the water column and this allowed me to have baits from close to the surface to the bottom.

The consensus was 25 pounds a day would most likely be enough to make the top 10 cut. This turned out to be right on. Because I was not fishing all four FLW events points were not important. I needed to find fish that would produce a five-pound average.  Fish smaller than 22 inches need not apply!

Saturday, July 16

My friends Mark Michael and Chad Setterholm joined me as we launched out of Bay Shore Park on the eastern shore. The launch was packed and there was a big group of boats working the Vincent Point area. We stay out of the group and worked areas north and west. There was plenty of activity but most were Drum with a couple of small walleyes mixed in.

The highlight of this area was hooking into a trophy Muskie. I was running an 1-1/2 oz. bottom bouncer with crawler harness and a number 7 Hildebrand blade on the inside rod. I had a perch or drum short hit the bait so I reeled it in to check the crawler. We were fishing in 20 feet of water. With about 10 feet on the line counter a Muskie that was in the 50-inch range slammed the harness. I had the Muskie to the surface and close to the net three times. He eventually made a run and was threating to tangle a bunch of my lines so I thumbed the spool. Soon after he busted off and was gone. It would have been nice to get a photo but I had more important things to do, I needed to find big walleyes!

We then headed over to the area just south of Geano’s reef. This area had at least 100 boats fishing from Little Long Tail point up to Geano’s. I don’t like fishing in big crowds but we started on the 20 foot break and caught a 21” walleye and then a ton of drum. We knew there were fish in the area but we wanted to get away from the crowd so we headed out to the S.O.F.A. off of Geano’s reef.

What is the S.O.F.A.? I watched shark week on the National Geographic channel over the winter.  Scientists tracked Great White Sharks to an area in the middle of the ocean north of Hawaii. They thought the area was too deep for life and could not figure out why the Great Whites would winter there. It turns out the sharks were feeding on giant Octupus. They ended up calling it S.O.F.A., which stands for the Strategic Off Water Feeding Area. Although the area off from Geano’s is not really deep (23’-27’) it reminded me of the S.O.F.A as it is in the middle of nowhere. One thing is for sure the walleye’s are there because there is plenty to feed on!

We marked plenty of bait fish and walleyes. It did not take long until we started catching nice walleyes. In a little over three hours we caught 12 walleyes between 22” and 28”. Our biggest was 8-03 and our best five probably weighed a little over 30 pounds. We didn’t even spin on these fish to work them again! The good news is these are tournament winning fish. The bad news is the tournament does not start for five more days. Finding the potential winning fish on the first day of pre-fishing is often the kiss of death. Oh how I wished the tournament started tomorrow! Even though most of the boats were fishing to the south and west of us I was also concerned about fishing pressure, which could make things tougher during the tournament.

Sunday, July 17

Feeling pretty good after a great day on Saturday, we decided to launch out of the tournament launch in Oconto. I wanted to see what was going on up north so we headed to Green Island, which is east of Marinette. The wind was out of the south, which is perfect for Green Island. There were 6-7 boats working the south face of the island and so were a bunch of seagulls, pelicans and cormorants. The area was loaded with alewives both alive and dead. We worked the area hard with no success so I ruled out that area for the tournament and we headed to the weeds just north of Oconto.

After several passes it was clear the walleyes were not in this area. Because I was not working with anyone else and I had to make a choice of fishing north or south I decided it was best that I put more time in down south. I dropped Mark and Chad off and headed south. I tried several new areas with only one walleye to show for the day.

Monday, July 18

I shared the boat with Mike Manthe. Even though I had no luck at Green Island I did want to try the north eastern shore of Door County. You won’t catch as many fish in this area but the ones you do catch are big. We launched out of Egg Harbor and targeted reefs southeast of Chambers Island. Everything seemed right but we could not get bit, it is probably too early for the walleye migration to reach this area. There were also thousands of dead alewives and huge schools hanging outside of the reefs. I took that as a sign that if walleyes were there it would be tough to compete with the easy meals that waited for them. A big storm chased us off the water so we loaded up and re-launched at Bay Shore Park.

We headed back over to the S.O.F.A. and worked areas close to where I had caught them on Saturday. It took us a little while to find them but when we did it was on! We caught 8 between 23” and 26-1/2” in about an hour and a half including a double of 26 plus inchers. Our best 5 were probably in the 27 pound range. There were a couple concerns though. First, due to a lack of wind and hot temperatures the surface water temperature rose to 79 degrees. Second there were a lot more boats in the area. This was no secret!

Tuesday, July 19

I shared the boat today with fellow Madisonian Don Doran. In the past I have made the mistake of not knowing an area good enough. Because the S.O.F.A. is so large I decided to spend all of Tuesday working this area. I was careful not to fish any on my waypoints. At noon we only had one 21” fish. We started working a new stretch close to where I was catching them and we got into them again. It was like a broken record as we caught 7-8 with the top 5 again in the 26-27 pound range. Even though the fish were coming easy I was getting more concerned as it seemed 80 percent of the field was fishing the area and more were fishing close to where I was fishing.

Wednesday, July 20

I decided I had learned all I needed to down in the S.O.F.A. so I decided to fish between Oconto and my primary area. We spent a lot of time driving around looking for bait fish in areas similar to my primary area down south. We found an area that was loaded with bait fish. It was also loaded with drum! We lost two good fish and caught one nice walleye. I was hoping to find a backup area but I just did not have enough time. This was a short day as we had the rules meeting at 4 and I had a ton of work to do so we were off of the water by 1 PM.

I was really optimistic but I was also very nervous.  Catch my next blog entry will cover the tournament days to see if I could stay on them.