2013 MWC IL River Re-cap

The 2013 tournament fishing season got off to a cold start for myself in more ways than one. The sandals that I wore in 2012 were replaced by layers of clothes, hats, gloves and pack boots. Unseasonably cold weather along with high winds made for an interesting start to the year.

Pre-Fishing

One of the reasons I look forward to the MWC IL River opener is it means I am usually breaking in a new boat. This year I went with the Lund Pro-V 1975 with a Mercury Verado 225. I dropped it in the water for the first time the week before, March 16, the tournament started. I absolutely love this boat as it is not too big and yet not to small.

The boat ran beautifully and am I ever glad I went with the full windshield. The weather was horrible all week with several days that did not get above 32 degrees. There were two days that the wind chill was below zero degrees when I went on the water with winds of 20-30 MPH and gusts that were even higher. To say the least it was miserable but the full windshield allowed for as comfortable of a ride as I could get.

The river had dropped about 5 feet and was at flood stage with water temperatures of around 40 degrees. The first two days of pre-fishing I was able to find some male saugers that were willing to cooperate. It took me a little while to slow down enough to get them to bite but I adjusted and was starting to put together a pattern. Now I had to find where the female saugers were hiding.

The weather took a turn for the worse on Tuesday and Wednesday. There were only 10-15 boats that fished those days and after a few hours of no luck I was wondering why I was fishing in 30 mile an hour winds with temperatures below freezing.  On Tuesday I checked out some areas south of Hennepin but all I found were asian carp and dirty water as you can see in the picture below.

I kept checking spots and I was rewarded for sticking it out. I found a down river area that was holding nice fish, tournament winning fish. I ended up catching 10 fish on Tuesday in two passes, all females. 

Thursday the weather was a little nicer and most of the field was back on the water. I continued to look for additional spots and caught a couple of nice fish at the clam beds and then headed up to the Peru Flats. I made one pass and caught 4 nice females and 1 male. I thought I had this thing figured out. I was trolling rapala's really slow upstream. What was encouraging is I started to catch them on the number 9 floaters when earlier in the week I was only catching them on number 5's. I thought they were getting more aggressive and the bite would be on for the weekend!

There was a lot of grumbling about how bad the bite was. I was feeling pretty good as I had put in the time all week when many stayed in bed. I gained even more confidence when Shooter joined me Friday morning. We went to my down river spot and we caught two 19 inchers in less than 20 minutes. The two pictures below weren't the best as we were trying to keep these fish out of sight from other boats but I can assure you they were both nice, 19 inch females.

We were able to keep the first fish out of sight. However, a boat saw us catch the second fish. I get a kick out of some of these guys. As soon as the boat saw we had a fish he immediately changed course and got right next to our boat watching our every move. He got so close our rods were almost touching as we both trolled up river. I probably should have said something but I decided to ignore his bad etiquette. I guess that is what he had to do seeing as he didn't want to fish in the cold on Tuesday and Wednesday. We headed up river and were only able to catch one more fish. The water got real dirty but I was confident that it would clear up over night and we would be fine.

Tournament - Day 1

The weather actually was pretty nice as we made our run down river. There were 25-30 boats fishing the stretch of river we targeted. We saw a couple of fish caught trolling early but it became apparent early that the jig bite was picking up. We made three passes with no fish and saw maybe 10 fish caught with most caught jigging. The river had been slowly dropping all week and visibility was better than it had been all week. In my opinion I thought there should have been more fish caught so I assumed that the fish had left so we headed up to the Peru Flats. I was a little nervous but I thought for sure that we could catch fish on the flats.

Wrong again, that is what I get for thinking. We made two long passes with no luck. Even more concerning was the fact that we didn't see a fish caught and there were a ton of boats fishing the same area. Uh-Oh, scramble time. I decided to head back down river, at least we saw fish caught there. We tried trolling with no luck and only saw one more fish caught, jigging. We then switched over to vertical jigging and went to work. We tried numerous spots and we did not get a single bite. 

Our day was over and for the first time, other than 2007 when only 4 fish were caught out of 200 boats, we didn't weigh a fish. I felt a little better that nearly half of the field zeroed and there was only one or two limits caught with a measly 8 pounds plus winning. Wow! I knew the bite was tough but I never expected to see numbers like that!

Tournament - Day 2

We decided to head down river again but this time we were committed to jigging. It was clear that the pattern I was on had all but died and the jig bite was the answer. On our first drift down river Shooter hooked into a 16-1/2 incher. That was the only fish we saw caught there and around 10:00 we headed up river and started hopping spots. We did not get another bite until we got to the upper end of the flats. We caught several small fish and I caught 16 and a 17-1/2" sauger on consecutive drifts and that was it for the day. 

We ended up finishing in the middle of the pack with 3 fish that weighed 5-07 pounds. There were more fish caught on day 2 and the winners jigged up a nice limit to end with a little over 18 pounds. 

In the end I stuck to my trolling pattern too long. The river dropped and cleared up which pulled the fish off of the flats and into the middle of the channel. I don't think the bite was better on day 2 than day 1. I just think it took the field a while to find where the fish had moved. Looking back I should have got the jig rods out sooner and headed into the middle of the channel. Unfortunately, Monday morning quarterbacking doesn't work. I can only learn from the experience and apply what I learned the next time I experience a similar situation.

Next stop is my favorite, Red Wing, MN, on the Mississippi River for the Cabelas National Walleye Tour at the end of April. Updates to follow!

MWC 2012 IL River - Recap

The first tournament of the year is in the books. Overall pre-fishing went well and the weather was unbelievable. Now it was time to see if we could we could execute our plan!

Day 1

Our hopes were high as we waited for takeoff in the fog. The temperature was in the upper 40's at takeoff which was cooler than it had been but still well above normal for this time of year. The water was up slightly with increased current. Isolated storms had hit up river on Friday which added debris and muddied the water. By Illinois River standards in the spring the river was still in great shape.

We were boat 66 and headed down river which is where most boats headed. We set up on the downstream side of a flat that is about a mile long. This area was no secret with almost half of the field fishing this area. We were prepared for company and hoped that we could fish inside the majority of the boats. We immediately caught fish as we trolled lead core in and out of boats. By the end of our first pass we had 3 keepers but nothing of any significance.

On our second pass we caught our biggest fish of the day, an 18-1/2" sauger that had spawned out. This was still a good fish but it really would have helped us if she was still carrying her eggs. We motored on weaving in and out of boats and caught a nice 17-1/2" sauger that was full of eggs. We were feeling pretty good at this point knowing that it was 8:30 and we had our limit. We were confident that we would be able to upgrade fish all day.

It was becoming apparent that the most productive spot was the last 200 yards of our mile run. Almost every time through this spot the story was the same, we would catch one or two and the inside rod would get hung up. Early on this was not an issue as most boats were fishing below this area. This soon would change as other boats in the area noticed we and other boats would catch one.

On our next pass everything was the same except there were more boats in this 200 yard stretch, most were jigging or using 3 ways. We were trolling in the opposite direction and going significantly faster. Like clockwork the back inside rod goes off and Mark reels in 1 16-1/2" sauger. I netted the fish when I looked up and noticed the back outside rod had a fish. Mark grabs the rod and says "good fish"! As I am working on the fish in the net the hook gets caught in the net. Mark is confirming it is a good fish and I look at the inside rod and it is in the, you know you are in the right spot, snag. Add in me trying to drive through 15 some boats and you have quite the fire drill. I get the fish and the lure out of the net, point the boat so we don't ram anyone and Mark cuts the motor. There must have been slack in the line for just a moment and the fish got off.

We had been slowing up for big fish but not stopping the motor. Mark did everything he could but with me panicking and both of trying to stay out of the way of others the fish took advantage and was gone. We will never know how big but Mark was sure it would have significantly helped us.

We continued on and the fishing slowed. We were still catching fish but not as fast or as big. It was 1:30 and we had to be back by 3. We decided to make one more pass. As usual we caught a fish in the last 200 yards but we also had two lines tangled. While Mark untangled the lines I decided to jig through the spot that was holding fish. I was fishing for maybe 2 minutes when one crushed my plastic. It wasn't huge but it was an upgrade. Unfortunately, this fish sealed our fate. Mark and I jigged through the area several times with nothing to show for our work. We were going to head to our secondary spot after our last pass but the time we spent jigging made that run impossible. This would turn out to be a big mistake.

We ended up weighing 8.73 pounds which was good for 39th place. Disappointing but, as expected, it was a crap shoot and only one team had over 12 pounds.

Day 2

Day 2 was a little slower for us to start. We caught 3 keepers within 15 minutes but before and after we were struggling. It was 11 o'clock and we decided to make the run that we were going to yesterday. We setup and instantly caught a fish and ended up with 3 more keepers on the first run. The bite up river probably slowed down due to the pressure. The fish in this spot had little pressure with only a couple of boats occasionally coming through and they were on a feeding frenzy.

We ended up catching 17-20 keepers on the day, I am not for sure as it was hard to keep track. The fish were all around 17 inch females with eggs and looked like clones. If we would have come down on Saturday we would have upgraded two fish as we weighed a 16-1/4" and 16-1/2" sauger. In most tournaments that is not a big deal, in this tournament it is a really big deal. When we were waiting to weigh in I used a culling board and scale to determine our best five fish. We had two that were slightly bigger but the other seven fish in the live well were identical in weight. Oh if we could have had those two yesterday!

We ended up with almost an identical weight with 8.63 pounds and moved up to 36th which was 6 spots and less that one half of a pound out of the money. We were only a pound and a half out of the top 10. Mark is convinced and I agree that if we would have spent more time at the power plant we would have cashed a check. The fish that got off on Saturday would have probably done the same! In this tournament there are a lot of teams that have similar stories which is probably why we can't wait to do it again!


Mark and I had a blast even though we didn't do as well as we had hoped. There are a lot of characters that fish these tournaments and it is fun giving each other a hard time. We did that for sure and laughed along the way. It was great to see the sportsmanship too as there were a lot of boats fishing close to each other. All of the boats were courteous which is always great to see. I was also impressed with my new Lund 1875 Pro V. If you have ever fished lead core in a group of boats using different tactics you know how tough it can be to control the boat. I was able to slide in and out of boats using my wireless remote on the front trolling motor without a single incident. One of the great things about the Lund 1875 Pro V is it is small enough to maneuver in tight traffic yet big enough to handle big water!

Another MWC Illinois River is in the books and I can't wait for next years!

Up next, the FLW opener on the Mississippi River in Red Wing!