Mark your Caledars for the WS Sping Seminar!

2009 WALLEYE SEARCHERS

SPRING SEMINAR

Speakers for the upcoming Spring

Seminar have been announced and

will include Dean Marshall of Everts

Resort and local guide Jason Halfen.

Dean will speak on techniques for

finding and catching spring walleyes

while Jason will focus on trolling

tactics for walleyes and sauger.

The seminar will take place on March

23rd at 7:00 pm at the Rochester Elk’s Club.

I’m looking forward to another great evening with the Searchers. Hope to see a bunch of you guys there. Informative seminars, terrific raffle prizes, and a dynamite bunch of guys to shoot the breeze with.

It will be a very informative night in deed. The speakers will be covering spring and summer fishing times so if you want to learn/know where and how to catch walleyes this will be the place to be. Hope to see many of you there.

Thanks, Bill

Sounds like a great evening to me Steve, Jason, and BIll,

would you add the elks address so I can type it in the gps.

thanks,

Jack

Here you go Jack.

Map to Elks Lodge & address

So I was tying to come up with a new way to bump this thread back up to the top rather than the usual BACK TO THE TOP!

So I thought it would be cool to have Walleye Searcher Members past and present to reply here and tell us a little bit about them self’s and why they joined the club and what they get out of being a Walleye Searchers Member. This way you will be able to see the number of good anglers we have in this club. One of our past members who is a very well know angler to most anyone that knows anything about fishing got his start in WS and learned how to jig fish from one of the old timers in the club, he is none other than Keith Kavajecz! I will send Keith and email and see if I can get him to come on here and tell us the story. So come on WS members lets here your story.

I was an active member in Walleye Searchers from 1990–2007.

At the weekend club tournaments I learned about presentations like vertical jigging, casting jigs & cranks, dragging jigs, long line & lead line crank trolling, 3-waying floaters and stick baits.

I learned much of the structure of pool 4 and where the fish tend to be during the seasons.

I learned about tackle, boats, motors, trailers, and tow vehicles from fishing with various club members for 18 years.

So why did I drop out? It was a great experience, but since retiring I am getting away from the rigors of tournaments – set days, set times, set locations, weekend crowds, and at the mercy of the weather. I now have much more flexibility in my life and currently prefer to fish the less crowded weekdays and pick the nicest weather days.

Walleye Searchers was a big part of my life and a real fishing education, but the best part of it was meeting new fishing friends. I may even rejoin the club sometime in the future.

Dave Gulczinski

Ahhhh, the Walleye Searchers – many years ago for me – but very important years.

I believe I joined the walleye searchers in the early 80’s. I was newly married and had got a job at IBM in Rochester. I had not fished walleyes very much, but knew I needed to learn more about them since my wife was Lynn Parsons – sister to Gary Parsons. And the Parson’s family liked to fish walleyes.

So a buddy of mine from work (Jeff Stephenson) and I joined the local walleye club – The Walleye Searchers. We joined pretty much as non-boaters to learn as much as we could from the members about fishing the closest walleye waters – the Mississippi.

I had a 14 foot boat with a 18hp Sea Horse engine (both about 20 years old), a transom trolling motor that was held in place with a bungee strap. It had some wooden shelves I had built across two of the bench seats to hold my Lowrance Green box. Even with all this high tech equipment (LOL), I decided non-boater was the way to go.

I can still remember the first tournament I entered with the club. Can’t remember the guys name, but he had a bass boat. We pretty much spent the whole day running up and down the river, through the backwaters, and stopped only briefly at spots to pitch a few jigs to willows before revving up the engine to blow to another spot. It was cool to see a guy run his boat so fast – and I did learn a lesson – you can’t catch fish when your lines are out of the water….

But it wasn’t too long after that and I drew one of the most important people in my fishing career to that date – Gary Polokowski. Gary was known for his ability to catch pool 4 walleyes. In one day, in his boat, I learned the basics of vertical jigging. How to control the boat so our jigs were right below us, nice and vertical. How to circle on spots that held fish. How to work the jig to keep it close to the bottom and in contact with the bottom. He didn’t say a lot but by just paying attention I was on my way to developing my skills for tournament angling. By the way, we won that tournament day.

I got to fish with many other great guys – many of whom I can’t remember their name – but I remember the technqiues – 3-ways at the mouth of pepin, lead core on maiden rock, pitching the rail road tressel area, pitching wing dams, sonars at the red wing bridge…. This is why you join a club like Walleye Searchers. It is a club that disseminates walleye techniques and tactics – especially on local bodies of water.

Walleye Searchers is also the first place I ever did a seminar. I can remember sitting at home practicing – even video taping myself to figure out how to present the information in a logic – yet entertaining fashion. Tough audience since most of them were the guys I most respected in fishing at the time – and now this “newbie” was going to give them a seminar. But the seminar went great – I have given a few more since then – and no – I don’t have to video tape them first any more.

So, if anyone is thinking about joining the Walleye Searchers – or any club for that matter – I think it is a great idea and opportunity. It was certainly one of important factors in getting me to where I am today!

Bite On!

Keith Kavajecz

Welcome aboard to IDO Keith, great response to the WS

Nice to see you here keith .

Terry Filkins

NPAA #180

Keith,

That first seminar you gave was the first fishing seminar I ever attended. Thanks to you, I joined Walleye Searchers that night. Was it was at the Holiday Inn South in Rochester?

I also fished with Gary Polokowski several times in the early days and he was amazing with his vertical jigging skills. He was constantly retying jigs until he hit the hot presentation.

The first year I was in the club, Gary and I launched out of Colvill and he wanted to beat the rest of the club members to the dam. So he took me on a top speed short cut through the middle channel (4th cut, Putman’s Dam, Sharps Cut, to the WI Channel) to avoid the main channel no-wake zones. He never slowed down for any curve, log or obstacle. Gary knew exactly what he was doing but I was new to this area. Never had I went so fast, so close to land — I just hung on for my life and will never forget that ride.

Dave Gulczinski

Great post Keith!

-J.

Welcome to In-Depth Outdoors Keith!!!

Thanks for the reply Keith, I did not see your first seminar but I did see your 2004 seminar that you put on for the Walleye Searchers. That was one of the best seminars I have been too, very informative and you answered eveyones questions. I have a pic from that seminar some where I will see if I can dig it up.

Thanks Keith. I joined Walleye Searchers back in the late 80s when you did the seminar for Walleye Searchers. Joining Walleye Searchers was the best thing I ever did in fishing. I learned ALOT by fishing the tournaments. I learned techniques, spots, alot about boats and what equipment was needed, about fish movements, about what lures worked best in each spot and season and alot about walleyes. The compition was tough back then. You were fishing against guys like Gary Polokowski, Glenn Marshall, the 3 Field brothers, Danny William, Jeff Stephson, Greg Vandemark, and many more really good anglers. The secret to learning alot more about the river and about fishing for walleyes is to fish the club tournaments. You will learn different techniques and areas to fish and when to fish those spots by fishing with differnt guys [we draw for partners]. You will learn from each tournament and from each guy you fish with. The guy you fish with will even learn from you. We ALL learn from each other. Its the best way to learn. Its also alot of fun.

Thanks, Bill

Here is the pic from the 2004 seminar.

Thanks Kerry (HAWG) Harvey

I am a newbie to the WS but the couple of times I fished last year with club members it an awesome time. Love their format and the sitting around after and chatting,

I am going to plan my summer better to fish more club events.

I wish this WS seminar and Stuff was closer to the cities. I would join in a heartbeat. Anybody record these seminars? I would like Copies if at all possible. Thanks.

Rainman

They have in the past, I will check on that for you.

Thanks Steve. You Da man. Greatly appreciated.

steve,can anyone attend or do you have to become a member?I just would like to know,it sounds like a great event!I’ve got a few fellow fisherman that would be interested also.Thanks

Any and all are welcome it is open to the public.

Shameless BUMP

My single best walleye day on the river as far as numbers of quality fish was with the walleye searchers…..THANKS KERRY!!! (and to think, I was a day after they were bitting!!!)

I also netted the largest river walleye I ever have with them….On a similar note, I learned not to stab at big fish with the net…..breathe and scoop, breathe and scoop

Jake, Your welcome, those were two fun days.

I think it was 2000 when I joined the WS club. Having fished lakes in the southern part of the state for the previous 10-15 years I thought I had a clue about fishing for walleyes. Boy was I in for a wake up call. In 1999 I fished as a co-angler in the PWT and one of the stops was Red Wing. That woke me up, until then I did’nt realize what a fishery the big river was. Thats when I decided to learn the river. I went to the WS spring seminar in 2000 and listened to the speaker, some people told me he knew a little about the Miss. Well it was James Holst and they were right. After the seminar I joined the club.

It took a couple of years to really start to feel comfortable on the river but I know without the WS I would still be quite clueless. I learned the differnt techniqes for the various seasons and best of all I made many friendships that will last forever.

If you are thinking about joining the club, do it, it was one decision in my life that I do not regret.

Sorry I got so long winded.

Thanks for the reply Kerry, sounds like you are working too much and need to get out fishing more, hope to see you on the water this year. OK I know there are more WS Members out there who frequent this board so lets here from ya!

Thanks Steve, now that I am retired and out of excuses, I will be there. I was a friend of Keiths when he mailed out all of his fishing tapes and books. Again thanks for the reminder and will see you there.

Of course if you’re marking your calendar, it ought to be a Bikini Ice Fishing Team Calendar.

Steve
the map and address doesn’t pop up for me, can you help? Thanks
Joe

Quote:

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Steve
the map and address doesn’t pop up for me, can you help? Thanks
Joe

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Sorry about that try this one.

Map to Elks Lodge & address

Steve
Thanks, that worked great. As usual, the people on this site are first class .
Hope to see you there
Joe

Walleye Searcher’s Seminar

Sounds like it will be another great time.

I have fished the river since the mid 1970’s. When I used to fish back then I would go to Pepin an Lindy rig live bait with some success. As years passed I wanted to improve my catch rate. I joined the Walleye Searcher’s in the late 80’s early 90’s. In the first year as a member, my learning curve was ignited, I was like a sponge that wanted to just learn from others and have fun. You got to see new equipment and many different types of techniques, some successful some not but still always learning.
The river is always changing week to week year to year.
One of my fondest memories was back in the early days the Searchers ran a Spring tournament out of Bay City Wisconsin. They were sponsored by Mercury motors and they would send a Pro every year. The year I can’t remember but the half day on the water with Daryl Christensen I will never forget. I learned more in four hours with him then my 20 years on my own. And this is my home water.

The Searcher’s are a great group and if you want to learn the river it is an excellent way to speed up the learning curve and the river is a very challenging body of water.

I must say I think that Pool 4 is the best walleye fishery in the mid west bar none.
But that is just my opinion.

So if you want to learn how to catch more and bigger fish join the searchers, you may even have the time of your life.

The March seminar should be a great time to learn from some great anglers.