It’s a week old but I’ve finally dug out after being a week away from work.
Chad and I left Saturday morning (early) and after checking in at the resort, we finally hit the water about 11 am. We started east of the armada of boats that were fishing in front of Zipple Bay. We dropped a firetiger and a shiner colored #8 back on the lead core about a 180′. 2 minutes after the lines settled in we had a 26″er. For the next 5 hours it was tough to keep 2 lines back but that was the biggest for the first day.
The next 5 days of fishing were the best I’ve ever had. I’ve fished MN, ND, SD and 2 Canadian provinces and nothing has compared to the bite currently going on on Lake of the Woods. Blades, jigging and cranks….it didn’t seem to matter, they were all putting fish in the boat.
I KNOW my boat put well over 300 walleyes in it over 6 days of fishing. (pre-fish and MTT Championship tourney). It seems hard to believe until you hear charter captains talking about 230 fish days….The bite is ON FIRE!!
To the tourney….Thursday/Friday were the days that really counted and the fish came thru for us. On day one we had our box full of weigh fish by 10 am. We then were able to upgrade all day. We ended up weighing 6 for 11.91 lbs. These 6 were all over 18″, up to 19 1/4. We knew there would be some big fish brought in but we didn’t expect to be in 30th place….There were 14 over 28″ brought in day one.
The morning of day 2 I told Chad (like most of the teams) that we needed to bring in 2 big ones to have a real shot at winning. At 9:30 am we upgraded a 15″er with a 28 1/4″ fish. The rest of the day, we just kept saying “one more good bite”. Everytime the rod dropped back we hoped for another big one. Or at least an over 18″. Finally at 2:30, one of the rods doubled over, “good fish”. I reeled up the other line but kept the motor in gear till Chad said “shut the motor down, it could be another over”. After about 10 cranks he said “if this fish comes unbuttoned, jump in after it”. Well, I finally saw leader and Chad only had 30′ of line to go…..He said “my knees are shaking…..I saw the fish, dippped the net, hoisted the fish over the side…..It was a 31″er. Pure pandimonium (even before we measured it), we knew it was WAY over 28 and knew we had a shot. We had 4 “slots” over 18″, a 28 1/4 and a 31″….
We sat in the “bullpen” for almost 2 hours after check in before weighing. We heard that there was a team with a big fish day one and 2 on day 2 so we figured we couldn’t win but were hoping for 2nd….. Until we heard there were a total of 3 teams with 2 overs on the 2nd day….And it seemed like every other team we talked to in bullpen had a big fish day one and 2.
We ended up with the biggest single day weight of the tournament with over 26lbs day 2 and over 38lbs for the tourney. Good enough for 2nd place and 10 grand. Quite a feeling to have one of the funnest fishing trips I’ve ever had AND take home some money.
Both days of the tourney we pulled lead core and shad raps off some Canadian line structure. We didn’t vary much in presentation either day, we just got lucky with 2 big ones when it really counted.
The MTT puts on a helluva program. Mike and the MTT staff are as good as it gets.
Please mark your calanders for the benefit for Craig D’s family on Oct 24 at Hunters Point on Mille Lacs. I hope to see a bunch of you there.
Take care, Adam
