I will be there…..either rigging or jigging a shiner…..we always have 4 or 5 boats in our group and some of the guys only fish walleyes once or twice a year so all they want to do is rig all day…..convinced a couple of them to pull cranks at night a couple years ago and did fairly well…..now I just have to convince them to try and pitch some jigs shallow. Pitching is a fun way to catch them when they are shallow. How shallow of water will you guys target?

1.8 to 2.2…….Saturday two best colors were purpledescent and hot tiger….Sunday hot steel and hot tiger

Spent the past three days fishing….fishing was slower than some openers, but better than others….spent most of our time fishing Highbanks….caught most fish rigging….shiners, rainbows, redtails, leeches and crawlers all caught fish….most big fish caught on crawlers….we seemed to catch more “overs” on Saturday (average size was between 17 and 22 inches)….more smaller fish on Sunday and Monday(average size between 15 and 19)…..big fish for the weekend was a 26 1/2….

We also pulled cranks in 5 to 8 feet of water for about and hour after dark….caught lots of small males….great way to catch “eaters”….used mainly #7 shallow shads and also #5 regular shads……largest cranking was 24 1/2.

Congrats to Team Anderson
This year was the 2nd time that my partner and I have finished 3rd in an event on the Alex. Chain that Dave and his partner have won…both times we have been a half pound short…I don’t know if we will ever find a way to make up the difference, but it’s always easy to accept defeat when you lose to guys like the Andersons….great sticks, who are also great guys.
For any of you guys out there who are interested in fishing tournaments in the future I would strongly recommend that you check out the Full Throttle Series. My partner and I have fished in it the past two years and really enjoy it. The tournaments are well run and it’s fun to be able to fish with your own partner.

I thought I saw you guys out there while I was harvesting Loon eggs…nothing like a nice Loon egg omelet to start the morning!

Thanks for the advice….I’m going to go with the Titan system.

I’ll be fishing it….not really a river guy, so I’m sure it will be a struggle. Last year during the tourney was one of the most miserable days weather wise that I’ve spent in a boat, but I still had a blast!

I fish this series….its very well run and I’ve enjoyed my 4 years being a part of it. We had our first tournament this weekend on Lac Qui Parle. It was a good bite, but the cold front that came through shut down the bite for many of the competitors….but it didn’t seem to affect Dave Anderson and Jeff Solum as they weighed 6 fish for over 20 lbs. to win it.

I’ll be there Friday and Saturday night….Red 1800 ProV

Bill,
I would use either a #11 or #13 floater…I like to use these to target the depths you refer to….I’ve noticed lately that the rocks that I fish have a lot of moss on them, so if you pull a lure that runs too deep you will be spending the majority of the time cleaning your lure or running with a fowled crank….you might also have to experiment with the line that you are using….I use both 14# fireline and 8# powerpro….when fishing that shallow I will switch to the fireline because it won’t run quite as deep and it also allows me to get the crank farther behind the boat.

Count me in…..thanks sponsors!!!

The tubes are oval…..bending the eyes is an interesting idea….might work…..it will seem a little “weird” bending the eyes on the rods since that is something that I always try to avoid doing. Thanks for the help!

Kooty, I agree with you…..it seems like the pro v is an ideal walleye boat, but I just don’t understand why they must think that we use baitcasting rods….when I go to fish tournaments I usually bring 10 rods with and only 3 of them are baitcasters…..hard to figure out where to put the 7 spinning rods.

Tournament Report…just thought I’d share a little information about the tourney. My partner and I had never fished the St. Croix before. We tried to apply some of the techniques that we have learned from this website during the past few years. Our prefishing involved using leadcore, jigging and rigging to try and locate active fish. After five days of prefishing we had little to show for our efforts, but we had eliminated a lot of water. Going into Sunday we only had two spots that we had any confidence in. Our first spot we knew was holding smaller fish and the second spot had been holding fewer, but larger fish. Our plan was to start at our first spot and hopefully catch a few legals to start the day. It seems like in many tournaments the pressure is really on to catch that first fish and after that every thing becomes a little easier.
Well my partner got us off to a great start by catching our first two walleyes at 7:20 and 7:22. Both fish were about 15 1/2″. We picked up two more by 8:00 and we had our 6 by 9:00. All 6 fish were between 15 1/2 and 17 inches…certainly not fish that would win the tournament, but it was a great feeling knowing that we had the next 6 hours to try an upgrade. The area we were fishing was the edge of a break that went from 13 to 30 ft. The fish were mainly caught between 20 and 24 feet. We were using three ways with 3 oz. bell sinkers and crawlers.
We then decided to move to our “big fish” spot. We knew that the larger fish had been being caught on jigs and minnows, but we decided to stick with the 3-ways and the crawlers. On our first pass I caught a 27+. We were fairly confident that would put us in the money. We continued to work this area for the rest of the day. At 1:30 my partner stuck another 27+ fish. Both of our big fish came in 18′ of water. At 2:20 we caught our last 17″….for the day we caught 9 legal fish, probably 8 to 10 shorts and I would guess 40 sheepies.
We waited towards the end to weigh our fish…the leaders at the time had almost 18 pounds…our basket weighed 21 lbs….it was a great feeling knowing that we had been lucky enough to actually win a tournament.
One of the great things about fishing tournaments is that you get to fish new bodies of water that you haven’t tried before. I know that I certainly will fish the St. Croix again, it’s a great fishery. Another thing about tournament fishing is that you are “forced” to learn new techniques in order to catch fish. I know that 3-waying isn’t something that I have done a lot in the past, but obviously under the right conditions it can be a very effective way to catch fish.

Started doing this quite a few years ago while fishing in Ontario….now I always bleed them and put them on ice.

Sounds like the fish being caught in the DNR nets are fat and healthy….2 24’s they netted on the west side weighed over 6 pounds and a 23 went over 5 pounds….these are the football shaped beasts that we all love to catch in the fall!!!

Fished Saturday on the west side…fishing was slow for us…ended up catching 6 trolling inside weed edges….only thing that would produce for us was #7 shallow shads….biggest was 22 1/2…the fish we caught were spitting up 2 1/2 to 3 inch perch…and these were freshly eaten as they hadn’t started to discolor…water temps ranged from 62.4 to 60.7….

Will be up Saturday night….haven’t decided on the west or east side yet.

As of last night at 12 the temp on the east side was 67.5 …I fished from 9 till 12 ….beautiful night with the moon shining bright and a nice chop on the water, but the fish didn’t want to cooperate….I fished the rocks from 4 to 12 ft…caught six small eyes…13 to 14.5….caught one at 1.6 mph and one at 2.9 mph…the rest in-between…caught the fish on #13 floaters and #12 Husky Jerks…also tried shads without any luck…I’m trying not to get discouraged, but I’m afraid the bite might be a little tough this weekend…looks like I’ll be running and gunning trying to find some active fish.

I’ll be up Friday night thru Sunday morning….the direction and the strength of the wind will determine where I will be. I will have two rookies with me who have never trolled at night, so I’m hoping both the lake and the fish will be cooperating for a good weekend.

I’ve got pics, but I’m not in the digital age….my disposable Kodak did the job…..I’m also prefishing for the MWT…..sure would like to have 46 1/2″ of walleyes come Sunday…..but as of now, Tonka is only dishing up a lot of humble pie for me!!!

I fished all day on Sunday and was unable to put a walleye in the boat…..I probably used the wrong approach in that I’m not familiar with the lake and I spent a lot of time bumping different spots but was unable to find any active fish. I will be back out again this weekend and hopefully able to find some willing walleyes. The highlight of the slow day was landing a 46 1/2 ski in 3 ft of water on my 5 1/2 ft rod.

Just got back from fishing in the GNWC National Tourney on LOW. The bite is definitly on in the river. I have never fished the Rainy before, but after this past tournament I can’t wait to go back. Seemed like the majority of the fish were caught using a jig and shiner in the river. Most of the largest baskets were caught in the Birchdale area. Many teams were also doing well trolling cranks with lead core in the river. Our big fish were caught on a 3/8 Northland Fireball Jig with a 2″ red stinger….most successful color was firetiger….majority of fish were caught in 6 to 8 ft of water, but one of are large ones (8.39 lbs) was caught in 22 feet of water. Seemed like the shallow bite would turn off for us each day around 11….needed to go deeper after this to locate the fish….first two days of the tournament a very passive jigging technique worked the best….basically bounce the bottom and lift and hold about 4″ up….third day of the tourney the fish wanted a more aggressive jigging approach.

This time of year I really try to focus on the rocks….the wind plays a large role in how I fish….my general rule is that the windier it is the shallower I go…(word of caution: if you don’t want to pound your prop and skag you will probably have to troll downwind on the windy nights)

I was up Friday night…..fished till dawn….not very many people fishing….caught 15…included were a 28, 26, 25, and a 24…also caught a bonus 42+ ski…with the warmer water temps the most effective speed was 2.7 mph….I need to figure out how to catch fish like this when I fish in the GNWC state tournament in two weeks!

Best colors seemed to be clown, blue/silver, and firetiger..best depths..anywhere between 3 and 11 feet….seemed it was important to cover a lot of water…would find active pockets which would produce 3 or 4 fish and then would have to move again….pulled #11 and #13 floaters, #14 Husky Jerks, and #5 Jointed Raps….all seemed to produce fish depending on the targeted depth….most effective speed was 2.2 to 2.7 depending on the choice of raps

I trolled both Thursday and Saturday nights….Thursday was slow….we caught 9 walleyes between 10 and 12 inches….one of the 10 inchers was even caught on a #14 Husky Jerk…Saturday night was better….fished all night and had to battle some thick fog in the morning….caught 20 with 11 of them being less than 13 inches….big fish of the night was a 28″…someday I’ll get a digital camera to share the pics.

I tried to get an early jump on the bite…trolled for just two hours on Sunday night…only caught one 22″. Might make it back for one night this weekend.

Congrats on a great tourney Tony. I had never fished Vermilion before and after prefishing Friday and Saturday and fishing in the tournament on Sunday my partner and I never caught a measurable fish. It was a tough bite, but you and your partner put together a great catch. Good Luck at Big Stone.

Thanks for providing the information. Sounds like I’ll just have to take the big tax hit when I finish high in the money!!!

American Angler….been using for 7 years….I go with a group of 9 guys to Lac Seule every year….I clean the majority of the fish…I’ve never had the blades sharpened…it’s not cordless…it works great on sunnies and crappies…I don’t know about northerns, never have put the knife to one, my “virgin” livewell has never been subjected to the famous northern slime!