Great news! Glad to hear you’re feeling better.

Jason,

It is a certified letter confirming that they have removed you from the championship roster. I received the same thing the day after I received my tour championship packet.

Looks like this cat won’t be launching out of that particular resort any longer since he doesn’t appreciate the $100 or so bucks I spent there already this year pimping my ride. He’s so friendly as well that I’ll truly miss launching there

Quote:

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you will now have to purchase a permit to help the DNR recoup the added costs of selling fishing licences to out of state anglers fishing out of Evert’s Resort.

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I knew it was all Dean’s fault somehow

I think some are a bit out of touch with the general fishing public in Minnesota. I fish nearly every corner of the state, and there are a tremendous amount of meat hunters out there. Not that I am against eating a few fish every now and then, but a lot of people aren’t satisfied unless they bring home a cooler full of fish each weekend. I grew up fishing in Northern Minnesota, and a catch and eat whatever you can keep mentality still prevails to the point where we won’t even take some of my friends’ relatives fishing any longer. These people still get downright irate when we release a large fish. Those 26-28″ fish taste the best don’t ya know, and don’t forget that those 40″ northerns are perfect to pickle. I know a lot of these guys who think nothing of catching one limit in the morning and another in the evening each day who hate tournament anglers because they feel they’re destroying the lakes. It’s so hypocritical that it’s almost funny.

The concept of catch and release fishing has certainly been aided by the tournament fishing scene, as well as a new generation of fishermen who see that a scorched earth approach to fishing is detrimental to the health of the lakes and rivers they like to fish.

There are some bad apples fishing tournaments, but I can name dozens of instances of unethical or downrigh illegal boating and fishing activities that I have personally observed that did not involve tournament anglers. I’ve also seen some pretty bad things done by tournament anglers, and I’m not shy about telling them what I think of their behavior. I chewed out a regular poster on this site for running part of the no-wake zone down by Wabasha last year during the league event. I would expect the same if someone sees me doing something stupid so I don’t make the same mistake twice.

As far as the new fees go, why is anyone surprised? Have you forgotten what state we live in? Our legislators need something to keep them fat and happy while they’re not getting any productive work accomplished.

Anyone else using an Oxygenator have poor DO readings? My DO readings were only 4.8, which is not good at all. I had my pumps running all day so I’m still scratching my head a bit. How do I know if the darn thing is working, other than trusting that the LED indicates it is working?

Funny thing is I know of one guy who had DO readings of 1.2 and his fish were all deemed releasable.

It was nice meeting you Kirt. Congrats on your first tournament as a boater.

Thanks Jim and Rich. We missed you up at Bemidji Jim. You would have had a blast. What a fishery! I messed up big time, and I’m glad it didn’t cost me the championship. I decided to weigh a 18.75″ fish that I thought would be counted alive, and it went belly up in the bump tank. I left a 19.5″ fish in my livewell that was questionable, so I ended up leaving half-a-pound or so sitting in my livewll. That little blunder only cost me a few positions and a few hundred bucks. Oh well, live and learn I guess.

It was a fantastic year. I’d like to thank John Gildersleeve (Rigging Guy) for all of the help with pre-fishing. We both fished our tails off this year, pre-fishing an average of ten days for each event. With a little better luck it might be John as the two-time angler of the year this year. This championship was a true team effort. This makes it three years in a row now for Team Gildersleeve. Get well Jim and we’ll make it four in a row next year!

Good luck to everyone who fishes Moline. I’m going to head to Cleveland and pre-fish for a couple of weeks, so I’ll probably skip the league championship. I hope to see you all next year.

No problem Shooter.

I’ve caught some real dandies on Pool 2 on the DT’s. They work well during high water, but not so much during low water. At least for me anyways. I get them hung up too often during low water on snaggy dams.

I would not rule yourself out yet. A top ten finish at Bemidji might actually get you an invitation. I have a feeling a lot of guys won’t make the trip to the Quad Cities. They were short of boaters at the championship in Winona two years ago, so I actually ended up fishing in a boat with three guys (the boater and another co-angler) the first day. It’s a longshot, but you never know….

I think you hit the nail on the head Mike. Long rods seem to be more forgiving also when fighting the fish. I had my five and six year-old nephews reeling in 24-28″ fish all day on Mille Lacs earlier this summer and they didn’t lose a single fish.

If you’re less than ten you’ll probably be ok. I’m sure a bunch of locals will jump in if they feel they have a shot at winning. Hope for a good bite.

Did they change the rules meeting to Thursday night and not tell all of us?

Try setting your drag loose enough so that a decent-sized fish will take out a bit of line when it hits. This should help prevent some missed hits. I also prefer to use mono with lead. For one it acts as a shock absorber, albeit a small one, and also when I get snagged up I just tighten it up and break the crank off and keep on going. I don’t like stopping when I’m trolling snaggy areas. It just takes too long to get the lines reset. It’s hard to do that with fireline without breaking the lead first.

Sounds like you guys ran a first rate tournament. I applaud your efforts in the cleaning and donation of those fish deemed unreleasable.

You may have heard already, but FLW is cooperating with state wildlife agencies in conducting a walleye mortality study. I don’t know when or how the data will be presented, but I would imagine it will answer a lot of questions regarding tournaments and walleyes in general.

I installed one yesterday. It was a piece of cake. Now I just need to catch some fish to try it out.

Flatfish,

Putting asize the fizzing issue, why are you so upset that these fish were harvested and distributed for consumption? I rarely keep any fish, so I wouldn’t lose an instant of sleep over having a few fish I catch each year consumed after a tournament. The folks who come to the league weigh-ins really seem to appreciate the opportunity to leave with a few fresh fillets. The average meat hunter who’s out every weekend is going to harvest way more fish in a month, than the average tournament guy will in a year. There is nothing wrong with harvesting some of this renewable resource.

Cleveland would be nice, but right now I’m just trying to figure out how to not stink this next one up. I fished with Todd two years ago, and man that bite was tough. Hopefully the bite will stay a bit more favorable this year, but zero’s are not out of the question on that body of water.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I’m going to pick one up this week.

Tony,

What is the slot down there?

Ben and Greg,

Do you guys run the Oxygenator off of a separate battery, or the main battery? I normally run my livewell pumps on manual all day long and do not have any worries with draining my battery even when I don’t have the main motor running for hours at a time. I am a little concerned that combining the Oxygenator with the pumps may cause some problems, but I haven’t checked the power draw so I’m just speculating at this point. Do you normally continually cycle fresh water through the livewells and run the Oxygenator at the same time. I’m considering purchasing one and installing a second battery just for the Oxygenator. Is this overkill? Any information you are willing to share would be greatly appreciated.

Jon,

Great point. John and I were just talking about that this weekend. Those metal rulers get awfully hot.

I’ve just been extremely lucky, but I work harder than most so maybe I’m making some of my own luck. I know how intimidating it is to fish these for the first year with all the great anglers fishing, so just work hard and have fun. FLW has a great thing going with these league events. It’s a shame more people don’t realize how much fun it really is. It would be great to see these events filled. It’s good to see that you made the jump up. Good luck at Bemidji.

I think it will be fun fishing the Quad cities if I’m lucky enough to make it. New waters keep it interesting. Does anyone know if they intend to fish both IA and IL waters this year?

I concur with Dave. That being and they have a history there with two past Tour events recently. We have a fellow from Moline fishing the MN League this year, so this may not be a truly neutral site for all of us, but it’s probably as neutral as it can get. I would love for this championship to end up in Devils Lake one year. That would be a blast.

The only advice I can offer above what John suggested without giving away our gameplan for Bemidji, is find someone to work with pre-fishing if you can. I tried to fish these alone last year, and it didn’t work so well. I had some really successful pre-fishing days but just didn’t have enough fish figured out to adapt to changing conditions during the tournaments. You really learn a lot working with other anglers during these events, or at least I know I do. Also do your homework. My pre-fishing for this year’s tournaments started over seven months ago. I spent countless hours this winter reading through and analyzing fishing logs from the previous year and sorting through maps and fishing reports on each of the bodies of water we’re hitting this year. I’ve had my pre-fishing routines pretty much picked out weeks before I’ve even hit the water, and I’ve been somewhat lucky that everything I have tried this year has worked from the start. I haven’t had to do a lot of searching for fish, so I’ve really been able to work them over and figure them out. The rest you’ll have to figure out for yourself. Win or lose, the fun part is trying to figure them out and it feels great when a plan actually comes together.

22 rods and counting.

Crankbaits I have no idea, somewhere between 500-600 if I had to guess. I know that I’ve lost somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-100 this year.

I use the Cabelas depthmaster planer board rods for long-lining all the time and they work pretty good for me. If you have some extra dough you may want to consider the St. Croix rods. Jason Halfen uses them, and they look like excellent rods. I’m sure he would give you more info if you get in touch with him. I’d like to try a couple on the river and Mille Lacs this fall.

John,

I thought that after the priority deadline the waiting list comes into play with first come first serve. Anyone wanting to get in should lock up their guaranteed boater/co-angler by this Friday just to be safe.

Ditto what James said Steve. Go with the LED lights if you can.