Pool 4,5 and RCL Wrap Up.

All I can say is WOW. What a rush! The last couple of weeks or should I say months I have been preparing for the last two tournament that we just had. The Masters Walleye Circuit and the RCL Walleye Championship. Sorry for the lack of reports.

In preparing for these tournaments I found lot of good presentations in bringing fish to the boat. As soon as I found that presentation that I thought would work it would all change. Making pre-fishing tuff or should I say mind boggling. Let’s start with MWC. The fishing before the MWC was just fantastic. Most of my time was spent fishing wingdams. Most fish averaged in the 22inch-24inch; range. Here is Dave Hale of Hudson, Wisconsin holding two dandies boated just a week before MWC tournament. Two days before the tournament the bites just died. I did find one pattern that no one else used but did not take advantage of it on tournament day. In fact I heard one guy say What is he doing, he obviously never fished a wingdam before. I just laughed. I may need this pattern someday so I am gonna keep in on the down low for now. I decided to fish with what we had going on the upper river. Pulling live bait rigs seemed to be the best to get our 5 fish quick. Nothing of any size, but a start, and then we could go pig hunting. We managed 5 walleye by 10:30 and then went looking for bigger fish. It paid off. A hour before weigh in we landed a sauger about 22 inches and one about 23 inches putting us in 11th place on day 1. Best pattern? Pulling lead core on points out on the lake and casting rip rap shorelines with # 7 shad raps. Wind blown bays and rip rap are areas that we keyed on.

Day 2 we pulled lead core all day hoping to find some more of the 23 inch fish.. We managed 4 fish by 10:00 again but never found N0.5. We finished 7th. My friend, Evinrude Pro Chris Gilman, was my partner for this tournament. Chris is a 3-time PWT winner. I had a blast Chris. Thanks. I look forward to working with you in the future. Good luck bowhunting.

On to the RCL tournament.The first day of this tournament I drew Doug Vandersteen from Manitoba, Canada. When talking with Doug the night before he said he did not have any fish going at the present time. He said that his pre-fishing was excellent but died two day before. Go Figure! I told him a spend about 120+ days a year on this water and that I knew where some fish were but we would either zero or have 25lb for 5 fish. Another words it is very risky but if you take the risk it could pay off big time. Doug said let’s do it. I did not tell Doug where we were going but that we would be going south and that we needed to stock up on a bunch of #7 shad raps.

Our first spot paid of big time with a 5lb coming to the boat in just minutes of our arrival. After spending another hour with no more luck we decided to move elsewhere. The next spot we boated a 8lb.7oz. Needless to say we were starting to celebrate. We had almost 14lbs with two fish. Then it happened again. FISH ON. A solid 24 incher came to the boat followed by a 7lb 10oz just minutes apart. It was about 12:00 and we decided we had better get through the locks before a barge would shut us out. Our total weight 22lb- 6oz. with 4 fish. We were day one leaders.

Day two. I fished with Royce Drye from Washington. We worked hard but never boated a fish. We did have a couple good walleyes on but lost them at the net. Not that I neeeded the weight but was hoping to get Royce near the cut. Thanks Royce I enjoyed every minute with you.

Day three. This is one day that was just plain hard work, yet fun. This day I spent with Lund Pro Jerry Hein from Stillwater,Minnesota. Jerry is a guide on the St.Croix. On this day I spent all my time running the rods and retying over 50 Rapala Shad Raps. Jerry went through over 400 raps before day 3. At 5.00 a piece that is lot of green backs. We trolled a rip rap shoreline very tight to the cover. Our rod tips were almost bouncing of the rocks. The presentation worked very well and put me in 3rd place with a 16,000 check. Yahooo! Jerry I had a blast with you and thank you very much for the effort. It was definetly a two man operation.It was great time and I encourage everyone to be a co-angler at some point and time. He get to meet a lot of neat people and get to meet a lot of new friends.

Pool 5 action. After spending most my time of 4 this summer I ventured back to pool 5 the following day a found the numbers of fish to be plentiful. Pool 5 is hoping right now with all the 12 inchers-16 inchers fish you want. Jigging with Fisherflick jigs and Super Doo’s have put most of the fish in my boat. The Dam area is the best spot for numbers right now, but I have found a few spot on the south end of the pool that has been kicking out nice fish but it has been hit and miss. On the south end of pool 5 I have been trolling with shad raps. Cuts off the main channel and bends in the river seem to be the best area down south end.

Alma finally has a bait store. It is called The MAIN CHANNEL. It is kiddy cornrer from the Drug Store or right across where the old Kwik Trip store use to be. If you need bait or information I am sure my dad will help you out. I just hope he doesn’t give to much information. Lol! For those coming off the river to get bait the city dock is the perfect place to tie you boat up and run across the street.