Finally getting around to documenting my experience at the last FLW Walleye Tour event of 2008 on that took place July 23-26th at the Bays de Noc in Escanaba, Michigan.
Heading into this event I was 52nd overall in the AOY points and at the conclusion of the year the top 50 tour anglers are invited to fish the year end championship (along with the AOY from each league division). To ensure that I could secure a championship berth I felt I needed a top 50 finish and to push myself I set a goal of a top 10 to end the regular season on a high note. Bay de Noc has a unique slot as only one walleye over 23” can be brought into Little Bay de Noc and thus 2 walleyes over 23” (over’s) out of 5 total fish is the daily tournament limit. With this in mind I chose to focus on the over’s for the tournament as the slot fish are always tough to find and limits are a rare entity over a four day event.
So with a championship berth on the line I started preparing for this event after returning home from Cass Lake. In my research I found a fair number of tournaments that were held on this body of water – but most were in August not July. This would be my fourth time fishing this body of water – one PWT, one Cabela’s NTC and last years FLW Walleye Tour event. An additional restriction on anglers fishing this event was limiting us to Michigan waters only and during last year’s event a significant portion of the top 50 finishers ran down to Green Bay and fished in Wisconsin waters where there were biting walleyes more accessible. So by reviewing maps, old articles, historical finishes and my waypoints I put together a plan for my 5 days of pre-fishing. My father and I hit the road to Escanaba on the afternoon of Wednesday July 16th. Dad was along for the pre-fish as he has become my travel partner over the last few seasons which has made for many memorable moments.
Early Thursday morning I hit the gas pump to fill up my 621 Ranger and flinched with the $4.20 a gallon price for 87 octane – I was glad that my Evinrude 250 HO does not require premium fuel! After dumping in almost 64 gallons in the belly of the Ranger (you do the math…) we were off for our first day of fishing. My plan for the day was to hit all of my old marks within 15 miles of Escanaba as I needed to have mobile signal available to attend a few calls for my real job that pays my bills at home! My results for the day were unexpected: two key areas that I have always had success on did not produce a bite and I graphed very few fish there. On the flip side, an area I had identified during my prep work yielded a 27” walleye and a larger one up to the boat before shaking the hook. I spun around and had two more pull backs during a different pass so I was happy with the results thus far.
Friday I focused on the West shoreline of the system, launching at the Cedar River and working south to the Wisconsin/Michigan line at the Menominee River all the way north to the Ford River – almost 50 miles. I hit all of the key spots that I had identified during my preparation along with the waypoints from previous tournaments and ended the day with these conclusions: I had found cold water temps, then colder water temps, lots of balls of baitfish which I interpreted as alewives and no walleyes but a few sheephead to give us hope throughout the day. No problem as part of this game is eliminating water and when you are working as one boat – the quicker you can narrow your efforts into areas where fish are a key to success.
Saturday morning found me driving over to Big Bay to launch in the Garden Bay area – 50+ mile drive by road to save fuel in my boat. Again here I hit all of the key spots that I had identified during my preparation along with the waypoints from previous tournaments. Throughout the day I mixed up spinners and cranks because cranks allowed me to move at speeds almost twice as fast and cover water faster. At the end of the day I had put the hurt on a significant portion of the sheephead population over in big bay but did not catch or have a walleye bite… Three full days into pre-fish and I had only one walleye across the gunnels of my boat – not time to panic as I had looked at the majority of the system at this point and it was time to review the areas that had worked and attempt to identify similar areas and conditions. That night I spent almost two hours re-reviewing my maps and notes to formulate a plan for Sunday.
Sunday morning started out early again and we were off to try and focus on the updated plan of attack. The morning started slow and once again I was rotating both cranks and spinners. Around noon a while we had a spread of cranks out a clicker went off and an inside board was almost buried – result was 28” walleye, a welcome sight! It was flat calm and I was in shallower than I had been fishing so I logged that away… We made an additional pass over the area with cranks and had a similar result but this time with a record sized sheephead… I was finally starting to see a pattern develop – catch a walleye, wait two days and then start the cycle again. The only good thing was Wednesday, day one of the tournament, was the start of the cycle again…
Monday I tried to expand on what had worked and hit new areas again with a few more sheephead to show for our efforts. I was listening to the marine radio to start formulating a plan based on the weather and the wind speed/direction for the tournament days – forecast was for light winds on days 1 and 2 which would mean we could move around with ease. I took a break about 2 o’clock and headed into the service trailer to adjust the engine height on my jackplate for some additional performance. We headed back out on the water and spent the rest of the day up in Little Bay de Noc with no walleyes to show for our efforts.
Tuesday was our last opportunity to pre-fish and per FLW rules we had to be off the water by 12 noon. We were on plane before 6 AM that morning for a quick run over to Big Bay to check on two final areas that looked promising. At 11:45 we were idling into the harbor at Escanaba where we had launched that morning at the conclusion of our pre-fish and had just experienced our 4th day of pre-fishing without catching a walleye. So after 5 ½ days of pre-fishing and here’s what I had to pattern: 5 walleye bites, 4 on spinners and one a crankbait. Hmmm…..
Stay tuned, part 2 will recap the tournament.