After crawling out of bed and chugging the morning coffee it was time to get focused and ready for the days event. Make sure we have all of our gear set, bait in the boat, and rods rigged and ready to go. Most of this was checked the night before, but you always have to run through things at least twice to make sure because it can make or break you. Everything is check and it was time to head to the launch.
The tournament start and finish was based Out of Metro Park. Which is right at the mouth of the Fox river at the southern tip of the bay. Teams had to start arriving around 5:30am for a pre inspection of your boat. Always a good rule in a tournament where money is involved. After inspection the boat is launch, trailer is parked, and anglers anxiously await there start. There was a total of 75 boats in the field. They sent out 2 flights of boats. First flight was able to leave the launch in single file line in order of team number, and they had to return to the launch no later than 2:30 pm. Second flight was able to leave at 7 am and return by 3 pm. If you are 1 sec-15mins late than half of your weight was deducted from your weigh in. If you are later than 15 mins. you where disqualified. Pretty steep price to pay if your late, but a rule that is good and makes the stakes even among teams.
The was a catch and release tournament. Meaning after the fish where caught and weighed they where then released back into the bay. Dead fish counted as a penalty as well. Penalty for dead fish was .10 pound. Not as steep as coming in late but in this tournament when you see the results could have made all the difference. Teams where allowed to keep 6 fish and only weigh in there best 3 fish. This was also a no cull tournament, so once the fish goes in the box and can not come out and be upgraded for a bigger fish. This plays a big role and sometimes makes it a tough decision on what to keep and what to throw back.
The Start: We where team 70 which meant we where in the second flight of boats to go out and almost at the end of the line. Not a huge deal as we had thought we had the fish figured out for the most part. Well water conditions had changed overnight as a huge thunderstorm blew through over night and the winds kicked up quite fast and out of the North. Winds started at 15mph straight out of the North in the morning and built to 18-20mph by the end of the day. This made for a rough ride to say the least. Waves started at 2-3 feet in the morning, and by the end of the day when it was time to head in they where 3-4 feet tall. Also a very very rough ride, especially when you have a 15 nautical mile run to the fish, but we managed. Right out of the gate we where off racing to our spot getting tossed in the waves as we had to ride in the ditch the whole way there. I also managed to lose my hat during this which has given me the name of Rudolph because my nose has been bright red from sunburn ever since. NOT FUN! Bring an extra hat!
The Fishing: Because of the change of wind direction and the size of the waves, we had to switch up a little. The previous day was an East- West wind so we where able to make our long trolls staying along our drpth contours. Tournament day was a little different. We had a North-South wind so we where forced to make short trolls along our targeted depths that we knew where holding fish. This in the end created more work setting lines, bringing them in, and resetting them back out. It seems easy but when your running 6 rods and each rod has to be set at different depths to cover the water columns, it can become a little confusing especially in 3-4 foot waves. Our hot spinner blade color the previous day was purple. It seemed that anything with purple on it attracted the walleyes. The three blade color names that we ran where, Boy Girl, Purple Boxer, and a solid purple.
Boy Girl |
Purple Boxer is exactly like this minus the yellow dots |
Small Solid Purple |
Out of these three blades it seemed that the little purple came in first, purple boxer second, and boy girl in last for catching fish. The fishing was a lot slower compared to the previous day, and the fish came in a little smaller. Our 6 fish came in as follows: 25 1/2", 24", 23 1/2", 23", 21", 20 1/2". We had a decent bag, but not the bag we where looking for. Of course through out the day we had caught the infamous Green Bay Sheepshead. The biggest surprise came as we where starting to pack up and fight the waves back in. Our biggest fish of the day (25 1/2") came right at the end when I was reeling in my first line. This was huge as before this fish our bag for the day was looking pretty small. Thank god we got him cause our standing would have been bad. We started to pack up around 2pm as we did not know how long it would take getting back in fighting through 3-4 foot waves. We made it back in time and actually a little early, but with the huge penalty of being late I am glad we left when we did.
The Results:
Chad Wertepny | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Matt Hietpas | Little Chute, WI | ||||
Vickie Goldapske | Van Dyne, WI | ||||
John Clumpner | Little Suamico, WI | ||||
Tom Zollar | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Jason Miller | Winneconne, WI | ||||
Tim Skenandore | Seymour, WI | ||||
Scott Zupon | Deerbrook, WI | ||||
Ben Schmoldt | Kewaskum, WI | ||||
Vince Raimondi | Addison, IL | ||||
Scott Miller | Pensaukee, WI | ||||
Bill Bobber | Appleton, WI | ||||
Larry Eaton | Amery, WI | ||||
Jeff Hanson | Manitowoc, WI | ||||
Brian Smit | Brandon, WI | ||||
Ryan Deeg | Menasha, WI | ||||
Melissa Mydlo | De Pere, WI | ||||
Steve Kolb | Depere, WI | ||||
Eugene Van Oss | Elkhart Lake, WI | ||||
Chris Osgood | Oakfield, WI | ||||
Eric Balstad | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Michael Gengalo Sr. | Pelican Lake, WI | ||||
Jim Leanna | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Scott Sheppard | Neenah, WI | ||||
Travis Dittmann | Fremont, WI | ||||
Chris O'Brien | Waukesha, WI | ||||
Dale Boeck | Oshkosh, WI | ||||
John Hynes | Green Bay, WI | ||||
John Vogel | Suamico, WI | ||||
Jason Kehler | Suamico, WI | ||||
John Van Norman | Tomahawk, WI | ||||
Adam Feustel | Kaukauna, WI | ||||
Kathy Kuzniewski | Spring Grove, IL | ||||
Matthew Huempfner | Antigo, WI | ||||
Scott Hausauer | Appleton, WI | ||||
Shawn Mc Laughlin | Leona, WI | ||||
Eric Carlson | Milwaukee, WI | ||||
James Kissinger | Markesan, WI | ||||
Dustin Mc Aloon | Iola, WI | ||||
Shawn Wendt | Van Dyne, WI | ||||
Chris Schollmeiier | Coon Valley, WI | ||||
Scott Thimmig | Wrightstown, WI | ||||
Elliot Van Oss | Elkhart Lake, WI | ||||
Mark Brandlin | Larson, WI | ||||
Brian Schiller | Poplar Grove, IL | ||||
Peter Arbeiter | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Shawn Dougherty | Burlington, WI | ||||
Jeremy Hurst | Oshkosh, WI | ||||
Gary O'Connell | Neenah, WI | ||||
Marcel Cardinal | Fremont, WI | ||||
Dave Knueppel | Fond du Lac, WI | ||||
Rick Tadyszak | Grafton, WI | ||||
Alan May | Kewaskum, WI | ||||
Daniel Hobbs | Wisconsin Rapids, WI | ||||
Stephen Pocian | Hartford, WI | ||||
Nicki Pizzi | Lakewood, WI | ||||
Bud LeFever | Menasha, WI | ||||
Kyle Krueger | Larsen, WI | ||||
Matt Benzshawel | Menasha, WI | ||||
Steven Bohn | Kewaskum, WI | ||||
Jake McGuire | Tomahawk, WI | ||||
Mike Gutowski | De Pere, WI | ||||
Frank Herrmann Jr. | Spring Grove, IL | ||||
Mike Pagel | Argonne, WI | ||||
Sean Freund | Fond du Lac, WI | ||||
Andy Deer | Green Bay, WI | ||||
Travis Krueger | Weston, WI |
Caught by: Team Number 71 Scott Valleskey from Mamitowoc, WI and John Clumpner from Little Suamico, WI |
Total Weight of All Fish Caught: 1009.16 Lbs. |
We ended up placing 45. I initially though we where in the mid 20's, but low and behold there where a lot more boats that weighed in after us. All in all it was a fun tournament and an experience at that. I would defiantly do it again without a doubt, and in fact we might enter all of the tournaments that the MWS has to offer next year. If you have any interest go to http://www.fishtfm.com/ for more info.
Things to remember or change for next time: Defiantly get in some more pre-fishing. The top placers of the tourney where pulling cranks. We talked about doing it but never did during pre-fishing because we where on some nice fish. It would have been nice to have an extra day to give it a try. It is hard to leave a working pattern during a tournament to give another a try when you have money and time on the line. It is all part of the game.
Sorry for the lack of pictures from the day of the tournament. I was so caught up in the fishing tournament I didn't think about getting some good pics. Next time I will be sure to snap some off.
At least you gave it the old college try. There's always next time.
ReplyDeleteMark
Never hurts to try!
ReplyDelete