The weekend at the 444 International Walleye Tournament was one to remember. The weather trend this summer was without exception over the weekend. Rain, wind and cool temperatures. The tournament organizers did a good job in the absents of long time organizers Mike & Mike. There were a few hiccups that will need to be fixed next year, but because they put this tournament on using volunteer time- it is much appreciated, regardless.
Now for the fishing. At the captain’s meeting on Friday eve the winds were blowing out of the west, but reports from those that were out prefishing said the lake was good, and fishing was excellent. John and I paired up in the small boat division once again, and his 17 ft Mr Pike hasn’t been out over walleye waters of Lake Erie since last year’s 444. So we were going at this blind.
Saturday morning the skies were clear, the air was cool and the winds looked calm until we get out on the lake. 3 footers out of the west north west with a stiff north west breeze turned out to be a tough go for us at blast off. We managed to make out way over wakes and rough water to tuck in close to shore and 20 miles west before turning out to deeper water. We made good time doing this and got to our destination in 45 minutes.
We set up in 72 FOW south west of Port Maitland and only a few miles from the end of Tecumseh reef’s red marker. The sonar screen was only showing the odd fish and very little bait. We trolled with the waves on the stern as they continue to build to about 4 ft by 11:00 am. About an hour into the troll we finally hit our first fish. Size 82 Walker Deeper Diver on 0 setting and out 210 feet and on the planerboard. The worm harness trailing behind the Deeper Diver was with the large Yeck Colorado blade being “Blue Berry Muffin” and the smaller Colorado blade “Black Demon” beads were black and pink and green.
As we trolled due east we hit a double header in 80 FOW and managed to land one of the two. Same set up as the first fish, but this time the fish got off and we caught the other on a 7 colour off the planerboard using black and purple worm harness and it went in the livewell. Now we got two.
About another hour went by and we missed one more off the planer boards that pulled the tail off the worm and missed the hooks. Then the rigger went off and it felt heavy. John lightly retrieves the fish and some how the hooks pull free. Soft bite.
Managed to boat a smaller fish on the same diver harness combo off the planer board in 82FOW to put the third in the boat. Now all we need is one more to make our four fish box!
Another hour goes by and now were up on the other side of the Maitland trough in 67 FOW when the 107 Metalic Purple Walker Deeper diver on 3 setting and out 165 feet gets a hit. I grab the rod and slowly work a head shaking walleye to the back of the boat just out of range for a fully extended net, and it was the biggest fish of our day and at the surface the brute made a head shake that pulled the hooks free. Our hearts sank to bottom with the fish we called “The Tournament Fish”. The waves were near 4.5 feet and a slow wet ride on the way back.
We come into weigh the fish and there were lots of low weights, and not many full 4 fish boxes from the small boat category. We weighed in at 14.44 lbs with our three fish biggest 6.14 lbs. It was only good enough to manage 7 th place behind our buddies Jim Rodney and Kenny Napper with a box at 14.97 lbs. The biggest box in the small boat was around 27 lbs, almost double what we had!
Day two was calling for 7 mph winds out of the west. We line up to blast off and the whitecaps out beyond the wall were showing something much different. I set up for a spread that would work for calm water with a diver program off the boards in mind. But---- That was not going to happen!
At blast off we rounded the corner of the wall and we were faced with 6 footers out of the south west and a slow boat ride at 14 mph. The big boats even took there time and it appeared everyone was playing it smart and keeping their distance between each other. John tucked inside to work along the shoreline and it paid off using each point to take the edge off the big waves. At Gull island and Rock point the winds were near 40 mph in estimation and the waves were nearly 10 ft pushing between the point and the island. We managed to make progress at 7 mph going against them to Grant point and then out to our waypoint. It took us 2.5 hours to boat 24 miles and we finally set up at 9:30 am. The troll was running the trough of the waves and I switched everything to manage the constant serge from each wave. Divers on the board were not going to maintain a good presentation so a 7 colour leadcore, a rigger, a large diver off the corner and a full core off the back was the only thing I could think off to dampen the irregular speeds. Core has a good belly in the line that can soften some of the serge in the presentation when the boat gets pushed. That and a planer board will work together. It was 1.5 hours of working to find fish and finally we reached out to 80 FOW outside the tip of the end of the Maitland trough when the screen lit up with bait and fish. But the fish were tough to catch again and the weather brought thunderstorms and heavy rains that made conditions in 10 ft waves next to impossible. Water spouts were spotted and the winds only let off at Noon. We managed two quality fish, one on 7 colour off the boards and the other on the down rigger down 62 feet over 85 FOW at about 1:30 pm. It was a short window of time to fish after the long morning run.
Weigh in was quick with nearly 50 boats being off the water by 11:00 am. The Small boat division was won by the first day’s second place team, that had 18 plus pounds on day one. Larry Schoeder managed a good box to take the win. The first day leader with 27 lbs came up skunked on day two. Jim Rodney and Kenny Napper took second place with a 15 lbs box to get them 31 lbs. John and I landed a third place finish with a near duplication weight of day one at 14.37 lbs and 7.74 lbs was our biggest, but if we were to boat that big one at the end of day one, we would have had the tournament. "The Tournament Fish" That's why we do this crazy conpetition fishing - hoping to catch all of the fish needed to win the tournament. If you caught them every tournament, tournaments wouldn't been as fun.
Big controversy over whether the tournament should have been cancelled or let out in the conditions we were in. My gut feeling was that it should have been cancelled, and I was surprised it wasn’t. The new tournament organizer has a few things to fix for next year and the one is checking the conditions of the lake to make the call to cancel. The other was the Calcutta side bet that included the big boat and small boat in one pool, a change from last year.
Shane Thombs
