Post by MadWags on Apr 26, 2004 5:38:19 GMT -5
RCL Detroit River
Pre-fishing Day One.
The Thursday prior to the tournament had me on the water at 1pm.
I wasn’t able to get out early since I had some business meetings in the morning. On the trip down I stopped at the local bait shop for a fishing report. He told me several 10+ pound fish were caught in front of the power plant. I asked for 4 dozen minnows and he must have given me 7 dozen. Nice guy. I put in at Elizabeth Park and proceeded south to the Trenton Channel just below the power plant. This is where the tournament was won last year and where weeks prior the fishing has been hot.
Several techniques work in this area including 3/8oz to 3/4oz jigs with live minnows and or plastics including the infamous 4” brown worm and grub or minnow bodies in a variety of colors. Other techniques include trolling cranks and hand lining. I am not set up to hand line but I like using cranks to try and cover ground to locate fish.
Hot and Tots and #5 or #7 Shad Raps with no weight work well in 6ft to 8ft of water along with #9 to #13 Rapala Minnows on three way rigs for the deeper areas of the channel.
My first idea was to jig down the channel with the current, a practice widely used in this area, and to troll cranks back up to begin another drift.
You have to be aware of your surroundings and pay close attention to where other anglers are catching fish as it relates to depth. These fish move shallow or deep depending on the weather conditions.
Walleyes tend to turn on and bite good for an hour or so and then become hit and miss thru-out the rest of the day. The best bites tend to be at night.
After about 5 hours of fishing I was able to place some waypoints on my GPS where I had made contact with fish. The target depth for me was going to be in the 6ft to 13ft range. I caught two fish on the 3/8oz glow head jig with a 4” green pumpkin worm and one fish on a chrome crank bait with a blue back and red reflective bill. The largest fish was only 6lbs but it was beginning to look promising. This was not going to get me a big sack but I had not fished in the morning.
I wanted to get an early start on Friday to check the morning bite, so I would stay the night at my sisters house on Grosse Isle (the island) and get out at tournament take off time around 7am.
Pre-fishing Day Two.
The Friday prior to the tournament had me on the water at 7am as planned.
In retrospect this is where things started to go wrong for me but I did not adjust properly. I call it fishing memories. More on this later.
My goal was to repeat the pattern I had established the day before per my waypoints and hopefully capitalize on what I thought would be a good morning bite. Several things caught my eye. High pressure had moved in following the front the night before and the water was beginning to cloud up from the wind.
After several hours of fishing without a bite I decided to explore the east side of the channel in the same depth range. I was rewarded with one small male approximately 17” long and one female that weighed around 5lbs.
Things were changing in front of my eyes and I needed to make some adjustments if I was going to do any good. I headed north on the river and checked a number of key areas without success.
The golf course area did not produce a bite after an hour. The BASF plant had some boats on it and I made several jigging drifts without success. I moved up to the Steel Mill where weeks prior I had caught several large walleye and spent a good two hours working the area in 10ft to 20 ft of water and several passes in 30 ft to 40 ft range. I traveled a short distance south to the Shore Club and worked the 30ft depths from there south to the Wyandotte Boat Ramp all without success. I would learn after the tournament that my timing was off.
I decided to head back south to the Trenton Channel where I was at least catching some fish and start trolling a vast area looking for fish all over again. Upon my arrival I noticed a local trolling out of the power plant and connecting with a nice fish. I decided to give it a go but had no luck.
The pre tournament meeting was approaching and I would soon be running out of time. Trolling below the plant in 10ft of water I connected with a nice 7lb fish and placed a waypoint on my GPS.
I was done pre-fishing.
I went to the pre tournament meeting at Carlson High School to register, get my tournament instructions, rules and get paired with my partner. Canadian waters and Lake Erie and St. Clair waters would be off limits. I assumed this to start so I did not fish these areas (Michigan waters of Lake Erie is closed to walleye fishing at the time of the Tournament). The check in and meeting went smoothly and was professionally run by Mark Dorn, FLW Outdoors director of Walleye operations. The whole meeting took only an hour and I was on my way paired with a angler from New Baltimore who had little or no experience jigging but turned out to be a quick study and a really nice guy. He also would become the man of the hour.
At take-off we would be boat number 42.
Tournament Day
The day would be clear and sunny with highs in the upper 50s according to the weather service. At take-off many of the boats were heading north and this really peaked my interest but I had not caught one fish up that way and I needed to stick to my game plan and fish where I had connected in pre-fishing. Our boat number was called and we were off to hopefully grind out a limit of fish. A very short ride south and we were fishing. I started right off by jigging down my waypoint markings on the GPS. Looking at the water made me get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The clarity had deteriorated further from the previous day and we were looking very cloudy/muddy conditions.
Local fishermen were already on the water and fishing in the location of my drift. At the waypoint marks furthest south we saw a nice 7lb+ walleye boated and a smaller fish in the 3lb class. This would turn out to be two of three walleye I saw caught that day.
By noon without a walleye in the boat and after trying every color combination of jig I had, it was going to be time for a change. We headed north to the steel mill past Wyandotte to find the rest of the field on the north end fishing in 38ft to 42ft of water. We worked this area for at least an hour without any luck and without seeing any other anglers boating fish.
I was starting to look at getting skunked in this tournament. This would be a great disappointment after finding some fish in pre-fishing and doing so well in these waters weeks prior. Out of the entire 2004 tournament trail, these were the only waters I have actually fished (home waters) and I really believe I needed to catch SOME fish to have a shot at qualifying for the championship. A zero would be hard to recover from.
I made the decision to go back to the Trenton Channel and live or die by my original game plan. With time running out and the water being so muddy we went with Chartreuse Colored crank baits so that we could cover water and hopefully get a reaction bite. We had two hours to catch a fish. In the next hour we boated several bass, the largest being a 5lb smallie. Hey that fish would work on the other side of this equation, but not today. A large carp and a drum also decided to give our bait’s a go. I made the comment that at least we were catching fish and if they were eating so must be the walleye.
With one hour to go in the tournament my co-angler hooked and I netted a 2lb 7oz walleye. That was the third and final walleye we saw caught all day. Now this does not seem like much but that one fish may turn out to be the biggest walleye of the year. That fish was the difference between 136 points out of a possible 200 and a BIG FAT ZERO.
I made the comment on stage, at the weigh-in, that I have never been so happy to see one little walleye in my whole life.
In retrospect. (2020 hindsight)
The bite occurred early in the morning at the steel mill in the deep water.
I completely missed it. Big fish were caught but it took less than 30lbs to win.
I think 10 anglers zeroed out and one angler with a limit was disqualified for leaving sight of his partner.
I was very disappointed for not doing better in this tournament but I have to put that behind me now because I did get enough points to still make a run at my goal. You see a lot of these anglers will only fish this one tournament. Some being locals giving it a go and some being RCL Tour Pros and they will not be fishing the entire league circuit. If I catch fish in the next tournament on Houghton Lake I will move up in the points considerably.
I was not able to adjust to changing conditions on the river, but hopefully I can adjust to recover from this setback in my quest.
Next Tournament Houghton Lake June 5th.
Pre-fishing Day One.
The Thursday prior to the tournament had me on the water at 1pm.
I wasn’t able to get out early since I had some business meetings in the morning. On the trip down I stopped at the local bait shop for a fishing report. He told me several 10+ pound fish were caught in front of the power plant. I asked for 4 dozen minnows and he must have given me 7 dozen. Nice guy. I put in at Elizabeth Park and proceeded south to the Trenton Channel just below the power plant. This is where the tournament was won last year and where weeks prior the fishing has been hot.
Several techniques work in this area including 3/8oz to 3/4oz jigs with live minnows and or plastics including the infamous 4” brown worm and grub or minnow bodies in a variety of colors. Other techniques include trolling cranks and hand lining. I am not set up to hand line but I like using cranks to try and cover ground to locate fish.
Hot and Tots and #5 or #7 Shad Raps with no weight work well in 6ft to 8ft of water along with #9 to #13 Rapala Minnows on three way rigs for the deeper areas of the channel.
My first idea was to jig down the channel with the current, a practice widely used in this area, and to troll cranks back up to begin another drift.
You have to be aware of your surroundings and pay close attention to where other anglers are catching fish as it relates to depth. These fish move shallow or deep depending on the weather conditions.
Walleyes tend to turn on and bite good for an hour or so and then become hit and miss thru-out the rest of the day. The best bites tend to be at night.
After about 5 hours of fishing I was able to place some waypoints on my GPS where I had made contact with fish. The target depth for me was going to be in the 6ft to 13ft range. I caught two fish on the 3/8oz glow head jig with a 4” green pumpkin worm and one fish on a chrome crank bait with a blue back and red reflective bill. The largest fish was only 6lbs but it was beginning to look promising. This was not going to get me a big sack but I had not fished in the morning.
I wanted to get an early start on Friday to check the morning bite, so I would stay the night at my sisters house on Grosse Isle (the island) and get out at tournament take off time around 7am.
Pre-fishing Day Two.
The Friday prior to the tournament had me on the water at 7am as planned.
In retrospect this is where things started to go wrong for me but I did not adjust properly. I call it fishing memories. More on this later.
My goal was to repeat the pattern I had established the day before per my waypoints and hopefully capitalize on what I thought would be a good morning bite. Several things caught my eye. High pressure had moved in following the front the night before and the water was beginning to cloud up from the wind.
After several hours of fishing without a bite I decided to explore the east side of the channel in the same depth range. I was rewarded with one small male approximately 17” long and one female that weighed around 5lbs.
Things were changing in front of my eyes and I needed to make some adjustments if I was going to do any good. I headed north on the river and checked a number of key areas without success.
The golf course area did not produce a bite after an hour. The BASF plant had some boats on it and I made several jigging drifts without success. I moved up to the Steel Mill where weeks prior I had caught several large walleye and spent a good two hours working the area in 10ft to 20 ft of water and several passes in 30 ft to 40 ft range. I traveled a short distance south to the Shore Club and worked the 30ft depths from there south to the Wyandotte Boat Ramp all without success. I would learn after the tournament that my timing was off.
I decided to head back south to the Trenton Channel where I was at least catching some fish and start trolling a vast area looking for fish all over again. Upon my arrival I noticed a local trolling out of the power plant and connecting with a nice fish. I decided to give it a go but had no luck.
The pre tournament meeting was approaching and I would soon be running out of time. Trolling below the plant in 10ft of water I connected with a nice 7lb fish and placed a waypoint on my GPS.
I was done pre-fishing.
I went to the pre tournament meeting at Carlson High School to register, get my tournament instructions, rules and get paired with my partner. Canadian waters and Lake Erie and St. Clair waters would be off limits. I assumed this to start so I did not fish these areas (Michigan waters of Lake Erie is closed to walleye fishing at the time of the Tournament). The check in and meeting went smoothly and was professionally run by Mark Dorn, FLW Outdoors director of Walleye operations. The whole meeting took only an hour and I was on my way paired with a angler from New Baltimore who had little or no experience jigging but turned out to be a quick study and a really nice guy. He also would become the man of the hour.
At take-off we would be boat number 42.
Tournament Day
The day would be clear and sunny with highs in the upper 50s according to the weather service. At take-off many of the boats were heading north and this really peaked my interest but I had not caught one fish up that way and I needed to stick to my game plan and fish where I had connected in pre-fishing. Our boat number was called and we were off to hopefully grind out a limit of fish. A very short ride south and we were fishing. I started right off by jigging down my waypoint markings on the GPS. Looking at the water made me get a sinking feeling in my stomach. The clarity had deteriorated further from the previous day and we were looking very cloudy/muddy conditions.
Local fishermen were already on the water and fishing in the location of my drift. At the waypoint marks furthest south we saw a nice 7lb+ walleye boated and a smaller fish in the 3lb class. This would turn out to be two of three walleye I saw caught that day.
By noon without a walleye in the boat and after trying every color combination of jig I had, it was going to be time for a change. We headed north to the steel mill past Wyandotte to find the rest of the field on the north end fishing in 38ft to 42ft of water. We worked this area for at least an hour without any luck and without seeing any other anglers boating fish.
I was starting to look at getting skunked in this tournament. This would be a great disappointment after finding some fish in pre-fishing and doing so well in these waters weeks prior. Out of the entire 2004 tournament trail, these were the only waters I have actually fished (home waters) and I really believe I needed to catch SOME fish to have a shot at qualifying for the championship. A zero would be hard to recover from.
I made the decision to go back to the Trenton Channel and live or die by my original game plan. With time running out and the water being so muddy we went with Chartreuse Colored crank baits so that we could cover water and hopefully get a reaction bite. We had two hours to catch a fish. In the next hour we boated several bass, the largest being a 5lb smallie. Hey that fish would work on the other side of this equation, but not today. A large carp and a drum also decided to give our bait’s a go. I made the comment that at least we were catching fish and if they were eating so must be the walleye.
With one hour to go in the tournament my co-angler hooked and I netted a 2lb 7oz walleye. That was the third and final walleye we saw caught all day. Now this does not seem like much but that one fish may turn out to be the biggest walleye of the year. That fish was the difference between 136 points out of a possible 200 and a BIG FAT ZERO.
I made the comment on stage, at the weigh-in, that I have never been so happy to see one little walleye in my whole life.
In retrospect. (2020 hindsight)
The bite occurred early in the morning at the steel mill in the deep water.
I completely missed it. Big fish were caught but it took less than 30lbs to win.
I think 10 anglers zeroed out and one angler with a limit was disqualified for leaving sight of his partner.
I was very disappointed for not doing better in this tournament but I have to put that behind me now because I did get enough points to still make a run at my goal. You see a lot of these anglers will only fish this one tournament. Some being locals giving it a go and some being RCL Tour Pros and they will not be fishing the entire league circuit. If I catch fish in the next tournament on Houghton Lake I will move up in the points considerably.
I was not able to adjust to changing conditions on the river, but hopefully I can adjust to recover from this setback in my quest.
Next Tournament Houghton Lake June 5th.
