Heads up: This will be the only Target Walleye email this week. I’m kicking it out from the spotty hotel WiFi down at ICAST (the fishing biz trade show) in Orlando, FL. We’re here getting a first look at all the new products coming down the pipeline for next szn. 👊 Will of course have some special new product issues coming your way with stuff that catches my eye. Speaking of which...

Gonna try to scope as much of the show floor as possible this year – it’s big and BUSY! And the folks who are releasing my favorite new products (schtuff that looks legit, solves a problem, or maybe I just can’t wait to fish it) are gonna go home with a custom Target Walleye “Fish-Head Approved” coin:

Now let's get into today’s shenanigans....

Here’s the ‘Full Scoop’ on how the top-finishing pros at the last National Walleye Tour event on Lake Huron (out of Alpena, MI) caught 'em better than the rest. 🎯 Little details and specifics you won’t find anywhere else – big thx to our friend Brett Carlson for helping to track 'em down. Now, here we go!

The Great Lakes are fabled for both big walleyes and big waves. But history would suggest that Great Lakes tournaments are also known for long, treacherous runs. Sometimes these incredible journeys prove too risky as the sheer distance and Mother Nature’s whims combine to whittle away at an angler’s actual fishing time. Other times the gambles pay off in impressive fashion. For Isaac Lakich, his 95-mile Lake Huron gamble to the “Soo” paid off in the biggest way possible.

Lakich, the 29-yr-old Warrior Boats pro, didn’t necessarily plan on making a mega run when he arrived in Alpena, MI for the third National Walleye Tour event of the season. But as his practice continued, he observed the conditions nearby deteriorating.

> “The water clarity in Alpena is just unbelievable,” explained Lakich. “When you’re dealing with ultra clear water, you’re dealing with spooky fish. Then we prefish it for a week, and many of the guys are still on the learning curve aspect of LiveScope, and they just pressure the fish. I came here with the intention of finding certain conditions, and I simply had to run to find what I was looking for.”

After poking around the Drummond Island area, Lakich found a spot with a better concentration of big fish that no one was pestering. It also had 15’ of visibility compared with almost 30’ in Alpena.

> “I would describe it as jumbled rubble with some scattered bigger boulders. It was adjacent to the softer basin where the mayflies were hatching, not too far from the Canadian line. It wasn’t like there were that many fish there, but it was more than anywhere else I had seen. The bottom line was that the average size was just better. The groups of fish were 5- and 6-lbers. There was no doubt in my mind that if I could get five, I’d have 25 to 30 lbs.”

On day 1, that’s exactly what happened as Lakich converted his 5 “no-doubt” bites into his only 5 keepers, which weighed 29 lbs.

> “It was about 2 hours and 15 minutes of runtime. I was fishing by 9:20.”

Lakich would stop at Presque Isle, roughly 1/4 of the way through his journey, to get gas. 

> “On day 1 I gave myself 3 hours to get back. The bite was slow at first...we didn’t have a single fish in the first hour. Then we caught two pretty quick. I had 8 bites total, but 3 of them were just bumps. I hooked up on all 5 of my actual bites, and then the run back was easy. We could take great care of the fish with extra water and G-Juice.”

Once again, the long run north on day 2 was remarkably tranquil. The walleye fishing, however, was not.

> “I had 3 or 4 fish in the first hour,” recalled the renowned Green Bay guide. “Then it never really slowed down. We would get one every 15 minutes or so. At the start of the day, I told myself I was leaving with three hours to spare. My hard end time was 12:30. On my scale, I had the same poundage as day 1 at 11 am.”

While the weather was calm near Drummond, the wind and waves were building back in Alpena. As he continued catching fish, Lakich wisely continued moving up his departure time.

> “Then I caught a 7-lber, which culled out a 4. Then I caught another 7 and a 6 right around 11:45, and my scale said 30 lbs. At that point, I knew it was going to be tough to beat, so I decided it was time to get out of there.”

The first half of the trek back was fine, but then Huron got sporty. 

> “The second half of the run was brutal. I was really getting concerned during the last third. When the Great Lakes get nasty, you have to run shallow. Even in shallow, there were 2- and 3-footers. There were 4’s out in the 20-feet zone. There were 5’s out deeper. It was nasty, and I was going 120 miles between fuel stops. I had to run at 45 mph to be more fuel efficient. Plus, when you’re running shallow, you’re always paranoid about hitting a big boulder.”

Windshield? Isaac Lakich don’t need no stinkin’ windshield LOL. He runs Warrior’s big-boy V2090 tiller. 😮‍💨

Lakich made it back with time to spare and with 31 lbs 11 oz. His 2-day total weight was 60 lbs 11 oz, giving him a winning margin of over 8 lbs.

His program consisted of pitching glide baits and casting jigs and crawlers. For the glide baits, he stuck with a #6 (2.5”, 30-gram) Acme Hyper Rattle and a #7 Rapala Jigging Rap. Occasionally, he’d mix in a Bink’s Pro Series Spoon....

> “I was using chrome-based colors when the sun was out. It was white-based when it was cloudy. Most of my fish in the tournament came on jigs and crawlers. I leaned on that heavier because I was worried about hook-up-to-land ratios with the glide baits, especially with shortened time. With the jig and crawler, if you get a bite, you typically get the fish.”

Lakich’s jig of choice was the 3/8-oz Do-it Molds Freestyle (pours 'em himself) with a full crawler.

> “I would throw the glide baits when I was looking into the wind. If they were way out, like 120’ away and into the wind, I would use the glide bait. If I could get closer, then I would usually use the crawler.”

“Closer” in this context meant 80-100’ away. Lakich said that he’d whip the crawler off the jig on 1 out of every 4 casts.

> “I caught fish everywhere from 8’ to 30’ of water. They were so scattered...there was no specific zone. I caught fish halfway down, and I caught fish that I could barely see down in the boulders. Typically if they were high I would throw the crawler more at them. If they were lower, I would throw more of the glide baits.” 

An ace with his Garmin LiveScope LVS34, Lakich would read each fish’s behavior before determining his cadence.

> “We caught fish swimming the crawler, which is typical, but we also caught fish with the crawler on the bottom. That was the unique thing about this event. I almost exclusively keep crawlers up. There were times where they were very willing to eat the crawler off the bottom. It’s one of the first times I’ve seen them have a preference for that.”

For line, Lakich ran 20-lb Sufix 832 braid in low-vis green. His clear, fluorocarbon leaders were 25 feet of 8-lb Sunline FC Sniper.

> “I usually run 10- to 15-lb leaders with the glide baits, but the water was so clear. I was trying to maximize every possible bite. I’d rather run 8-lb and get the bite than the normal, heavier line and risk not getting bit.”

His jig rod was a 7’ 8” Mags medium light with extra-fast action. His glide bait rod was a 7’ 2” Mags medium with extra-fast action. He used 3000 spinning reels across the board.

While Lakich won the AIM National Championship Shootout earlier this year with Tristan Beckwith, this was his first NWT victory.

> “I think this win is the sweetest because I’ve been chasing it the longest. It’s the most money I’ve won, but it’s also the most rewarding because of how many times I’ve been close. I’ve taken 2nd to Korey (Sprengel), Max (Wilson), and John (Hoyer). I’ve always gotten beat by the best anglers. It feels good to close one out and do it by some gap.”

HUGE congrats, man!

After a 24-hour drive from Montana, Gage Gordon knew he didn’t want to make any more giant runs. The furthest he ventured by boat was to the Rogers City area, where he tapped into some big fish, but they relocated.

> “I focused my prefish fairly close,” said the 28-yr-old. “I spent the last two days really trying to dial in the bay. After practice, I knew a decent limit was doable.”

The face you make knowing you do NOT have to run 95 miles to catch ‘em hahaha:

When the tournament commenced, Gordon ran only a mile and a half run towards some rockpiles.

> “Even before I hit the rockpiles, I saw a good one. The first fish I casted at was a 5.5-lber and it bit right away. Boats were still flying out of takeoff when I netted it.”

Gordon continued to circle around the area, slowly moving towards the mud where the bugs were hatching.

> “I had a limit by 9 am, but I still had a 3-lber I needed to replace. I made a couple mile run to some other humps. I searched and searched for hours. Finally, I found one big, gleaming mark sitting in 32’ on top of a hump. I fired out a 3/4-oz Death Jig and pulled it right over her head. She followed it for 5’ or 10’ and then gobbled it up.”

That 7-lber anchored his 27-13, but he wasn’t done. Late in the day, his co-angler, Brian Kujawa, caught one just under 7 lbs, which kicked out a 3-10.

> “We were happy, but the game plan for day 2 wasn’t solidified because the fish were moving around a lot. We started off in the same rockpile area, but it was slow, so we kept going further out.”

By 8:30, Gordon had 2 fish for roughly 6 lbs. He continued drifting away from the rock and towards the basin. 

> “There weren’t a lot of fish, but the ones that I did find wanted to eat a lot better than the others. I’m not sure if it was a bite window or if these were just less pressured fish.”

At 9:30, they boxed a 6-3. By 11 am, they had over 23 lbs in the livewell.

> “After my practice, I wanted to get 50 pounds total, so I was feeling really good at that point. I reached my goal and anything else was a bonus. We kept expanding with each 1-mile drift. The fish weren’t suspending as much in the mud. For the next two hours, we hit a lull. Our last fish came at 1 pm, and it was close to a full pound upgrade.”

Gordon used three crawler-based presentations: The 3/4-oz Walleye Nation Creations Death Jig, a 5/8-oz Kalin’s Google Eye Search Bait and a 3/8-oz Northland Deep-Vee Jig. His best color was metallic gold, and he used a full crawler.

> “I think using that full crawler was the key – the big, long tail. I would periodically switch between them. The first day I caught them on all three, but on the second it was almost all on the Search Bait. I caught just one on the Deep Vee...."

When he was in the mud, he was targeting 21-23’ of water.

> “I would get them 80’ or 90’ out. That was as far as I could cast. I would engage the fish at 80’ or 90’ to give them time to bite. They never wanted to eat it up. After engaging them, I would hold the rod and let it pendulum back down, just holding it right in front of their face, not popping it or anything. A lot of my bites came 40’ or 50’ away.” 

Gordon used 10-lb Sufix Revolve (hi-vis) as his main line with an 8-ft, 10-lb Sufix fluorocarbon leader. His main rod was the 6’ 10” Trika 10X, which has medium-light power and extra-fast action. On the bigger Death Jigs, he’d use the 7’ medium power rod with fast action. His reel of choice was the Shimano Vanford 2500.

> “They were not aggressive bites. Most of the time they were pulling on the end of the crawler...had to feel the dead weight, then set the hook.”

Like Lakich, this was Gordon's best finish of his young NWT career. His 10 walleyes officially weighed 52 lbs 9 oz.

> “I’ve been working at this for some time...always thought I could do more. It feels really good to finally put 2 days together. I wouldn't have guessed going into the tournament that I had the program to take 2nd.” 

In 2020, local stick Peter Schaefer won the NWT out of Sault Ste. Marie by making an 86-mile run south towards Alpena. There he would troll crankbaits with snap weights over large boulders. This time around, Schaefer didn’t have to run quite as far, and he had no use for the crankbaits or snap weights.

> “This year I ran 40 to 50 miles north to the Rogers City area,” said the 39-yr-old from Linwood, MI.

Like many others, Schaefer has transformed his methodology with the launch of forward-facing sonar.

> “I bought LiveScope after I won that event. I fully committed to it 3 years ago, and I haven’t trolled since. It’s crazy what you can learn.”

This week Schaefer had three presentations ready: A #9 Berkley Finisher, a #7 Rapala Jigging Rap, and a 3/8-oz Queen Tackle LS Tungsten Jighead and crawler. For the hard baits, blue and silver was his best color combination. He fished 17’ to 30’ and presented his baits 80’ to 100’ from the boat. 

> “Of the 10 I weighed, 6 came on the jig and crawler, and four came on the Finisher. The fish were pretty lethargic overall. I think I caught 10 the first day and 12 the second. On the higher, suspended fish I would drop the Finisher. If it was closer to the bottom, I used a jig and crawler. There were many times where I would give the Finisher a 12” pop 3’ above their head. If they didn’t commit to it, then I’d follow up with the worm.”

Early on day 2, Schaefer was fishing near his friend and fellow Michigander Jason Trapp.

> “I see one about 6’ down in 27’ of water. I dropped the Finisher on it, and she just T-boned it. It was an insane bite, and it was touching 8 lbs.”

Schaefer finished the day with a 28-lb 5-oz limit and a 2-day total of 51 lbs 14 ozs.

His rods of choice were 7’ 6” Denali Myriads with medium power and fast action. For reels, he used Pflueger Patriarch 25s. For line, he ran 12-lb Sunline Xplasma Asegai braid in light green with a 12-lb Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon leader.

> “I would say the key for me was finding out where the quality bites were. The water clarity concentrated the bigger fish.”

The anticipation.... 🤞 Fire NWT shot:

Thanks SO much for reading! Back atcha soon....

National Professional Anglers Assoc.

MN-FISH

Target Walleye LLC

422 Laurel Street

P.O. BOX 541

Brainerd, MN 56401

 (218) 824 5026