Al and tourney partner Ty Sjodin, who also works for Lindner Media, won this weekend’s Minnesota Teen Challenge Tournament on Gull Lake.
A cold front and high winds made fishing tough. Al and Ty only had three bites, but landed all three fish — all they needed in a three-fish limit. They weighed 10 lbs 14 oz.
Al said they caught most of their fish in newly developed weedbeds in 8 feet. The key was finding heavy concentrations of perch. The perch were so thick in some areas they would often snag them as they were snap jigging. (Pike were also feeding on the perch schools, which led to a lot of bite-offs.)
Naturally Al was all about artificials: 1/4-oz VMC Moon Eye Jigs with 4″ Big Bite Swimming Jerk Minnows. Color didn’t seem to make a difference.
Btw, records were broken at the event. New records: 125 teams, $270,000 raised for a great cause.
Bass pro confused.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Chris Zaldain posted this:
Sounds like he was confused AND grossed out (lol) by a sauger! Hahaha!
Chris’ saving grace: He’s a former hockey player.
Here’s some 30s!
Luke Schultz nailed this 30.5-incher on Hell Creek Bay, MT with a jig and minnow:
Alxis W. caught this 30 in Lake Michigan out of Pentwater:
Kevin from Quebec sweet-talked this 31-incher into the boat:
Is this the world’s oldest walleye?
Jason in MN posted a pic of this 32-incher:
When Al looked at it, he said the fish looked VERY old. What do you think?
News
1. MN: Winners of Toyota ALS Walleye Tournament.
Bryan Kershaw and Jeff Romosz beat 166 teams with six fish for 10.73 lbs.
2. KS: Championship winners get $30K!
Ed Klepacki of Wonder Lake, IL and Jim Miller won it with 10 fish for 43-09. It was a 3-day tournament so 15 fish could be weighed, but no teams did it.
> “We were fishing over in the catfish flats, fishing the old railroad bed. Pulling cranks in 8-9’…. Sometimes the fish would push shallow and we’d slide up in there and try and get one….”
3. Lund has new NWT bonus program.
> Lund Boats has announced bonus checks to the highest placing Lund anglers on the Cabela’s National Walleye Tour (NWT).
> At each of four NWT events, Lund will write a $1,000 check to the highest-placing Lund angler. Additionally, the second-highest-placing Lund finisher will cash in on an extra $750, while the third-placing Lund-runner will walk away with $500.
4. WI: Winnebago fishing great.
> I’ve fished Lake Winnebago regularly for going on three decades and I have never had better fishing than the last five years.
Remember you could get a ticket or jail time for taking a photo of a fish caught out of season. Now:
> “DEC does not ticket anglers for taking photographs of fish. However, DEC urges everyone – anglers, researchers and others – to respect DEC’s regulation that fish caught out of season and endangered or threatened species inadvertently caught be returned to the water immediately to protect New York’s natural resources.”
Great, but some of us find this a little disturbing:
> DEC fishery biologists note that delays in returning out-of-season fish could affect their survival.
Wouldn’t this affect ALL fish? And should we feel guilty now about taking fish pictures??
6. Keitech Swing Impact Fat swimbaits on sale…
…at Tackle Warehouse, some colors.
7. MN wants more men to wear PFDs.
> The agency’s statistics show that men between the ages of 20 and 60 are the least likely to wear a life jacket and most likely to die in a boating accident.
> In a five-year span, MN had 62 boating deaths. Out of those 62 deaths, only five were wearing life jackets.
…into Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame. Nina is Ranger Boats’ founder Forrest Wood’s better half!
> When Nina was 11, her family was coaxed from its farm through the force of eminent domain so the [Bull Shoals] dam could be built.
> Had it not been for the Bull Shoals Dam displacing her family, Nina never would have had to switch schools and might never have known Forrest. She and Forrest met when both were ninth-graders at Flippin [AR] High School….
Events
1. NY: Southtowns walleye derby June 6-14.
2. MN: NWT Leech Lake signup deadline June 9.
If you haven’t been in the boat with a pro, this is a great opportunity to do that and learn as a co-angler.
GREAT places to fish – check ’em out!
‘Eye Candy
It’s the gold brothers:
Kinda like these brothers:
Tip of the Day
> Keep your line as short and vertical as possible to maximize feel and control. Use short, gentle, up-down strokes of the rod tip to alternately lift the jig a few inches, then let it fall back on a semi-taut line until it touches bottom.
> Avoid slack on the drop, because that’s when walleyes usually strike. Watch for twitches in the line, or feel for minor changes by gripping the line with your index finger. Set the hook at the slightest suggestion that a fish may have touched the bait.
> Got all that? Good. Now forget it, at least for snap-jigging.
> Snap-jigging is…definitely against the walleye grain. It blends speed and erratic lure action to cover water and force fish to respond to your lure. Even walleyes.
> Snap-jigging was developed on large, windswept lakes in northern Minnesota, where walleyes routinely move onto shallow, 4- to 8-foot flats to feed amidst the turbulence generated by wind action.
> To locate pods of roaming, active fish, incorporate a quick forward boat motion, using either an electric motor on mid-range speed, or a small outboard at low throttle. Get your boat moving forward at several miles per hour to cover serious territory.
> Tie a jig on your spinning rod, using maybe 8-pound mono. You want a little stretch to absorb the coming shock. And rather than downsizing to a teeny 1/16- to 1/8-oz jig for shallow water, load up with a heavier 1/4-oz VMC Moon Eye Jig. Tip it with a small minnow for starters…[or] with a 3- to 4-inch softbait minnow imitation
> Cast your jig out behind the boat as far as you can, and then let a little more line slip off the spool before engaging the bail. Next, point your rod tip straight back toward the jig, and when the line tightens, quickly snap the rod forward until the rod tip is straight out to the side.
> Then immediately point the rod straight back at the jig, throwing slack into the line. This sends the jig from forward bullet mode into immediate free-fall, appearing suddenly helpless.
> How do you feel the strike? You don’t, most of the time. But the next time you sweep your rod tip forward…there’s something heavy on there. Fish on!
Quote of the Day
I can tell you I have not yet figured it out.
– Gretchen Hansen, the WI scientist responsible for figuring out why the state’s walleye populations have been in decline for the last 25 years. She was quoted because:
> Gov. Scott Walker has proposed cutting 18.4 research science positions in the agency’s Bureau of Science Services, potentially including Hansen and several others who study the state’s most popular sport fish.
> At the same time, the governor has proposed spending $2.6 million to continue stocking Wisconsin lakes with walleye over the next two years, part of the $10 million Wisconsin Walleye Initiative – a short-term boost to the population that researchers say is unlikely to solve the underlying problems with the species.
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