There almost never seems to be any info out there talking specifically how the best walleye pros in the world get it done on game day.... 🤷‍♂️

Usually we’re lucky just to get one little line such as: So and so “won trolling crankbaits.” Or so and so “caught their fish on a jig.” Cool, thanks? I’ll have to try that 🥴 LOL.

So we decided to have Target Walleye friend Brett Carlson (thx man!) track down the ‘Full Scoop’ on how the top-finishing pros at the last National Walleye Tour event caught 'em better than the rest.

Off to Lake Sakakawea (Garrison, ND) we go!

When Duane 'Dewey' Hjelm won his first NWT event on Lake Sakakawea back in 2017, he was just a jackpotter, dabbling in pro-level events as they would visit his beloved Missouri River....

Much has changed in the past 7 years, including the advent of forward-facing sonar, but what hasn’t changed is Dewey’s domination. With 4 NWT victories to his name, 3 of them on one sprawling river system, Hjelm has rightfully earned the moniker Mr. Missouri River.

While Hjelm resides downstream in Pierre, SD, the fourth and final NWT qualifier of the season launched out of Garrison, ND. Leading up to the event, the dock talk centered around a shallow weed bite in the Van Hook Arm.

> “That’s how we started, and the weed bite was okay early in practice,” recalled Hjelm. “We were catching fish, but they were skinnier, and we noticed by looking on the banks that the water was falling. You could see the gap where the water was. That generally means the fish are pulling back out.”

Hjelm, along with teammates John Hoyer and Dusty Minke, began backing out and targeting smelt-relating fish on deeper breaklines.

> “I was fishing points and little cups that provided relief from the current. It wasn’t a small spot...it was two long shoreline stretches about a half mile. You could see bait, mostly smelt, sitting out in 50’, and the current would push the bait up to 30’ or 35’. That’s where the walleyes would get aggressive. The shallowest walleye I caught during the tournament was 20’ and that one was sort of a fluke.”

Instead of running the 50-60 miles to Van Hook, Hjelm stayed near Garrison, never venturing further than 10 miles from takeoff.

> “My starting spot was actually a nearby weed spot...I think it was milfoil. I never weighed a weed fish during the tournament though. These Missouri River walleyes move so much it’s rare that you can return to a waypoint. That’s why the long shoreline stretches worked so well. You just had to keep moving until they showed themselves on the graph.”

Hjelm’s winning program was a 1-2 punch of soft plastics and glide baits.

His plastic of choice was the new Rapala CrushCity Mooch Minnow (pearl white) rigged on a 3/8-oz VMC RedLine Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig with a 3/0 hook.

> “When they were staying still and positioned higher up in the water column, that’s where I’d throw the Mooch Minnow. If they were lower or moving, that’s when I’d throw the #7 Jigging Rap (chrome blue, bluegill, white glow colors).”

Hjelm won the 2023 NWT qualifier on Lake Francis Case, another Missouri River impoundment, on the #7 Jigging Rap. In both cases, he replaced the bottom hook with a #6 VMC Bladed Hybrid Treble.

> “I have so much confidence in that little, rotating willow blade. Once they were engaged on the bait, I was doing slower pops, lifts and holds. It was not the traditional snapping. I call it the fleeing baitfish cadence.”

At times, Hjelm would go 10 or even 15 minutes without making a single cast as he drove down the shoreline with his Garmin Force on high.

> “I had my LiveScope set at 120’, and my fish were coming at 60’ and under. The water was fairly clear in my area, like 6’ to 8’ clarity. Some fish would react as far as 15’ away from the bait. I would only cast at bigger marks. With this being a no-cull tournament, our benchmark was 5-lbers and bigger.”

While glide baits accounted for roughly half his fish, Hjelm felt the Mooch Minnow (which isn’t available to the public yet) was the ace up his sleeve.

> “The bite got tough when I was at the Governor’s Cup before this one. I had never seen the fish so picky, so I started experimenting with the Mooch Minnow. It was all about figuring out the little differences where you could get them to react to it. That new bait gave me an edge.”

On the VMC RedLine Series Tungsten Swimbait Jig and CrushCity Mooch Minnow, Hjelm ran the new 10-lb Sufix Revolve (neon lime) as his main line with a 10-lb Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon leader. Hjelm said the Revolve is a more finesse braid, which helps with castability.

On his Jigging Raps, Hjelm ran Sufix 832 Advanced Superline as his main line with a 12-lb Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon leader. Hjelm categorizes his 832 sizes by color. Neon lime represents 10-lb 832, and coastal camo is 15-lb test. He often switches between sizes as he believes each diameter gives the Jigging Rap different action.

Hjelm’s Jigging Rap rod was the new 6’ 10” medium light 13 Fishing Myth, which he helped design. With the Mooch Minnow, he used a 6’ 10” medium light 13 Fishing Muse. Both rods were paired with the 13 Fishing AXUM 2.0 spinning reel.

Over two tournament days, Hjelm weighed 10 walleyes that went 56 lbs 8 oz. On day 1, he was done fishing at 1:30pm, and on day 2 he boxed number 5 at 12:30. For his fourth NWT victory, the 2022 Angler of the Year earned a prize package valued at over $103K.

> “All the wins are special. I obviously love Sakakawea. On a bigger level, you realize these guys are getting better and better – they’re catching up and getting better with the technology. Every tournament is that much harder to win. And it’s so hard to do the right thing two days in a row in a no-cull tournament.”

Big congrats, man! 🙌

PA pro Dylan Nussbaum finished 2nd, exactly 2 lbs behind Hjelm. While he’s happy with his performance, he would love a day-2 do-over.

> “I caught a 4.3 early Friday and had a gut feeling that I should box it, so I did,” recalled Nussbaum. “The next cast I caught a 5-lber, and I kept that too.”

Soon after, bigger walleyes appeared on his screen, which Nussbaum quickly seized.

> “All my weigh fish came in about 20 minutes on the final day. That spot turned out to be a dream day, but I didn’t know it because the fish came in the wrong order. There were enough 6- to 7-lb walleyes in there to win it. It was a dream day, but it could have been even better. In these no-cull tournaments, it’s so tough determining how much to gamble. In hindsight, I just didn’t gamble enough in this one.”

While Hjelm stayed close, Nussbaum ran the 50+ miles to the western end of Van Hook. He never saw another boat during the tournament as most fished the Shell Island area.

> “I had some success there in 2020. I like that it has slow, tapering breaklines and not super steep walls. It has both shallow and deep water and almost operates like its own system. The more I fished in practice, the more I realized the walleyes were right on the edge of these longer stock, green weeds. It was only 4’ to 10’, and the walleyes were in there eating perch. From there it was all about reading my ActiveTarget. If I didn’t hit the fish right on the head, I would reel it in as fast as possible and cast again.”

Nussbaum used 1/4- and 3/8-oz VMC Neon Moon Eye jigs (bluegill, fathead colors) with a Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ (bad shad).

> “The 4” Jerk ShadZ is my go-to bait. As the tournament wore on, I downsized to the smaller jig and the 3.5” Jerk ShadZ. If the fish was following aggressively, then I’d be aggressive. If they came after it fast, I’d start jigging. If it was a slow reaction, then I’d finesse them. You had to read and respond to each individual fish on your graph.”

Nussbaum tied his jigs to 10-lb Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon, and his main line was Sufix 832 Advanced Superline (ghost). Nussbaum connected the two with a double-uni knot. His rod of choice was a medium-fast action 6’ 8” KastKing WideEye power jig. His spinning reel was a KastKing Skeet Reese Icon Series 2000.

> “That rod and reel setup is crucial for me. It’s balanced, and with a smooth line it allows me to hit my marks with precision.”

Nussbaum will head to Lake Huron sitting 2nd in the Angler of the Year race with 758 points, just 7 points behind Hunter Nitti.

Day-1 leader Justin Skipper slipped to 3rd after catching 24 lbs 3 oz Friday. His day-1 weight of 30-04 stands as the heaviest 5-fish stringer of the event. The Huron, SD pro finished with 10 walleyes weighing 54-07.

> “I’m no stranger to the Missouri River, I have that reservoir background, but this was my first time on Sakakawea,” said the 39-year-old Skipper. “I’ve always wanted to get up there. I signed up for the tournament knowing that once I put the money down, it would force me to go there and do it right.”

After 4 1/2 days of practice, Skipper found both the shallow weed bite and the deeper main river bite.

> “The difference was that we found bigger fish mixed in with the smelt on the main river.”

The owner of Prairieland Construction did his damage on Sakakawea’s southern end. He was running and gunning, not looking for specific structure or running waypoints, but simply looking for active walleyes.

> “We caught fish on sunken islands, small flats and points...I honestly wasn't keying on any particular structure. My goal was to hit a lot of spots and find active fish. The first tournament day we visited over 20 spots. We caught 22-24” fish everywhere, but there were a few key stretches that held bigger fish.”

Skipper caught his fourth and fifth fish Thursday around 11am. With 3 good ones in the boat, he kept number 5 even though it was barely over 4 lbs.

> “I was worried that the bigger ones were struggling in the livewell, and I did not want to incur any dead-fish penalties.”

Of his 10 weigh fish, Skipper caught 9 on the #9 Jigging Rap (blue chrome, green tiger UV). The outlier came from his co-angler, who used a jig and a creek chub.

> “I wasn't messing around with fish that weren’t active. The ones that would instantly react were the only ones I was focused on. If you got the perfect cast, they would start to come up right away. It was all about making the perfect cast and the initial lure drop. Then I’d give it a couple medium pops to get them to react. I’d describe it as moderately aggressive.

> “Last fall, I basically put my head down and forced myself to learn LiveScope. I just went all in on it. I brought that same mentality to the beginning of this season, and it’s really paid off.”

This was only Skipper’s third NWT event, and he’s proud of what he accomplished.

> “As a competitor there’s definitely things I would have done differently, but 3rd is a blessing, especially in a field like this. After that first day I had the mentality that I wanted to win. I kept that up until about 1pm Friday. I only had 2 fish in the boat, and I started casting at fish that I knew weren’t the caliber I needed to win. If anything, that’s where I feel like I went wrong. Later in the day I caught bigger ones and there were more on the screen that looked willing and active. In hindsight, I still had plenty of time left.”

The last time the NWT visited Sakakawea, Korey Sprengel took 11th place. This time, he took 4th with 53 lbs even. Like Skipper, his day-2 bag decreased slightly...from 27-15 to 25-01. Like Hjelm and Skipper, Sprengel mainly found smaller fish when he practiced up shallow.

> “We were out deeper fishing for suspended fish,” said the 2014 NWT Championship winner. “Regardless of how deep the water was, the fish were between 25’ and 40’ down. I was targeting steep breaklines that were creating current seams. The fish were then just swimming on the edge of the current. The smelt would get blown up shallower to 30’. We spent a lot of days out scanning around, but the pattern eventually worked.”

Sprengel also stayed close to Garrison, and while they never saw each other fishing, Sprengel and Hjelm crossed paths traversing.

> “I caught just about everything on a #9 Berkley Finisher (chrome color). The #9 is about the same size as the smelt that were down there. They were eating it so well the paint wore off on a few of my baits.”

> “I love that the Finisher has two treble hooks, so you land more fish, plus there’s no fin that can break. It looks different in the water too. It has the pull towards the front, so it glides really well. It worked best when I was reeling it with little pops. It walks the dog as you’re retrieving it. They will chase it all the way to the surface sometimes. If you snap and stall, you’d only get 1 out of 100 to bite instead of 1 out of 5.”

Sprengel did weigh 1 fish on a creek chub.

> “If I marked a big one that I wanted to stay on, like a fish that was chasing the Finisher but wouldn’t bite, then I’d throw out a creek chub on a jig as a follow up. That bite was dying as the week went on.”

The Beaver Dam, WI pro tied the Berkley Finisher to a 15-lb Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon leader with 10-lb Fireline (crystal) as his main line. His reel of choice was a size-30 Abu Garcia Revo Rocket.

Friendly reminder: The Revo Rocket is Sprengel's go-to for glide baits because it has a 7.6:1 gear ratio and brings in 43” of line per crank!

Sprengel also said his bite was best right away in the morning and then again in the afternoon.

> “Part of me wanted to swing harder, but I also didn’t want to bomb the tournament. For example, I only had two fish at 2pm on day 1, but they turned on again in the afternoon.”

I also want to give props to Sprengel on taking the time to make some kiddo's days. 👊 Super cool.

Larry Myhre’s August walleye tips.

Throwback write-up with some interesting snippets, excerpts below:

> Most of the time the fish are relating to weeds, particularly cabbage and coontail. I prefer to fish cabbage as it is much easier to move your presentation just outside of the weedline....

> I abandon the typical “Lindy” sinker when fishing weeds and instead use a cone-shaped [bassin’] sinker...slides through the weeds without fouling on them and can save you a lot of aggravation.

> During the heat of Aug, I tend to use nightcrawlers much more than leeches...crawlers beat leeches most days once the insect hatches start going off. If panfish are driving me crazy stealing crawlers, I’ll switch to leeches which are a lot tougher....

> Before snelling the hook, I slide on a 6mm bead...could be fluorescent orange, chartreuse, green or white. Some days one works better than the other – I’ve fished a lot of live-bait situations where the bead made a tremendous difference....

> I also carry fluorescent orange and chartreuse yarn, the same stuff steelhead anglers use. I usually divide it in half (because it’s pretty thick) and cut off a piece about 3″ long.

> Next I attach it to the snell right at the eye of the hook with a simple overhand knot...trim the ends down to about 1/4″ long. It provides a bigger target than a bead – acting almost like a spinner – but you can go a lot slower.

Dang, the creative juices are flowing! 👀🤯

> Pinch off the tail of your crawler, removing about 1/3 of its length. Not sure why – some think it puts more scent in the water – but it’ll definitely make a difference most days.

> If your hook is picking up moss or other gunk, go to a floating rig so the hook doesn’t drag over the bottom. Floating jigheads work well and add a dash of color ahead of the worm.

 Get to keep a nickel for every $100 you throw – if you’re lucky.

On to the next. ✌️

Heads up: There's a chance this is the only Target Walleye email this week. I'm heading up to Rainy Lake for a few days to shoot some fresh content for the Target Walleye YouTube channel. If that's the case...just wanted to say thanks SO much for taking time out of your day to read TW, and I hope you all have a great + safe weekend! 👊 See ya soon....

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