Mercury National Walleye Tournament Preview (Walleye Weekend)

by Mark Schram of myfishingpartner.com

The Mercury National Walleye Tournament (Walleye Weekend) is occurring June 7^th and 8^th in Fond du Lac, WI, and participants of the tournament have had varied results in the days leading up to the event trying to find the prized walleyes.

Lake Winnebago is in good shape with fairly clear water, but is about 2 weeks behind normal seasonal fishing trends due to the lengthy winter.

The weed beds have not emerged to any large degree in 2014 on Lake Winnebago, leaving many anglers scratching their head as to the locations of many of the larger walleyes.  In addition, heavy rains last weekend have made the Fox River difficult to fish due to the dirty water and heavy current.  The Fox River is a traditional location of some of the larger bags brought into the scales.

Lake Poygan and Lake Winneconne, which are included in Walleye Weekend’s boundaries, are a huge gamble due to the numerous “no wake zones” which hinder the ability to get there and back in a timely manner.

So as many tournament anglers scramble to come up with a strategy, the deep water regions of the main lake is where you will find many of the participants.  The pre fish has shown transient walleyes, which never seem to be in the same place for more than a few hours.

Predictions:

It is expected that the winning weight for the event will exceed the 40 pound mark.  Last year’s mark of over 49 pounds could be challenged, but is unlikely to be eclipsed.

In 2013, 1602 walleyes were caught, and this year’s number should be close to that number, based on a similar number of teams.  The biggest difference will be the size of those fish, with the expectation that there will be a decline in the size of the fish.  Several of the largest year classes of walleyes have matured past the 15 inch size, and with a soft bite, many of the smaller fish are expected to be weighed in 2014.

With the near normal temperatures expected, live release rates of the walleyes caught should be very high.  Weigh in starts at 2:30 on Saturday at the Lighthouse in Fond du Lac’s Lakeside Park.