Dateline:Winneconne,WI. – April 2007
A long wait for my chance to live life as a professional fisherman was just minutes away. As I sat at Critter’s Bar and Grill in the quaint town ofWinneconne, WI, I looked around at the other 200+ anglers gathering for our pre-tournament meeting. To the left of me was Gary Roach, a.k.a. Mr. Walleye, to the right sat Gary Parsons, Hall of Fame angler. In the middle sat a big kid at Christmas time.
The thought of me possibly fishing with one of these legends was hard to comprehend. Yeah, I had fished a few tournaments before, and I know the adrenaline can get pumping pretty easily, but I was about to fish with the best walleye pros in the world. Granted I was fishing in the amateur side, but my bag weight was to be shared with a different pro each day.
After pre-tournament rules were announced, the pairings were revealed. I waited anxiously. Day one: Gary Boeshart, Day 2: Pat Neu. Day 3: Kevin Madigan. Great draw, I thought.
As I headed home, I received a call from Julie, the tournament director, to inform me a mistake had occurred. Was I being kicked out of the tournament? I was relieved when she informed me I had received the wrong pairings. Day 1 was now Dan Plautz, Day 2 Bob Probst Jr, and Day 3 Chase Parsons. I had landed a talented veteran of the tour, the number one rank in the world, and the tournament’s young gun.
I met with Dan Plautz at5 am. As we rode to the dock I asked what my role would be and what he expected out of me. “Catch fish” he said. I can do that, I thought. We prepped for what was going to be a cold day of fishing. A strong north wind was howling with temperatures in the mid 30’s. Dan decidedLake Winnebagowas going to be too rough and too stirred up to be productive. We were heading up theWolfRiverto work some jigs nearFremont,WI.
I was not ready for the speed at which we were about to travel. It had been a while since I had lived on the edge. I enjoyed every minute of it which may have been because my brain had frozen from the cold. Fremontproved to be slow, partly because some of the key spots were already occupied by other tournament anglers who had launched before us. We headed back toward the original launch point toLakeWinneconnewhere we trolled.
Trolling proved to be successful almost immediately as we collected four “weigh fish” within the first hour. Throughout the rest of day we sorted the walleye, pike, white bass, white perch, and other fish to finally get to our 10 walleye limit. We had a nice bag, but nothing special. Just over 11 pounds at weigh in was enough to place me in 11th place overall after the first day. How easy was that, I asked myself?
The weather on day two made day one look like summer. The wind was still whipping, temps were in the upper twenties with sleet/ice pellets falling from the sky. Bob Probst Jr. had made the decision to “take a boat ride.” The day one leaders were focused in two general areas:LakeWinneconneusing trolling techniques andFremontwith vertical jig presentations. As we “blasted off” from the launch, Bob told me we were going to take a gamble on a spot about an hour and half away (one way), where he had good luck pre-fishing. The ice pellets continued to bang off the sunglasses (see the oxy-moron there?) as we made our way up the river at 60-70 mph.
We set up with our jig poles and waited for a monster female walleye to bite our hook. And we waited, and we waited, and finally one small male eye hit the jig, which was too small to weigh in. The fish had moved down river, and this proved to be a costly gamble. We headed back toFremontto join the crowd. I picked up 15-20 small catfish and 1-2 small walleyes before we headed toLakePoyganto troll. It was now almost2 o’clockand we had no fish in the live well. As a co-angler we are to abide by a policy of not sharing information with our pro. So, the information I knew about the system and the patterns which were used the day before could not be revealed.
Finally, we started to pick up fish in the last hour of the day. We had four small walleye in the 15-17” range. The rest of the field had a huge day, and fish counts and weights were impressive. I fell to 33rd place, three spots out of the money. Finishing one spot out of the money has exactly the same payout as last place.
Day Three: Chase Parson and I were the first boat out of the launch. We headed to the area where I had done well on day one. We set up trolling immediately, but on the way one of the Berkley Frenzy’s had hooked into my Gortex pants. We set up 5 rods and then had to cut the lure out of my pants. Chase had to change hooks on the lure and threw the other damaged hook in his box (with a chunk of my pants on it). I politely asked him if he wanted me to autograph it for him? Laughter broke out in the boat, and I knew we were in for a great day of fishing.
The weather was miserable in the morning, and no one was producing fish. At most, one boat had two fish atnoon. Side note: Many pros work in teams. Although they can not use phones or radios to talk, it is common to flash fish counts back and forth with their hands. At1:30we had no fish in the box, but the weather started to break and the sun came out. The fish turned on immediately. At first the northern pike, then the walleye. We picked up one keeper eye, before we had to head in for final weigh in. My dreams of placing in the money had died. The later flights had taken advantage of the weather change and came in with nice numbers.
This was an experience of a lifetime. It is hard to imagine an average fisherman could spend a week in this environment having his skills perfected by hall of fame anglers, which count on you to earn their living. Learning was a big part of this experience, and has helped me in preparation for other tournaments. Each pro had their strength, so each day was a different experience. TV interviews, autographs, and lots of watchful eyes are all part of the ambiance.
If you are considering pursuing this type of event, I highly encourage it. PWT is a first class organization. You’ll probably see me out there again in 2008.
Mark Schram
Myfishingpartner.com
