Texas Walleye Association Stop 3 Lake Meredith, TX
Kevin Audrain (Texeye) and Brian Stangel (MexicoNM)

From Kevin:

With Jeff Alexander doing such a good job of running the Texas Walleye Association this year, it has left Kalin and myself with a little more time to concentrate on fishing. This is the first year we were able to pre-fish before our tourneys and it has made it more enjoyable. It isn't that you always find fish pre-fishing, sometimes it tells you where not to try during a tournament.

Anyway, all that aside, I pre-fished Friday from 11:00 am to 3pm.The wind had been howling for two days and the lake was pretty murky. Friday was beautiful with a slight breeze out of the south. I started at the dam and went up one side of the lake to the end and down the other. Hitting mostly rock piles and points, I would kill the engine and glide over the point looking for hooks on the graph, either touching the ledges or holding just off in deeper water. If I saw a couple hooks I would stop and fish otherwise I kept moving. Decided to use jigs and minnows but threw in some worms just in case, and I am glad I did. Most of the fish seemed to like the jig and worm better than the jig and minnow. Since the water was murky I went with the darker jigs and yellow with a little red seemed to be the ticket so I stayed with it the whole time. I found walleye about everywhere I stopped but only caught one over 18" during this time.

The day of the tourney came and the weather report said wind out of the southwest at 15 to 25 mph. NOT. We awoke to a cold east wind. I knew it was not going to be a good fishing day. Still thought it would warm to the 80-degree mark so I put on my shorts and a couple shirts. Don't think I was ever colder. Thought I was crazy for wearing what I wore, but Kalin had me beat. We pulled up to the dock in front of a bunch of bass anglers fixing to head out and they all were staring at Kalin's shoes. Apparently he keeps his golf shoes and tennis shoes close together because he had on one of each kind! I bet they were thinking...these are walleye fishermen?

We finally got started and headed out at seven. We went to an island that I had not even pre-fished. I had seen some fishermen the day before catch some ‘eyes there and at one other place, but the Murphy brothers had it covered. We threw some jigs and rogues up shallow without any success so we went to jigging. It was slow and we caught two walleye about 6" long. Wow, what a start! I could tell Kalin was getting a little yancy as I call it and at 9 am he finally said "why are we not at all those places you pre fished?" I told him that until the sun came out and the wind switched a little I felt we would be discouraged at the other spots also, so I held off going until about 10am. We headed to a rock ledge and soon had a 16" and a 14" on crawlers and a jig. I was jigging the yellow and red in one hand that had been so productive the day before but as of yet it wasn't producing. We decided to follow the same route I took the day before and by noon had four 15 1/2" and one 16". After about 18 eyes it 
became apparent that everyone would probably weigh in four or five fish. We needed some bigger fish so kept moving. 

At one time we had four on at once but they were all 15". By noon the wind had switched and was blowing out of the southwest at about 20mph. I decided to head for a main lake reef that extends out in the lake. The wind was perfect, blowing right across the top and the water was getting muddy. I had found a darker jig earlier that was hammering the eyes and when we stopped at the point Kalin already had two tied on. Stopping upwind and we drifted up the side Kalin caught our first 19" right on top in 6ft. What a relief! The waves were fairly big but we kept working. I think we caught a couple more on the front and top so I eased us off the back. Kalin connected again with another 19" and we felt we were it the running. We fished another hour without any more big fish so headed in. Oh, the jigs color? Let's just say it was a darker one. We need to keep something a secret don't we?

I would like to say thanks to Scott Golden for his donation from Walleye Central and to Brian for taking us out and giving us a hands on Genetron lesson. I am not here to advertise but…, I have never been so impressed with a depth finder as I was with the Genetron. I also want to thank Kelly Jones and the cooks for a great fish feed after the tourney. I had a good time visiting with everyone. Great tournament Jeff!
Thanks to all, and till next time good fishin!

From Brian:

If you want to read about what did not work, you can continue, otherwise look at what Kevin wrote and stop there.

Golden and I arrived late Thursday night and after a very long night, we hit the water Friday late and tried to find some fish. I have fished Meredith 20 times or so and had a lot of confidence going in. There had been reports of fish being caught and it was a good time of year. Meredith has about 4 million Walleye in it according to the biologist at the meeting the night before the tourney (small body of water) and the TWA is trying to become active in growing the fish to trophy size, THANK YOU, you can catch a lot under 14”.

After we headed out Friday I wanted to run my lead program that had been shared with me. We began south near Fritch Fortress where the river channel comes right in near shore. I had picked up fish trolling there last year (good size fish) with lead and they were still there from what the Genetron was telling me. 

After getting all of our rigs out and making our first pass down the break it seemed as though we were going to strike out. At the last point we came across, Golden had his lead start screaming. He had his hands full so I grabbed the rod and began to bring it in. It was a nice 18” fish and Golden really didn’t know why I was so excited. He was looking for Glendo fish in TX, AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN.

We continued on and ran a lot of combinations trolling. We caught a lot of fish, just not the right ones. I knew we could jig the usual spots and catch fish (14s and 15s) and hopefully look for big ones trolling (18s and 20s). We had the right idea, but as you read above, we hit the wrong places at the wrong times. Tournament fishing is a game of risk and you have to take them and live with them, they don’t always work out however. 

Golden and I agreed to jig 4 legal fish out of a possible 5, then go to the trolling program. There were several factors in hindsight that should have changed our plan. First, the wind started blowing hard in the afternoon, we should have moved in and jigged. Second, we had taken most of the morning to catch 4 fish and did not start trolling until 12:30. Last, Golden was catching on Firetiger Reelbait Walleye Flashers tipped with a worm and I was throwing cranks and deadsticking a minnow tipped Walleye Flasher while running the Minn Kota Auto Pilot (south did not work so I had to run the motor manually… UGGGLLYY!). Back to the third factor, I should have thrown the same thing and tried to upgrade (thanks FJH1).

You can always analyze it after and think of what you should have done. All in all, it was a great tournament and we weighed four more fish than I have weighed there before. Thanks Golden.

Two great guys, thanks for running the TWA in 2002!

Kevin Audrain (Texeye) left and JD Carr right (Texrig)

Looking forward to Trinidad and hoping we get a great turnout. I’ll be Striper fishing the next two weekends at the Butte before stop 4 of the TWA. 

Sunday on the way home I stopped off at Ute Lake and fished for some ‘eyes. Ute is phenomenal and has extremely clear water and lots of structure. Caught 2 eyes bottom bouncing with a Reelbait Back Bead Spinner in perch with a CO 4 silver blade and missed many more. Spent most of the day marking structure on the Garmin and trying to avoid water hazards with the new prop. Ute is 80% full and will be a great summer destination as the Striper slow down and the crazies pick up on the Butte. Who knows, Abiquiu may get enough water for us to launch again also J.

Tight lines,

Brian

http://www.abqsportfishing.com

From Dan Turner

After earlier stops in New Mexico and Oklahoma, the Texas Walleye Association returned home to Lake Meredith on Saturday, April 26. 

Despite the low water conditions, there was a surprisingly good bite for late April as eight teams weighed in 5 fish limits and teams all the way down to 12th place finished with as many as 4 fish each. 

The key was not just catching fish, but finding those elusive fish that would measure over 16 inches. Once again, the team of Kevin and Kalin Audrain of Fritch found those bigger fish and won the tournament with 5 fish weighing 8.27 lbs. 

The Audrains are on a hot streak having won two firsts and a second in the three tournaments held so far this year. They also claimed the big fish pot with a 2.45 lb.fish. Pay-outs went to the first four places, and the race for those positions were extremely close as only .6 lb separated second from fifth place.

On Saturday, May 17, the Texas Walleye Association will hold its first tournament in Colorado at Lake Trinidad. On June 28-29 at Lake Meredith, the Texas Walleye Classic will be held which is a Cabela's National Qualifier Tournament. For more information, contact Jeff Alexander at (806) 857-0419 or email him at ROUTFTR@AOL.COM

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