MWC Western Division Teams Face Off With Mother Nature on Final Day of the Lake Oahe Tournament
May 9, 2010
After a relatively peaceful day on the water yesterday, the 44 Pro Teams making up the MWC Western Division event here on Lake Oahe, are faced once again with the challenges that old Mother Nature can dish out. The forecast for today is calling for showers, mainly before 1pm, a high near 54 degrees, and breezy, with a southeast wind between 20 and 25 mph, with gusts as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
After the MWC Staff made an executive decision to use a different launch, that wasn’t getting pounded by incoming waves, the teams all made it into the water on time, and ready to go this morning. The two teams that are leading are both fishing areas that they have all to themselves. Another thing they have in common is the fact that they are both pulling crankbaits and they are ticking bottom with the baits to trigger strikes.
Going out in first place this morning is the team of Scott Busteed (R) of Windsor, CO and David Harmon (L) of Omaha, NE.
Juls: Morning David and Scott. Hey, no one is going to read this until you are long gone, and if you don’t have an tournaments coming up here anytime soon, would you mind sharing with our readers what it is, exactly, that you are doing to catch all your fish?
David: Pulling crankbaits on Leadcore with Snap-Weights in 35 to 45 feet of water. There’s a transition area where there is rock, sand, gravel bank that meets a mud bottom, right at the bottom of a basin. We’re ticking the crankbaits right off the bottom. That’s the only way we could catch fish.
Juls: What crankbaits are you using?
David: Hornets and Flicker Shads.
Juls: Any colors working better than others right now?
David: Perch.
Juls: Yesterday was Sunny, and today you have complete cloud cover. And, it’s going to be very windy again…how is that going to affect your spot? Or, won’t it?
David: Well, three days ago, Thursday, we went in there, and it was raining and cloudy, and we caught two nice fish. Then, we got out of there in a hurry. Friday it was snowing and 30-40mph winds and we went in there one time and caught one fish, so we’re hoping that today shouldn’t be as bad as those two days. We should still be able to scratch out a couple fish from there. That’s what we’re hoping to do.
Just behind the leaders with 13.49 pounds is the Casper, WY team of Rick Walter (L) and Brian Woodward (R).
Juls: Good morning Rick. Can I jump in the boat while Brian dumps you in, so I can interview you?
Rick: Hop on in, Juls!
Juls: Cool. Ok, tell me, what are you and Brian doing to catch all those fish when so many others are struggling this weekend?
Rick: We’re basically pulling Leadcore in 35-45 feet of water. We even caught a fish in 44 foot of water yesterday. We’re letting out a lot of line. We tried experimenting with Snap-Weights, but where we’re pulling there’s a lot of trees and it seems like the Snaps get hung up first, so we basically just continued with straight Leadcore. We’re pulling three different crankbaits. We’re using Rapala #9 Shad Raps, Tail Dancers, and Reef Runners. These are normal baits to use here. The fish we are catching are all puking up big smelt, so these baits are similar to the smelt profile.
Juls: How long of a leader do you like to run on your Lead and what pound test?
Rick: 10# Stren Flourcarbon that’s 10 foot long. That seems to work about the best for us, because we’re using the 12’ Cabela’s rods.
Juls: What do you guys think you can do today?
Rick: Well, hopefully…you know, yesterday was a good day. We had our fish by 9:30. With this wind I don’t think…..(he changes thoughts) We’re not running very far…just up by the bridges, here (he casually points over his shoulder), and hopefully we can do the same thing as yesterday, and get them in the boat early today. We aren’t letting anything go. Just let the cards fall where they fall.
Juls: Well, that sure takes the pressure off you guys when you are able to catch them that early, eh? That’s cool.
Rick: Yeah! Especially, after the prefishing that we had, because we hadn’t done that well prefishing all week. We just kind of had a game plan and stuck to it. From experience fishing here…the fish usually come up into the Grand first, and if you can intersect them, that is all you can hope for.
In third place after day one is the team of Dan Antrim (R) of Wahpeton, ND and Kim Mark (L) of Lisbon, ND. They only brought 3 fish to the scales yesterday for a weight of 13.04 pounds, and only 1.76 pounds behind the leaders.
Juls: Wow, you guys are on some bigger fish here this week. Can you tell our WC readers what you’re doing to catch your fish yesterday and today?
Dan: We’re pulling plugs in around 10-25 feet of water.
Juls: Details please…
Dan: Oh, (clears his throat) Yep-yep…we’re pulling Reef Runners, Rapalas, and Bombers as well. We’re using 20# test Power Pro line and ticking bottom with the cranks.
Juls: What’s the water temperature where you’re fishing?
Dan: Yesterday, it actually got up to 50.2 degrees where we were. It warmed up from the time we left in the morning by about 4 degrees. And, when we got down here the water was actually cooler down here. It was like 46.5 or something like that, down here.
Juls: So, with today’s wind what’s your game plan going to be today?
Dan: Probably the same thing. We’re going stick to what we did yesterday, because it was tough going. I mean a lot of people didn’t get any fish yesterday.
Juls: How many bites did you get?
Dan: Three. And, we got all of them in the boat.
Juls: How far of a run are you making?
Dan: It’s about 30 miles from here.
Jeff Gottbreht (L) of Lincoln, NE and Mike Clark (R) of Raymond, NE are in 7th place, but did manage to win the Big Fish Pot’s first place prize of $420.00 yesterday, so I asked them what they were doing to catch their fish today.
Juls: Nice fish yesterday, guys! Congrats on the 1st Place Big Fish! How did you catch it?
Jeff: We were just live baiting Creek Chubs.
Juls: Ok, let’s pretend you’re not talking to another fisherman, but rather one of our Walleye Central readers who likes to fish, but doesn’t know about all the different presentations yet. Can you describe your set up from the rods on down to the line, etc.?
Jeff: Sure! We’re just using some sort of slip weight, whether it is a bullet weight, or a Lindy Rig, and we’re using a 3 foot leader with a 1/0 snell hook. Yesterday, we hooked the chub through the lips, but today I think we are going to go through the back dorsal fin, so they have a little more swimming ability. So, we’ve just been throwing them out, and just watching our lines.
Juls: How light of line are you using?
Mike: 8 pound test mono (leader) on 10 pound test Fireline.
Juls: How deep of water are you fishing?
Mike: About 11 to 13 foot of water.
Juls: Are you hitting the points? Or, what are you doing?
Mike: We’re off of a point…ah, the main thing is we didn’t catch our first fish until 1:30. The water temperature needs to get to about 48 degrees before they’ll bite.
Juls: You said you’re just throwing them out and watching the line. Sounds like you’re anchored?
Jeff: I have to tell you, that new Minn-Kota I-Pilot is an awesome tool. We were using the anchor feature, and that thing held us on our spot all day yesterday…I just can’t say enough about it.
Juls: You guys had the big fish yesterday…(I start to ask a question but stop when Jeff jumps in with a story)
Jeff: Well, yes, we had a fish that was 6.30 pounds yesterday, but I knocked a fish off with the net that was at least 30 inches! Mike and I are new to tournaments, and I’m sure every tournament angler out there can tell us a story of having the same thing happen to them, but I’ll tell you, no one felt worse than me at that moment.
We might have a little problem with this wind today, but we have a plan. First we’ll try to hold on our spot with the I-Pilot, but the wind is supposed to get up to 25 with gusts to 35, so it’s going to be a great test for that anchor feature. If it doesn’t hold us, I have my regular anchor in the boat too. We came to play that game and that’s the program we’re going to die on, so…
Juls: Is your spot a wind blown shore?
Jeff: Ah…today the wind will have an affect on it…yes. And, I’ll tell you… as soon as that water hit 48 degrees, our bite started right then. And, like Mike said, that was at 1:30.
Today’s weigh in will be taking place behind the Scherr-Howe Arena, in the parking lot at 212 N Main Street in downtown Mobridge, SD. Walleye Central will be bringing you live up to the minute results as the teams weigh in today, so if you can’t make it down to the weigh-in in person, check it out at www.liveleaderboard.com. Just click on the “Lake Oahe” link in the MWC’s Mobridge event. Daily photos and articles can be viewed by clicking on the associated links there too.
For more information about fishing or attending an MWC tournament please visit their website at www.masterswalleyecircuit.com.
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