06-28-2010, 07:37 PM
[font "Cambria"][/font]I began a new tradition this year of fishing the 10th Annual Catch A Cure For Cancer Walleye tournament at Starvation with my partner Chad Miller.
Jerry and Carrie Schlief, George Sommers and his team did a fantastic job organizing and running this very worth while and enjoyable tournament. They were able to raise just over $10,000 to support Camp Hobe. This foundation runs a camp for children that are fighting cancer and their siblings. It offers a chance to get out of the hospital and away from it all with an extremely supportive and accommodating staff. It gives these kids a chance to be kids again and escape, if only for a little while the grind of cancer[/i] treatment. For some this sometimes is the last great memory of good times they have. [/i][/font]
I arrived on Thursday and spent the entire day working the Strawberry river and Rabbit Gulch areas of the lake. I found only one 18 inch fish and lots of fish in the 14 -16 class. It was only my second time on the lake this year and I had not found any bigger fish yet. It was definitely not as good for bigger fish on the upper end of the lake as it had been at this time last year.
We were blessed with great weather all week. Water temps ran from 63 to about 70 depending on time of day and location on the lake. Weather was sunny, warm, and beautiful. The typical summertime Starvation pattern of the wind coming up in the afternoon, just enough to put a good "walleye chop" on the lake.
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Friday morning my partner Chad showed up bright and early. We were on the water at 5:30 and headed to the Saluratus end. I had not found anything to get excited about yet and we needed to continue searching for bigger fish. We fished the weeds shallow early hoping to find some bigger fish with a slip bobber presentation to no avail. We then moved around trying different areas in the Saluraus end and found smaller (15" ish) fish but could not seem to find any bigger fish.
After some discussion we decided not to continue to beat that area up and continue to search for bigger fish. We ran back to the other end of the lake and moved clear up into the river mouth where the dirtier water was trying slip bobbers again in 5 to 6 foot of flooded brush. I found it hard to believe that the walleye wouldn't be in there, it was textbook perfect. Only problem was we didn't catch any fish.
We finished the day in Rabbit and still didn't find anything better than 16 inches. We then decided our plan for tournament day would be to focus on Saluratus for a limit and once we had that in the box we would start hopping around the lake trying the high percentage points and structure for bigger fish to upgrade.
We started pulling bottom bouncers in the Knight's hollow channel and were not getting many fished. We then moved up over the weed flats in 13 to 18 feet of water pulling harnesses over the weeds and started getting into fish. We waded through allot of smaller fish but by about 8 or 8:30 we had a limit in the live well. Then the bite died for a while and we were just about ready to start looking somewhere else when we got into a hot bite in a small area with a school of fish 17 - 17.5 inches. We were able to upgrade 3 fish before the bite died about 9:30.
We moved to the other end of the lake and pulled cranks searching for a big fish. After a couple fruitless hours of this the wind came up and I wanted to go back and fish some areas on the Saluratus end which I have done well in the past pulling cranks in the wind. We spent our last hour and a half doing just that and were able to upgrade with 2 more 17 inchers. I think this is what put us over the top with a total weight of 9.15lbs. Not a big bag, but enough to win this one.
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I really enjoyed fishing another tournament with Chad. We never let each other get down and we are continuously bouncing ideas off each other as to what's happening and what we should be doing next. It is definitely a team effort in our boat with each of us willing to try the other's ideas. Fishing tournaments with Chad the last year or so has been some of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Chad is just an absolute joy to have in the boat, and even with the self imposed pressures of "game day", we still strive to make it fun.
I am really looking forward to fishing the Starvation Classic with him in September with the goal to improve over our 4th place finish last year.
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Jerry and Carrie Schlief, George Sommers and his team did a fantastic job organizing and running this very worth while and enjoyable tournament. They were able to raise just over $10,000 to support Camp Hobe. This foundation runs a camp for children that are fighting cancer and their siblings. It offers a chance to get out of the hospital and away from it all with an extremely supportive and accommodating staff. It gives these kids a chance to be kids again and escape, if only for a little while the grind of cancer[/i] treatment. For some this sometimes is the last great memory of good times they have. [/i][/font]
I arrived on Thursday and spent the entire day working the Strawberry river and Rabbit Gulch areas of the lake. I found only one 18 inch fish and lots of fish in the 14 -16 class. It was only my second time on the lake this year and I had not found any bigger fish yet. It was definitely not as good for bigger fish on the upper end of the lake as it had been at this time last year.
We were blessed with great weather all week. Water temps ran from 63 to about 70 depending on time of day and location on the lake. Weather was sunny, warm, and beautiful. The typical summertime Starvation pattern of the wind coming up in the afternoon, just enough to put a good "walleye chop" on the lake.
[font "Cambria"][/font][/font]
Friday morning my partner Chad showed up bright and early. We were on the water at 5:30 and headed to the Saluratus end. I had not found anything to get excited about yet and we needed to continue searching for bigger fish. We fished the weeds shallow early hoping to find some bigger fish with a slip bobber presentation to no avail. We then moved around trying different areas in the Saluraus end and found smaller (15" ish) fish but could not seem to find any bigger fish.
After some discussion we decided not to continue to beat that area up and continue to search for bigger fish. We ran back to the other end of the lake and moved clear up into the river mouth where the dirtier water was trying slip bobbers again in 5 to 6 foot of flooded brush. I found it hard to believe that the walleye wouldn't be in there, it was textbook perfect. Only problem was we didn't catch any fish.
We finished the day in Rabbit and still didn't find anything better than 16 inches. We then decided our plan for tournament day would be to focus on Saluratus for a limit and once we had that in the box we would start hopping around the lake trying the high percentage points and structure for bigger fish to upgrade.
We started pulling bottom bouncers in the Knight's hollow channel and were not getting many fished. We then moved up over the weed flats in 13 to 18 feet of water pulling harnesses over the weeds and started getting into fish. We waded through allot of smaller fish but by about 8 or 8:30 we had a limit in the live well. Then the bite died for a while and we were just about ready to start looking somewhere else when we got into a hot bite in a small area with a school of fish 17 - 17.5 inches. We were able to upgrade 3 fish before the bite died about 9:30.
We moved to the other end of the lake and pulled cranks searching for a big fish. After a couple fruitless hours of this the wind came up and I wanted to go back and fish some areas on the Saluratus end which I have done well in the past pulling cranks in the wind. We spent our last hour and a half doing just that and were able to upgrade with 2 more 17 inchers. I think this is what put us over the top with a total weight of 9.15lbs. Not a big bag, but enough to win this one.
[font "Cambria"][/font][/font]
I really enjoyed fishing another tournament with Chad. We never let each other get down and we are continuously bouncing ideas off each other as to what's happening and what we should be doing next. It is definitely a team effort in our boat with each of us willing to try the other's ideas. Fishing tournaments with Chad the last year or so has been some of the most enjoyable experiences of my life. Chad is just an absolute joy to have in the boat, and even with the self imposed pressures of "game day", we still strive to make it fun.
I am really looking forward to fishing the Starvation Classic with him in September with the goal to improve over our 4th place finish last year.
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