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Location: Orland Park, IL | What a town. Really has come a long way. We stayed at the Hilton Gardens near Schmidt Island. Wow, what a hotel. Best I ever stayed at. Had the buffet at Diamond Jo casino on Friday night. Lots of crab legs. Now on to the fishing.
The prefishing was ok for us. I stayed in the Dubuque pool, since I fished a few times in bellvue. Lots of good weights came from bellvue as well as guttenburg, one pool up. Both were a long run in tough conditions. Since I had some fish going in dubuque, I stayed there.
My best technique was a 3 way with a 4 oz on the bottom, a 4 foot lead, and chart yellow f5 or orange f5. We were creeping along at .5 to .7. The flow was pretty good, with current speed between 1.7 and 2.5. Water was at 10.1, a couple of feet over normal pool.
We work a couple of long stretches of rip rap that was yielding 18 to 19 inch fish. 5 of those would be worth 11 pounds or so, so felt pretty good. Creeping up the break, starting at 14 FOW to 11 was best in prefishing.
We checked that spot on tournament day to find the water was quicker, warmer and faster. Southeast winds switched to northeast with gusts to 25. Boat control was tougher. And the cold front of course came through (what was I thinking). We immediately ran to a deeper break and got nothing.
Took a half of day to figure out the fish were shallower. There were now in the 9 to 11 break. Once we got that down, we decided to jig them with 3/8 hutchies and plastic. We got some shorts, but couldnt pull any keeper fish (BTW the slot there is working wonders.....I just wish the sauger season shut down would be in dubuque like bellvue).
We were fishless until 230pm. With 300pm check in right around the corner, we tried one last spot up from catfish creek on the way back to the weigh in. Didnt want to show up with the zero.
Finally at 240, we banged a fish. Had to measure 3 separate times (be sure to flip the fish over when measuring...you might be surprised...!) Finally, on the 2nd ruler I got 19 7/8. Just under the slot, and in the livewell she went.
Just goes to show, never give up, keep fishin to the last minute. Oh, and yep, 9 FOW on a hutchie 3/8 jig and plastic. Good enough for a 2lb 13 oz fish, and 15th place. Get this 16th was 2lb 12 oz (sorry mark m.), and 17th was a little less. Glad she didnt puke up a shad or two.
Many thanks to Gary "the spike" Speicher from Iowa as my co angler. We had a great time on the boat. Froze our arses off.
Larry Schuelter was a blast to talk too at the rules meeting. And Kenny Brenner did a excellent job winning that event. Wow, 2 nice fish over 27. 3 for 16lbs. Great work. Congrats to John Balla too, and the rest of the field. Some nice fish.
PS great article by Chris Burns on 3 way trolling in the current FLW magazine. Take it heart. It works. Off to the minnesot leauge event on May 2 in red wing. Should be fun. And Mike B. great work on the Hilton reservations. Nice, nice place. I am gonna be visiting again.
Edited by Mark Komo 4/26/2009 9:38 AM
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