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Location: Appleton | Congratulations and THANKS to all 74 teams that fished the MWS Green Bay tournament. The day started with some rain but by mid morning we say the Sun. The wind held off until the teams were checked in and off the bay. Seventy three of seventy four teams weighed a total of 263 fish weighing 1265.90#
The main success came trolling spinner baits and crawlers with a varity of colors working for the teams. The team of Ron and Vicki Goldapske took first place with four fish weighing 30.90# winning them $3,500. Second place went to the Dan and Steve Bodinger with four fish totaling 30.66# for $1,200. Third place went to the team of Joe and Dave Hackett with four fish weighing 30.44# for $800. Fourth place went to the team of Rob Krause and Dave Dretske with four fish totaling 27.04# for $700. Fifth place went to the team of Larry Strelow and Matt Reimer with four fish weighing 26.84# for $650. Current Team of the year is Ron and Vickie Goldapske also current husband/wife Team of the year. Current parent/child Team of the year is Clarence and Casey Bohn. Big fish of the tournament went to the team of Randy Vande Zande and Dave Polecek with a 10.62# walleye. Complete standings can be found on our web page www.fishtfm.com
Major sponsors of the Series are Mercury Marine, Ranger Boats, MotorGuide and Okuma Reels.
Supporting sponsors Stowmaster Nets,Anglers Pride Specialties, Action Disc, All Sport and Trophy,B & B Bait Boxes, Bait Rigs, Smooth Moves seats, Sportsman Warehouse and LakeMaster.
The next tournament will be August 28th in Monominee, MI. If you would like more information e-mail us at [email protected] or call 920-731-3474
Edited by Jim Coon 5/25/2005 11:00 PM
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Location: Rhinelander | Thanks for the report, Jim. Do you folks take digital photos of the anglers and the event? If so, feel free to forward them to me and I will create an album as soon after the event is over as possible. |
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| Another good tourney run by Jim and his crew! Jim came through with the weather, too!
I needed this tourney, to soothe my battered psyche! A 25th place finish was respectable. A check was in sight, if only we hadn't lost a couple Green Bay giants!
Congrats to all the top finishers!
Edited by Shep 5/23/2005 10:38 AM
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Location: upper michigan | I know what you are talking about shep we lost an 8 pounder about 30 feeet from the boat and a five right up to the boat when we had sheap head sindrom and lost that one also that would have put us at about 25 lbs but i guess thats why they call it fishing and not catching |
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Location: Rockford MN | I was at the FLW in Green bay and heard the same thing from a number of guys, they lost fish. I'm just wondering how? What size hooks are you all using? I just can't see how so many fish are coming unbuttoned. Do you have any idea why? The only fish I seemed to lose were sheephead, they ran the boards back real fast and then were gone. I know they were sheep because the crawler was still good, they must have just grabbed the tail and then let go when they felt the pressure of the board. Could you see the fish? Was the water gin clear or were you in the lower bay? |
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Location: upper michigan | i was in the dirty water the fish we lost we saw come to the surface. the pattern was real slow and i think the hooks just where not getting in good.
Edited by butch 5/25/2005 5:44 AM
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Location: Milw, WI | Gordy,
Sheep, cats, white perch,and golbbies never come off.
Those hits you missed hit the spinner package not the crawler. |
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Location: Rockford MN | I never lost a walleye in 3 days of tornament fishing, although I do things a little different than most. I was trolling at .6 to .9 I did'nt see anyone moving that slow. The crawlers were pecked at by the tail but never torn off. I'm sure they were sheep because half the time they came back to get hooked seconds later! I'm wondering what size hook you guys were using? Did they come off at the boat?
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Location: Appleton wi | Only walter's come unbuttoned  |
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| I think Trautman was going about .4 for a bit on Sunday!
We lost a couple fish on Sunday. One giant right at the boat. Not sure what happened. It didn't make a sudden run, just swam one way, and the spinner went the other. Must just been barely hooked, and came un pinned.
I have made a correlation, I think. I do a lot better on keeping fish pinned when prefishing. I now think this is do to my NOT jumping at the rod and reel at the first sign of a hit. When prefishing, I don't want to announce that I have a fish on, so I slowly get to the rod, reel down, and sit down and reel in the fish. Even to the point of not showing a bend in the rod, and hand landing the fish.
This weekend, I noticed that we made a hurried move to reel down on the hit, and I think we may have been too quick, resulting in poor hookups. Most fish I catch prefishing have the hook(s) buried.
I have been using #2 Gamakchi's and #10 fine wire trebles. |
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Location: shawano,WI | Whatever Shep. |
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| I hear it after every tournament from most of the guys that don't do well. "We would have won but"..... or "I wasn't in the tournament but I would have won with the weight I caught today". News flash, you cannot weigh fish unless you are IN the tournament and the last I checked you cannot weigh fish that get off. Congratulate the guys that do good and move on. The cry wolf routine gets old. |
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Location: Rhinelander | Come on, I re-read Shep's post and he didn't say anything at all similar to your post.
Shep made an interesting observation answering Gordy's post ( who, by the way, caught a few during the FLW that DIDN'T come unpinned) of how he takes a fish prefishing, and the difference during the event. Never said anything about winning if the fish had stayed pinned up. He said simply 'a check was in sight' in a previous post. I cover about a dozen events a year, and hear the same from the very best out there all the time. It's part of tournament fishing.
I talked to three of the top twenty at the FLW who lost fish, and all of them talked about it in the same manner, if those fish had JUST stayed pinned up....
We really do try to keep the conversation here civil. If you have something to say that you think is off the mark far enough to cause you to post anon, it probably is best unsaid.
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Location: Rockford MN | I think Shep is right in the tournaments we seem much quicker on the trigger. Like i said I do things way different, my co's thought I was crazy until they saw how effective it was. In the 3 days of the FLW we boated just under 100 walleyes plus 2 Musky and a lot of sheep. Most all the big fish had her down with both hooks. I use size 1 and 1/0 2 hook harness's on the Great Lakes. We also set the hook, and reel them in fairly fast! I would like them to be in the boat before they go crazy, they go balistic when they hit the floor which is fine with me!
My problem was not fish coming unbutttoned but rather which fish to put in the well, with the no-cull laws I put back nice fish on the 1st day and had to settle for 2 small fish to fill my limit at the end of the day. Nice 22-24 fish were put back in hopes of the 28-30" fish. You just never know the last fish I put in the box for my 5th was 17.5" and 2 minutes later we caught a nice 23"er. I had to put that one back in hopes a larger fish at the very end of the day. I think with all the fronts coming in and cool water temps the fish were not as aggressive as they nornally would be. Over all I think the fishery is fantastic and can't wait to go back in July, I learned a lot and hope to learn a lot more about the "reefs" in July.
I don't know if there is a right or a wrong way when fishing, but if something works for you stick with it I'm sure it will pay off! I just like to hear why the fish were coming unbuttoned, then I can figure out what I was doing right on this given event.
Thanks Guys |
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Location: Elgin, Illinois | Gordy...
Interesting observation about going with bigger hooks. My son fished the FLW as a Co-Angler and they lost a reall nice fish right at the boat. He commented that they were using hooks that are much smaller than I use on my harnesses. I use #2s, so not as big as yours, but bigger tha the #6 hooks you see on a lot of harnesses... I have the same experience, not losing as many fish after going "up" in hook size... Also, if the fish are active I will try using Gulp worms on half of tha harnesses and if they are working as well as crawlers I will run all Gulp worms... Keeps me in the water longer and faster not having to put on new crawlers every time. |
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Location: Green Bay, WI | I would agree with HGMeyer and Gordy, for the Bay or any place you have big powerful eyes bigger hooks are better. I just think you have more hook to work with when that fish does what ever it wants to. I lost a really nice Door county eye using a harness with #6 hooks. It was one of those fish that didn't want to get close to the boat, every time it got to 15' out it would run right under the boat and I think that short little hook finally turned out. If it would have hit a harness with #2 hooks on it, I might have that "teenager" I'm looking for.
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| Gordy, I'd like to speak with you on your technique, and compare notes someday. You have a PM.
Wolfie, not complainig, just think I have found a correlation. I'll be looking into it soon.
Guest, I never said we didn't do well in this tourney. I did say if a Green Bay giant hadn't come unpinned, we would have been in the money. After the FLW, I felt we had a good day, and had a lot of fun. Sure was a lot better than the previous few days.
As I usually say to anon's. Get some nads, and post under your name.
Edited by Shep 5/27/2005 9:58 AM
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Location: upper michigan | we where running number 2 hooks also in 3 hook harness's The five pound eye we lost we drug for quite some time because we had to bring in 3 other fish as 4 boards went back at the same time. Of course the last board in was the walleye and we didnt have the net ready so it was our own fault the larger one that got off came off about 30 feet from the boat after rolling on the surface to give us a good look at it. that fish grabbed the harness as we started to crank the board in to check the crawler.
Edited by butch 5/27/2005 8:54 PM
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Location: shawano,WI | Shep I guess we could look at a differant technique.The bigger hook thing might work. |
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