Devils Lake Tournament Re-Cap Devils Lake, Devils Lake, ND July 28th thru August 3rd, 2013 Johnnie Candle I just got bit by the home lake jinx. The MWC event on Devils Lake, ND had me very excited for several reasons. First, the big fish bite was pretty tough and I thought that gave me an advantage. Secondly, it was on my home water where I have 3 top ten finishes in MWC events. Thirdly, it was artificial only. I have been guiding daily for over a month and knew that the big fish bite would be a challenge. I had seen a handful of larger fish while guiding, but knew that during pre-fish, I would have to locate some larger walleye. That turned out to be not so hard to do. We had several areas that seemed to produce better fish for us. Here is how things broke down after pre-fish. For limit fish, spinners and Gulp! Minnow or Jigging Grubs fished on structure was a no-brianer. We could get 15 inch fish with ease and knew this was our last resort. There were some larger fish (up to 20 inches) on the edge of several weed beds and pitching Flicker Shads or trolling spinners could catch these. Our best fish came trolling deeper structure. The old lake shore is a term you hear at Devils Lake often. It refers to the shoreline before the flooding started in the 90s. This is where the 22 to 26 inch fish seemed to be. Trolling lead core and crankbaits was the best way to catch these. The plan was to start deep, then to the weeds, then to the structure only if we needed to. Well, it turns out we needed to. Day one we had our number one trolling spot pretty much to ourselves and it still didn’t help. How they can be there in practice and gone the next day, who knows but they were. We ended up with a few form the weeds and a few from the structure for 7 pounds 11 ounces. Day two started with no starter. By the time we switched boats, we lost over an hour of fishing time and the bite was over. Several friends fishing the same trolling areas caught there fish on the first pass and it was done. More weeds and a 17 and ½ inch walleye at the buzzer gave us 7 pounds 12 ounces for day two. 42nd place is not what I expected at home but it happens. We fished the right spots and the right techniques. This is the perfect example of the variables that are out of your control as an angler. You can do it all right, but still not connect. It is ok. For the year so far we are 4 days on the water and 4 limits of walleye. My rule is weigh a limit each day for the season and you make Championships. We fish at the Soo in two weeks and will do our best to make that happen. As for the artificial only challenge; I love it!!! I really hope that the walleye tournament world took notice of this event and looks back on a few of the others form the past. There is no reason to not make all the professional level events artificial only. If we call ourselves professionals, we should be abel to get 5 walleye without the use of live bait. It would raise the level of the sport to heights never before imagined.
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 16:06:17 +0000
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