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Quinte Walleye Open

Landshark
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Landshark

Landshark

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May the 21st was a day that I looked forward to for the past year. A prestigous Canadian walleye tournament that I had fished the previous year for the first time. At last years Quinte Walleye Open my team had stuck to the normal walleye catching method of bottom bouncing with worm harnesses. On that one day , three best fish event we were able to catch a good number of walleye. We finished in the middle of the pack. The smaller fish were just not enough to make a dent in the leaderboard.

As that day ended a year ago, I told myself that next year I would fish my game. Thats right, big water and big fish. I needed to think outside of the box. Could we really pull off what I had been dreaming about for the past year? I normally fish The Bay of Quinte one day a year and this tournament was it. I spend most of my spring in the walleye waters of New York. Typically these fish in the spring are larger sized than their Canadian counterparts. I had a few days over the past few weeks to making a sixty mile boat run each way. The biggest factor is wind and waves. For a week I closely watched the forecasted winds for the area that we wanted to travel. The wave forecast stayed very consistent all week calling for less than two footers. As Friday night rolled around we made the decision to make a final decision in the morning. They were now calling for fog and I thought for sure our strategy was going to be forced to plan B.

As we awoke saturday morning, my fears were confirmed. The fog was so thick it coud have been cut with a knife. My partners and I motored the boat over to the launch site just a couple of miles away. At this point we hadnt totally ruled out our plan A of "making the big run" . 7am, launch time and we trickled in the direction that both plan A and plan B would take us. The fog didn't allow us to travel anywhere near the speeds we had hoped but safety was a major issue. We made it about 10 miles from our tournament site and stopped the boat. Kevin , Pete, and I turned to each other and started our last second debating. After a minute or so we all came to the same conclusion. Our chance of winning this tournament inside Canadian Waters was slim at best. Like a basketball team breaking out of a timeout we put or hands in and yelled " go big or go home" and it was on!

Prior to the walleye opener this spring Pete had added a new Humminbird 958c that he picked up at RadioWorld. That was a smart move but I told him he needed the Navionics card to really get the most out of his new sonar/gps unit. That unit was our savior as we were not able to see landmarks that we normally could. We set a course and we headed out. We still had fifty miles of heavy fog to navigate through before we could ever set a line to fish. All three pairs of eyes watched carefully as we traveled what we felt was a good safe speed. All of our eyes constatnly scanning and watching for boats or any debris in the water. We preceeded on without ever seeing another vessel until we were about a mile from the waypoints we intended to fish. When we finally reached our fishing grounds it was 9:30 am and we had yet to even set a line. What a relief to finally relax for a minute and start actually fishing. Pete kept the boat in a straight pattern as Kevin and I ran a 6 planer board set up. We mixed four new R&R spoons with two stickbaits. It was nearly 11am by now and not a fish to show for it. We were really starting to question our decision when all the sudden an outside board starts dragging back. Pete grabbed the rod, I grabbed the wheel. We had set up on some nice countour that our Navionics Fish N Chip had allowed us to see. The board was barely visible due to the lingering fog. Kevin netted our first walleye of the day on one our spoons. A touch over six pounds. We had been rejuvenated. We sent our rods back out and waited, and waited. It was nearly noon now and the foggy conditions had not improved one bit since we left the tournament site. The last thing we wanted to do is cross mighty Lake Ontario again through the fog. "Fish On" Kevin yells and starts to battle. His efforts bring in an eleven pound pike. It was a beautiful fish but not the species we needed. Just minutes later I look to the same board that took the first walleye and I see it creeping back. I grab the rod and start to work on our second walleye. It was a nice fish that we weighed at 8.6lbs. It had taken the same spoon as the last walleye. It was now 12:15pm and we planned on heading back at 12:30 We tried to get one more fish in the last fifteeen minutes but it just didnt happen. We picked up the rods and set sail towards where we had just left five and a half hours and sixty miles earlier. We had two fish in the livewell but we needed a third to weigh in. We arrived back to an area know as the gap at about 2pm. This is where the Adolphus Reach meets Lake Ontario. As we enetered the Reach it was a whole new world. Sunshine and blue skies and visibility for miles put a smile on the whole crews face. We had just been over 100 miles through pea soup fog and this was like stepping into heaven. We still had a little les than twenty miles to make it to the weigh in. We weighed our fish in with a total of 14.28lbs and the larger fish was 8.38lbs. We knew this was respectable but as team after team entered the 3pm weigh in we started to gain more confidence that the fishing was tough for those that stayed in the bay. We were however the only team consisting of Americans in the field so we didn't know what to expect from the last few to weigh in.

Jubliation ensued foir us as the last team brought their fish to the scales.. What started as a dream a year ago had just become reality. We stood atop the leaderboard and were also able to catch the biggest fish of the event. Although we were only able to fish three of the eight tournament hours, it was enough. This was an experience I will never forget. I think all of the team fought headaches from eye strain. A no guts no glory attitude had paid off.

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Landshark

Landshark

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Legendary ride. Mike, Capt. Pete Alex runs a Walleye/Steelhead event in Erie every year :yes::yes::yes::yes: I have been getting good with leadcore hint hint.

We need to do Erie eyes

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