“Tough, tough, bite” is what I heard from the professional walleye fisherman waiting to register for the first event of the new National Walleye Tour season at Lake Winnebago. The pros put up with rain, wind, and falling water temperatures leading up to the first day of our event on May 2nd. We learned at the rules meeting there was a record field entered of 166 boats looking to cash a check from catching the heaviest weight of five walleyes and saugers. You could have seven in your livewell and weigh your best five. Once you had your seven, you were done and needed to come in to the weigh-in. My friend, Tom Harrison, from Naperville, Ill., and I had planned to fish all the events as co-angler (amateur) partners this year. My Day 1 pro was Jacob (Jake) Ell from Bismark, ND. Jake and I pitched jigs along a current seam right in the mouth of the river where it dumps in to the main lake. He caught two in our first two hours then our bite died. We moved past the Highway 41 bridge, pulled cranks, then came back to the bridge and pulled walleye flies along with 323 of our closest fishing friends! Eventually, we moved back to our original spot, never got another bite, and went in at 3:25pm for our 3:30 weigh-in. Jake never complained once about all the jigs I lost to the shallow depths of where I was fishing. Our two fish weighed 4.46 pounds. Day 2 found me paired with local angler Nathan Seelow from Neenah, WI. Nathan’s game plan was to pull flies in the mouth. We set up and I caught our first fish! Yeah!! Then, I caught our second fish. Our fly bite died there so we went upriver, through the no-wake zones, and joined 223 of our closest fishing friends below the 41 bridge! No bites on the flies so we moved out to the main lake and pulled cranks along the west side of Winnebago–the wind had picked up and Nathan felt we should catch fish. We did–one Pike and one walleye. We pulled cranks over some other structure he wanted to fish but no bites. The wind died and we moved back to the river mouth and repeated the fly routine until 4:25pm then scrambled to make it back to weigh-in by 4:30pm. Our three fish weighed 4.26 pounds giving me a total of 8.72 pounds and 84th place on the co side. Tom blanked on Day 1 and drew Johnny Candle on Day 2–they pulled cranks and had 10.18 pounds for 76th place–he BEAT me! Congratulations to Zachary Axtman for his two day total of 27.40 pounds for the big win! You’ll want to check out the nationalwalleyetour.com website for the coverage of how the leaders caught their fish. We have a link for you here at walleyewisdom. Oh, by the way, Zach was in at 12:30pm on Day 1 and 1:30pm on Day 2 with his fish!! Mike G. and I hope you enjoy looking at the few pictures I took and the interview videos of my partners. We head up to Green Bay for the second event out of Marinette, WI, May 30-31. Hoping for a better bite, better weather, and better results! Thanks, Spike