Good friend Tracy Hayward and I left Cedar Rapids on Friday, August 23, for Escanaba, MI and practice for the third event in the
Cabela’s National Walleye Tour season. We had high hopes for many walleyes. However, we were greeted with four days of practice without a walleye! We fished Little Bay, Big Bay, above Menonomee, above and below the Cedar River checking out spots. We finally connected with fish in the Black Bottom area of Little Bay using inline weights and spinners on Wednesday and Thursday of practice. Chris and Matt Speicher arrived to fish as co-anglers in the event. Matt came a day early and joined teammate Steve Miller in his boat on Wednesday. Other team members included Chris Burns and Eric Olson. We shared results, information, and waypoints in preparation of the first day of competition. Day 1 of the tournament arrived with high winds from the southeast. Most of the boats went south into the wind and benefited from the best bite of the tournament along the western Green Bay shoreline. Pros pulled both cranks and spinners and the first day weights were spectacular! I only managed a couple small fish for the first day and thought Friday night about where to start on Saturday. Chris and Matt both went south with their pros and endured the long runs in rough water. I went south on Saturday after a half hour delay because of the fog which really didn’t lift until
early afternoon. My co and I caught a nice fish on our spinner setup right away and I thought we were on our way. But…we only had one other fish bite and headed in for our 3pm with our one fish. I got to watch all the anglers come in and discovered the troller bite had died for almost everyone because of the calm water. Keith K. and Gary P. came in first and second by using an innovative approach casting an ice fishing jig for their fish!! Please check out the story on what they did, how they did it, and where they did it at www.nwt.com. Matt came in 25th and cashed a check! Our friend Marty Barski won the co-angler event and $6k!! I want to say thanks to each of our team members for their hard work and effort. Also, I enjoyed having Chris and Matt fish the event and the time we spent Saturday night together sharing stories of our days on the water. What does next year hold? Not sure. Want to see what the NWT schedule looks like and whether it will be more tournament fishing or more fun fishing in 2015!! Spike