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Reflections on the PWT - 2005
By DALE GILBERT
Montana walleye pro
Another season has come and gone. I am sitting here today watching it rain and wondering how the guys are doing at the PWT Championship at Mildford Lake in Kansas. Wishing of course that I was there even with looking at yesterday's results with about half the field going without a fish. It goes to show that you at times the walleye is a formidable opponent and will humble even the greatest angler.
I had a poor year in one sense, with only cashing a check in one of the tournaments on the Western Division PWT and ending up 33rd overall. On the other hand, when I look back and think about the new friends I made, the new places I got to see, and reflect on what I may have learned - it wasn't all bad.
The first tournament was held on the Fox Chain of Lakes in northern Illinois - about 30 miles from Chicago. I never really did get a good pattern going in pre-fishing but had settled on a stretch of the Fox River as my best bet. I fished this piece of water till noon the first day without a fish and decided it was time to move on. The sad part was that 2nd and 3rd place came from that same stretch of river. Right place, wrong presentation on my part. There didn't seem to be a lot of fish in the system at the time we were there - I ended up fishing specific structure with live bait rigs and the people who did well trolled crankbaits - covering a little more water and picking up the scattered fish that were there. The actual winning presentation was also trolling crankbaits - picking up shallow post spawn fish.
The 2nd tournament was back at Bull Shoals that is a reservoir on the White River in northern Arkansas. This is an incredibly beautiful place and a great place to fish. Again, I never really got a good pattern going in the pre-fishing but had been catching some suspended fish trolling Glass Shad Rapala crankbaits. We were fishing fairly clear water and I struggled with the clear water and the shallow fish being a little spooky. Finally, on the last day I decided to change plans and fish the area I had been going to in the afternoons right away in the morning. I thought fishing shallow earlier in the morning several miles up the reservoir where the water was a little more stained, might do better - it did. We slow trolled a dead rod with a Mack's Lure smile blade and crawler and pitched a jig with a 3" Berkley Gulp minnow to shore. By 10:00 AM, we had a very nice limit of fish and ended up moving up to finish in the money. Sure wish I had spent the first two days doing what I did the last day - it probably would have resulted in a very nice check.
The last tournament for the Western Division PWT was on Lake Oahe at Mobridge, SD. This also is a great place to fish. Although the water level was about 34' below normal, there is still a lot of water to fish and a lot of fish in the system. Lake Oahe has gotten their forage base back and the walleyes are doing really well. During the pre-fishing, we caught a lot of fish in the 15-17" range and had a lot of fun. I caught fish on jigs with Berkley Gulp, Mack's smile blades, live bait rigs and Rapala Shad Rap crankbaits.
I started the tournament on some sunken humps fishing live bait rigs - crawlers and creek chubs. I didn't think there would be any question about catching a limit of fish in the tournament but I only ended up with 2 fish on day one. What a humbling experience, especially when it seems like every boat around you is netting fish after fish. To make a long story short, I didn't end up last, but it was pretty close. So I have since spent a lot of time trying to figure out why. What lesson could I learn from this experience? It wasn't until just a few weeks ago in talking with Jim Musynoski from Bozeman that it finally dawned on me what I think I did wrong. In talking with Jim, he mentioned that at times he had to just leave the rod in the rod holder and let the fish hook themselves vs. hanging on to the rod and setting the hook when you felt a pickup. I recalled being so amazed at how I had felt good bites and would set the hook and miss them. I had started to question the no-stretch Spiderwire Stealth line I was using. I had gotten to like the no-stretch line because it is so sensitive and you can feel what is going on so much better, but it ended up causing me to set the hook too soon. Had I just left the rods in the rod holder, I am convinced I would have gotten more of the fish.
I can recall an experience at Lake Francis several years ago with an 8-9 year old kid that I took out fishing with his dad and a friend of his. I really like the story because the kid caught by far the majority of the fish that day. His dad and his friend would get a bite, set the hook and miss it - time after time. The kid just left an old rod of mine in the holder until a fish was on and just reeled it in. I remember giving his dad and his friend a hard time letting the kid out-fish them as bad as he was - so I am sure they were trying even harder. That is exactly what was happening at Mobridge - if I had only figured it out a little sooner. Sometimes, I think we try too hard.
After spending about 4 hours live bait rigging, I went back to trolling crankbaits which had been putting fish in the boat - but I kept fishing the same areas and depths I had found fish in practice. As it turns out, a lot of good weights came from people who were also pulling crankbaits but who were fishing suspended fish and fish a little deeper than I was. A lot has to do with the forage base in the system, which for Lake Oahe is the rainbow smelt and the gizzard shad which both will suspend out in open water. The smelt are a cold water fish and likely will be a little deeper. Someday, I am going to gain some confidence on the suspended walleye bites that happen - it is just something hard for someone who has spent so many years of fishing structure for walleye.
For anyone looking at a fishing trip - I would certainly recommend looking at Mobridge, SD next spring. The fishing should be reaching a peak in the next year or so on this system with good numbers and good size fish. I would also recommend Bull Shoals, although it is a long ways down there from Montana, it is a great fishery.
Good luck - better luck next time. Hope some of you can learn from my mistakes.
PS. Congratulations to Jim Muzynoski, who had another great year on the PWT.
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Dale R. Gilbert
44 Foxtail Lane
Ulm, MT 59485
Phone: 406-866-3304
Cell: 406-788-3824
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