| Tournament
Tips
by Jim Porfilio
Shore lunch after a fishing tournament is
always a special event. But having lunch with the winners, plus
interviewing them, was even more rewarding. The golden
fried fish were good, and so were the tips and techniques the
winners passed on.
Recently, the Long Lake Fishing Club held its
annual Fall Classic Fishing Tournament on Long Lake,
Fond du Lac County. Daybreak started with dense fog, so thick
one had trouble keeping directions clear. When the fog lifted,
the day became one of those beautiful fall outings that many of
us enjoy. It was still windy, but beautiful.
My wife, Sharon, and I did not have too much
luck. We were after northerns because most of our competitors go
for the more abundant bass. A respectable legal size 26"
northern pike, may well win the tournament. There is less
competition in the category.
Using a golden shiner and a European treble
hook rig in 18' of water produced one shiner with gigantic teeth
rakes and another undersized northern for Sharon. I zeroed out
completely.
At weigh-in time, I was amazed at the number
of bass that were brought in. All but a few were released back
into the lake. My only concern was for the 2000, five to seven
inch walleyes that the Club stocked that same day. But many of
the experienced tournament fishers assured the doubtful that the
released fish would be in no mood to do anymore eating that day.
After the weigh-in, Mark and Paul Hruz, both
top winners in the Club tournaments were eager to share their
winning tips with "Anglers' Line" readers.
Weather conditions play an important part of the
overall strategy in any tournament. The day started with dense
fog and gusting winds of 10 mph.
The wind factor made drifting fishing a problem.
A pontoon boat acts similar to a sailboat with that much wind,
so anchoring for half hour intervals was the best strategy this
day. Fifteen to eighteen feet of water, just outside of the weed
line, was the starting point. One partner casted into the wind
while the other casted with the wind. On the second cast of the
day, a large northern was attracted by a medium sized, copper
backed Daredevil. After a good fight, the line was either broken
or there was a cutoff. This first spot also produced the winning
large mouth bass of the tournament at 6:15 AM. The team had
started at 5:30 AM., and they were off to a good start.
After trying a variety of lures, they settled on a floating jig
that trailed a night crawler or leach. In fact, that lure had
brought in the winning seven and one half pound northern for
Martin the Glenn Hennig Memorial Tournament. The rig was
weighted enough to carry the lure near bottom. That seemed to be
the winner for the conditions of the day.
Structure on a windy day became a matter of searching,
anchoring, fan casting, and trying the inside and the outside of
the weed line. When the fog finally cleared, an entirely new set
of conditions arose. More positioning and more anchoring were
needed because when the sun came out, conditions took a pleasant
change. That wind was still there though.
Both Paul and Marty have enjoyed tournaments this year very
much. They have six tournaments under their belts and credit the
Long Lake Fishing Club and especially the former Glenn Hennig,
for their success. Before working with both they couldn't catch
a fish.
Marty has now become the Northern Black Hat winner. His
fish was the largest in the recent Glenn Hennig Memorial
Tournament earlier this year. Paul has won the largest bass of
the Fall Classic.
Another tournament tip from Marty is that
when fishing with minnows, whether they be on a jig, trolling,
or soaking, use small red tailed chubs. Most of us seem to try
to match the bait fish. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately,
Long Lake has hundreds of thousands of those shiners that look
so attractive to us anglers. The small red tail attracts more
attention in a situation like this. Marty uses no other type of
minnow on this lake.
George Hudson, the all summer 1992 Bass Black
Hatter tournament winner, stopped to have fish lunch with us and
shared some of his tournament winning techniques. George starts
the early morning by fishing in the shallows, five feet inside
the weed beds. He uses a Haden Tiny Torpedo, any color, or a
Power Crawler-Red Shad. He has settled on these two baits as
sure winners in most conditions. After 8 a.m. George moves his
efforts to the deep side of the weed beds in 15'-18' of water.
When asking their feelings about fishing
tournaments, all agreed because most fish were caught and then
released. "We even go so far as to cut a line near the fish's
mouth rather than killing it. We let it go for another day."
When they want a meal of fish, most stick
with gills and perch or they buy their fish at the local market.
Our winners pass on a tip for November
fishing. Start inside the weed line for those large 8" to 12"
jumbo perch. They fish the perch the same way that they fish the
walleyes, but, they only use half of a night crawler on a
weighted line. The retrieve is slow. Most times, during the fall
of the year, they will find one small spot 4 to 5 ' in diameter.
A large school of jumbo perch will be gathered in that one area.
These tips from the Black Hatters should make for some
interesting fishing in the future.
Taken from the Anglers Line:
Country Gazette Magazine 11/95
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