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FLW Lake Erie Recap
Posted On: May 15, 2012 | By: steilWe just wrapped up the second stop on the National Guard FLW Walleye Tour at Lake Erie. This event is always much anticipated by the anglers because of the quality of fish that abound Lake Erie. My prefishing started on Friday May 4th and I was joined by Matt Carlander from Faribault MN. After our first hour of prefishing it was evident the bite was "on" and the quality of fish was excellent. There is no doubt prefishing going to be excellent and it did not dissapoint.
Through our days of prefishing I stuck mainly to pulling spinners near structure. It became obvious in the days leading up to the tournament that this pattern was going to be the winning ticket for the event. I spent my days prefishing working spots where I would mark a lot of fish off the edge of rocky structure. I mainly targeted fish in 28-38 ft of water and anywhere from 15 feet off the bottom to the very bottom, with the bigger fish coming deeper most days. I would use my Minn Kota Terrova with i-Pilot to carefully follow the break likes of structure while maintaining my desired depth and speed. This really became key to success as the tournament unfolded. I am really starting to wonder how I fished without i-Pilot for years as it has become that important to what I do.
Day one of the tournament we were greeted with fairly strong N winds which made for fishing my "A" spot pretty tough. I did manage on big bite on the spot but unfortunately the fish got off at the motor and was easily the biggest walleye I had seen prefishing. Not a good start to the day but I had confidence there would be more big bites. After 2 hours I moved on to spot number two and it was evident the bite was on when I got there. I quickly put two quality fish in the box and then had trouble getting bit so I moved to spot, 3, 4, 5 and finally put a decent limit of fish in the box. Not what I was hoping for because we were missing that giant kicker fish we lost in the AM but with a weight of roughly 32 pounds I knew I was in the hunt still.
Day two I started on spot 2 from the prior day, as did Kevin McQuoid and Jason Przekurat my teammates. It did not take long for the nets to start flying and for all three of us to have a 35 pound basket of fish in the livewell. So sitting with a good limit already at 8:30 AM we had all day to fish for those kickers that could upgrade our 7 pound average in the box. Thankfully we were able to upgrade a couple of the 7 pounders with 8 plus pound fish and weighed in just over 37 pounds on the day. That 37 pounds was enough to move me up to 15th but my teammate Kevin McQuoid put up a 40 plus pound basket for the day that moved him into 2nd place and earning him another day of fishing.
I was done after day two, failing to make the top ten so now it was time for Kevin McQuoid to work our program on the same spot he had been for fishing for the two day prior. I was very confident Kevin had his program dialed in and was going to post a very large weight for the final day. As it turned out Kevin executed his program just as he done the previous two days and his roughly 38 pounds was enough to win the event by a 5 pound margin. Big congrats goes out to Kevin McQuoid for a well deserved and great win!!
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FLW Red Wing Recap
Posted On: April 24, 2012 | By: steil
The FLW Red Wing event just wrapped up and it ended up like a typical event at Red Wing on the Mississippi River. The big fish bit in a few spots and if you were there when they bit, you were rewarded. If they weren't going for you, well, you were out of luck which can be seen in the big swing in weights each day. The river is the best at rewarding you one day and humbling you the second.
My plan going into the tournament was to either jig or troll up 5 fish and then use my two extra spots for larger walleye. As always in this scenario, you hope one or more of your first 5 fish is a nice one, because that still leaves room for two more nice fish in your limit of 5. In the walleye world, we call this getting them in the right order, which is VERY important because there is no upgrading allowed in most walleye tournaments.
Day one I started out jigging and the bite was not going for me so after an hour and hitting my first three spots it was trolling time. After one hour of trolling I have 18-20 inch fish in the livewell and it was time to pitch jigs shallow at hopes of getting a couple larger female walleye. At my first pitching spot my co-angler got a nice 4 1/2 pounder and that fish went in the box as number 6.
We decided them to make a switch and head down river where there were more pitching spots. In my first cast on spot two I hooked into a nice 5 pound female and our day was done with 7 fish. With a weight just over 15 pounds for 5 fish I was sitting in 20th place and in striking distance of 10th place to make the cut.
Day two I decided I needed to fish to make the top 10 so I opted to start the day pitching shorelines for big walleye and would try to stick with it most of the day. This hero or zero strategy can get you in trouble but is really the only way to make the top 10 at Red Wing. So after two hours of pitching in the morning with nothing but some world class smallmouth to show for it I opted to go troll up a couple fish. So off we went to troll and it didn't take long to keep 3 walleye in the 17-19 inch range.
With three in the box I decided to go back to where we started the day and pitch jigs. I didn't take long and I hooked into a nice 4 pound female that went into the box. A couple casts later I hooked into and rolled a nice 5 pounder on the surface that came unhooked. Things were really looking good but as quick as the bite started it was over for us and we were unable to boat another fish. With only 4 fish to weigh I dropped all the way down to 44th place.
In all it was a good tournament for me. I was in striking distance after day one and fished to win. Because there are championship points on the line it is not always possible to fish to win but this year you will see a lot more of this strategy from me this year. My goal is to go back to fishing a lot more aggressive this year and hopefully the fish decide to cooperate.
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Northern Beer's new Home
Posted On: February 15, 2012 | By: steil
For those of you that have driven through Cold Spring MN and wondered what the construction on the hill was, well I got a sneak peak for you. Very soon Cold Spring Brewing Company will be opening their new Brewhouse located next to the old brewing facility. The new brewhouse not only will be state-of-the-art but will also come with a new name, Third Street Brewhouse.
Third Street Brewhouse is set to open around May and will allow the Cold Spring Brewing Company to significantly increase its capacity to brew beer. Cold Spring Brewing Company not only brews the popular Northern Brand that I represent, but also
brews many popular beers via contracts. In addition to the many beers brewed in Cold Spring they also also make many of the very popular energy drinks on the market today. But, there is more.
Very soon Third Street Brewhouse will be putting out some new Craft Beers that have proved to be very popular. On my recent tour of the new facility I was fortunate enough to get to try a few of the new beers and they were delicious. These are not your typical light beer. These are full flavored beers with very clever names and even better stories behind the name.
So before I head off to International Eel Pout Festival in Walker to represent Northern Beer this weekend I thought I would include a few pictures of the Third Street Brewhouse as I am very excited about this new facility and the possibilities that come with it. I think you will find the facility as impressive as I did.
Make sure you check back for an update from Eel Pout Festival this weekend!
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