RMA Tournamnet at Willard Bay

Thursday I participated in the Rocky Mountain Angler tournament at Willard Bay. We met in the parking lot at 6:30 am and stared in awe at the 4 foot swells being produced by the descending cold front. Having the smallest boat in the group I was extra intimidated by the wind and whitecaps. As the wind started to subside I was feeling extra confident, as the week before I was able to fill the boat with walleye by trolling crank baits. The weather conditions were not friendly to casting or bottom bouncing so trolling crank baits seemed to be on the menu once more. Along with about four other captains I slowly made my way out past the safety of the marina. We spent the next 30 minutes nose into the waves and hoping the worst had passed. This was not the case. The wind made another rally and chased us back to the marina riding with the waves the whole way. After another half hour of waiting the weather pulled a 180. Like someone had flipped a light switch, the sky turned blue and the wind stopped. Finally, it was time. I tried trolling the same locations that I had previously had success, trolling the same lures at the same speeds. Something was different. We were not catching fish. We changed lures, speeds and colors. No fish. A few hours later I finally connected with a fish. I was relieved to have removed the skunk from the boat but a little let down to see it was a catfish. I had never trolled a catfish at 3 MPH. Soon after I caught a nice sized wiper. Dan, my tournament partner caught a 20+ inch walleye which ended up being the final fish of the day.

I believe any day of fishing is a good day even though my expectations were corrected and brought down to earth in comparison to the previous weeks success. All in all I learned a few things:

1.   Be very careful when judging wind conditions prior to launching your boat. The waves and wind are often much worse than they look.
2   Fish are not always where you left them. Always consider environmental factors when targeting fish.
3   Especially when targeting predator fish, the wind blown side of the lake will often yield better results. Even if it is where the water is the most turbulent.

Final Tally:

1 Walleye

1 Wiper

1 Catfish