# 2016 LEWT Season Opener Magee East



## jplant0327 (May 28, 2015)

Yesterday, Rod Weaver and I began the defense of our Lake Erie Walleye Trail team of the year championship with the first tournament of 2016 out of Magee East Marina on Turtle creek. What follows is the crazy ups and downs and lessons learned that makes tournament fishing on Lake Erie so great!

The weather has been more like winter than the start of spring over the last couple of weeks here in Ohio, and the tournament was postponed a record 3 times before we finally got to fish this Sunday, April 10th. The original scheduled date for this tournament was April 2nd. Lake Erie greeted us with what Al Roker called a "polar vortex" last weekend, so the tournament ended up being postponed to Sunday April 3rd. I left the house at 4:30 am on Sunday the 3rd and was greeted with a balmy 29 degrees and snow and ice on the roads. I managed to make it about an hour and a half up the road when I got the text that the tournament was again postponed to Saturday, April 9. I managed to drive 3 hours that morning and never got the boat in the water!

I stayed in Marblehead Friday night with my good friend Tim Joseph , and we were once again greeted with crazy weather. I'm guessing we had at least 5-6" of snow Friday night, and with 30 mph winds forecasted for Saturday our tournament director, Jeff B Lash, made the only call that was available to him, and postponed until Sunday. South winds in the 20 mph range were forecasted for Sunday so it was gonna be rough but fishable. 

Luckily I covered my boat on Friday night, because when I woke up Saturday morning my boat was covered in about 6 inches of snow, and of course under that cover was a lot of moisture from pre-fishing on Friday with my good friend David Pontius, so you can imagine the amount of ice in that boat. On a brighter side, David and I did manage to catch 8 walleyes on Friday in the same area where the tournament would eventually be won on Sunday by another good friend Rob Lester and his partner Rob Cline (known to all on the Lake Erie Walleye Trail as the Making Memories fishing team). Big congrats to those guys! But anyway, after about an hour of cleaning I was able to finally get the snow off the boat with the hope of fishing on Sunday.

I woke up Sunday at 4:30, got dressed, and hit the road Magee East Marina in Oak Harbor. When I started my truck my thermometer read 27 degrees. By the time I got to Magee east it was all the way up to 29 degrees. Rod and I launched the boat and docked about 6:30 in eager anticipation of our 8 am start time. As we made our last minute preparations, I decided I better start and run my 9.9 Mercury Pro Kicker to ensure that it was ready to use that day. When I started the motor I noticed that the motor was not "peeing", which meant that the water discharge hole was surely frozen. Rob Cline and Rob Lester were docked right next to us and we're having the same problem, but luckily another angler had a can of de-icer spray, which with one quick spray into the discharge, fixed the problem.

Next in our last minute preparations we got our rods out of the rod locker and I went up on the front deck to strap them down. I normally strap down the rods up front along with my net, for quick and easy access when we arrive at our first fishing spot. Well, because of all of the moisture in the boat the front tie down straps were frozen and rendered useless. I proceeded to put the rods on the back deck (Mistake #1) and left my new RS Net on the front deck unsecured (Mistake #2).

We lined up and headed down Turtle Creek into the Western Basin of Lake Erie around 7:30. Being defending champs, we are assigned boat #1 for each tournament this year, so we have the privilege of leading this great group of anglers out onto the lake for all four tournaments this year. We were released to fish promptly at 8 am and after being on plane for about 5 minutes, my brand new RS (Roman Schlabach) net flew up off the deck and into the water never to be seen again. This left us without a net for the day. Not exactly how you want to start your team of the year title defense.

Rod and I made the decision Sunday morning that even though we new there were catchable fish up around cone reef where I fished on Friday, we should at least check the water clarity around round reef because we felt our chances of catching a pre spawn female full of eggs was greater in that area. As we headed southeast towards round reef we were quickly greeted with 20 mph winds and 2-3 foot waves that were building fast. 

We set up just to the southeast of the reef and prepared to make our first pass, only to find our Shimano Tekota reels and Compre rods covered in ice. We manged somehow to knock the ice off enough to get the lures in the water, only to discover that the hatch were I keep my Off Shore Tackle planer boards was completely frozen shut. After a combined 15 minute effort, we managed to get the hatch pried open and got our lures out and fishing. 

About an hour into our first trolling pass we got our first bite on Rod's favorite "lights-out" Rapala deep husky jerk 91 feet back. Rod said he thought it was a good fish and he was right. I removed the board and laid down on the back deck so that I could reach out into the 39 degree water and grab the fish by hand when she got to the boat. I grabbed the 9 lb walleye "cradle style" just like the bass guys do on tv. I pulled her up in the boat and somehow in the tussle ended up with a treble hook buried past the barb on the inside of my left middle finger. So now I've got a 9 lb walleye in my boat flopping around with a lure attached to her mouth and my middle finger. We manger to get them lure detached from the fish and then Rod suggested I just cut the hook and leave the barb in for extraction later. I decided that because my hands were completely numb from being in the icy water anyway that I would just grab the hook with the pliers and yank it out the same way it went in. Luckily it worked!

We marked some good fish for a little while longer, and then decided to go back and make another pass over the small hump where the fish seemed to be holding. On that second pass we landed another 3 lb fish on a Bandit Lures Deep Walleye 42 back. About five minutes later we hooked another good fish, but she came off before the planer board made it back to the boat.

As we prepared to turn back into the now 3-5 foot waves and 20-25 mph sustained wind out of the southeast and make our 4th our 5th pass I noticed that my motor seemed to be lacking power. I put the motor back in neutral and it died. I went to restart it and was met with the horrible sound of the starter grinding into fly wheel. Not the sound you want to hear on Lake Erie when you are 10 miles from where you launched in 3-5 foot waves. 

Much to our dismay, Rod and I decided that we better stop fishing and just head back west for home. We started the 9.9 hp Mercury Pro kicker and used the trusty Minn Kota Ulterra 112 lb thrust trolling motor to guide us in. Running the kicker on full throttle and with the trolling motor maxed out at a 10 setting we managed to make it back safely to Magee East Marina in just under 2.5 hours. Thank God for my fellow angler who helped me de-ice my kicker before we launched, or I don't know what we would have done. 

Mr Lester was waiting in his SUV at the bridge on Turtle Creek with a sign read "boat number?" I held up one index finger and as we passed him he asked us, "how many fish?" We told him that we had two in the box and he said, to our surprise, "well you're in first place so far!" Naturally I then asked how many boats were back in and he said, "about 20." 

That was like a gut punch for Rod and I. Oh, what might have been? As it turns out those two fish earned us a 13th place finished out of the 47 boats that braved the waters of Lake Erie on Sunday. In total there were 47 walleyes brought to the scales and only 3 teams managed to boat a five fish limit. Big congrats to Rob Lester and Rob Cline for the win. I would also like to congratulate my teammates David Pontius and Michael Doornink for a strong 4th place finish. And finally congrats to my good friend and fellow Lund and Mercury pro-staffer Mark Brumbaugh and his partner Shawn Ritchie on a 5th place finish and first place for big fish.

So now it's time to get my boat in the shop and get ready for stop number 2 at Lakeview Marina on April 30. It was a tough day out there and we had quite a few things not go our way, but so goes the life of the Lake Erie tournament angler. Now let's build on that .07 lb out of first place finish and take home the title this year in Lakeview!


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## walleye willey (May 29, 2014)

All I can say is WOW, great post, great story, you and your teammate are hardcore good luck the rest of the season 

BTW: you and your teammate are CRAZY and I mean that in a good way


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## SaltyHD (Aug 12, 2014)

A lot of people think Tournament fishing is all glamour and glitz and high dollar sponsors and don't realize the hours, the work, the prefishing and miserable conditions you guys fish in to be a part of this. My hat is tipped to you and your fellow anglers on a great effort and tenacity to hang in there and go after them under extreme and brutal conditions. Great report and a look at the day of a tournament fisherman. Sounds like you were where you needed to be to put some fish in the boat had you got some equipment cooperation. Best of luck to you and your teammate at Lakeview and a look at the day of a tournament fisherman!


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## BeerBatter (Aug 1, 2006)

Thanks for and definitely a good report Jason. 
Congrats on your fish.
Glad everyone made it in safely. Scary when your only power in was your Kicker.
I got out the river on my kicker planning to fish just in front. I was scared a half mile from the river on my kicker.
Thank god big motor shift linkage thawed to where it would shift and I had the use of it. 
I couldn't imagine coming in from that far out.


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## kisherfisher (Jul 16, 2012)

Great report ! Your luck can only get better . Great reminders to all on how things can add up in this terrible weather ! In my end if the pond a MWT participant landed a 14. Plus pounder for big fish , only to get DQ because his registration on his boat had lapsed .


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## ErieGoldSportfishing (Feb 5, 2009)

kisherfisher said:


> Great report ! Your luck can only get better . Great reminders to all on how things can add up in this terrible weather ! In my end if the pond a MWT participant landed a 14. Plus pounder for big fish , only to get DQ because his registration on his boat had lapsed .


I fished the MWT this weekend too and did not hear about the DQ-ed big fish. Wow....that's a big mistake that perhaps many of us has let slip (present company included) one time or another.

How about the weather both days in that tourney? Not sure it could be any worse!


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## ErieGoldSportfishing (Feb 5, 2009)

Congrats to all the LEWT placers! Tough conditions doesn't even begin to describe the day. Very impressive!!


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## kisherfisher (Jul 16, 2012)

Hand lining was the only way to fish with the brutal south wind . Ran into Mark Martin Monday at a local tackle store yesterday , picking up some more handling weights .


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## jamesbalog (Jul 6, 2011)

Wow, i thought i had a bad day! 

My tiller handle of my kicker was frozen to the point where i couldnt get the motor into gear, took me about 10-15 mins to get it to work. My main motor wouldnt trim down when i tried to move for the second time. My rods and gear were icicles, Im sure everyone's were though. 

My boat is a very wet ride and my genius of a partner wore carharts instead of any sort of water proof clothing. He was soaked and literally full of ice along with the rest of the boat.

I called it quits around noon with no fish. The deck of my boat was solid ice and slippery to the point of it being dangerous to move. I was cold and having zero fun what so ever, my partner was having less fun than me and really didnt look good. I hope we get better weather for Lakevue!

Im glad everyone made it in safely

Great job to everyone that stuck it out all day and a big congrats to everyone who placed!


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## Scum_Frog (Apr 3, 2009)

James we were the same with you.....partner has a single console boat...I had rain gear on and more layers but water still every wave managed to spray right in our face and leaked into my gear and I was drenched....we couldn't move on his boat due too all the ice and we couldn't get the ipilot to lock down because of all the ice! Just like stated our rods were so iced up it was awful.....inside of the boat has no carpet so we were sliding all over the place on hands and knees.....we called it quits right around 1130 and headed in.....just didn't feel safe anymore and was miserable!
On another note we had so many marks where we were fishing with no pullbacks it was making us sick to go in.....wish we would have just stayed tight and jigged up some fish...would of had a more respectable finish and stayed dry!
See y'all at the next one! =)


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## Gottagofishn (Nov 18, 2009)

Hat's off to any of you who had the kahuna's to brave those elements. This sport in a tournament fashion is not for the weak of heart!

Grat's to all the winners! To go out in conditions like those on Erie and put together a winning ticket you need to have thought of everything, nerve's of steel and a lot of luck!
Stay Safe!


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## Lucky Touch Charters (Jun 19, 2011)

Man am I glad my Warrior is a dry riding boat! We had all of our gear out the entire time but it never got wet. On the take off I did take a wave spray to the drivers windshield. It instantly froze up and I had to stop to wipe it off to see. Before the tourney started there was snow on the back casting decking that prevented us from opening up the live well. Our 1st fish was within 10 minutes of starting but it was a smallmouth and man did I think we were starting off on a high note while fighting that fish in! I kept saying this one is over 10lbs LOL. The Vrod was not peeing at first start up but I got it going before the start. The shut off on the kicker was frozen to where it would not shut off at the dock. We were using lake water to thaw out to the back casting deck and live well hatch.


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## EYEFISHER2 (May 11, 2008)

Hey jason i was the one with the de-icer! Sure am glad i picked a few bottles up before i came cuz they were a hot item that morning! Fyi to everyone...i went to 2 Walmarts and they had all their driveway salts and deicer sprays on sale (basically giving them away). Hopefully that kinda weather is over but fall fishing will be here before you know it and it forsure proved to me that its a must to carry some of that in the boat if you have any chance of freezing temps. I also carry a few gallons of antifreeze for livewells and such. Our fishing was very similar to jasons. We prefished all friday and ended up catching 7 fish around cone reef in the afternoon, nothing big but they were fish. So thats where we fished for the first part of tourney day and only landed 1 fish just under 5 pounds (pink lemonaide bandit 55 back) which lead us to 27th place. We also tried the north side of crib, SE corner of round and N side of locust but couldnt grind any more bites out! Congrats to everyone who done well and could hang on to a tough bite for sure. Hopefully we get some decent weather for the next few tourneys! 

Dustin Clark


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