Sheldon Hatch

After spending many hours on the water with my 2008 TUNDRA 21 FTE I have managed to get the perfect setup. The Mercury Optimax 250 XS really pushes this boat along at a great speed and allows me to spin a 23 P Tempest Plus prop in most conditions. My top speed to date on this setup was 65 mph at 5800 RPM. That is moving pretty quick for a full sized walleye rig loaded with gear and a kicker hanging off the transom.

I have included an image taken from the Government Dock in Dryden Ontario during the PWT Can-Am held in mid August. In the photo you can see how the boat has great bow lift which really helps increase the speed during those early morning tournament blast offs. I never had a boat pass me the whole tournament so i figure the Tundra is on par with the quickest walleye hulls in the industry.

I field many questions from Lowrance owners about their sonar flashing and loosing a lock on bottom when fishing shallow. The best way to keep a steady lock on bottom when fishing shallow is to select sonar Features from the Menu when in sonar mode. Then select Shallow Water preset from the pull-down menu as shown in the images. I often fish in 2 to 8 feet of water and these default settings provided by Lowrance work great at keeping a solid image of bottom. Click on images to view larger.

The Professional Walleye Tour (PWT) stopped in Dryden, Ontario, August 13-15 for the Super Pro Division Can-Am Challenge. The event, held on Wabigoon Lake featured 25 top U.S. walleye pros competing against 25 of Canada’s top walleye pros. 
The PWT event, which was won by Canadian angler Dan Dolinski. Following closely behind Dolinski was fellow Canadian teammate Wayne Wagner and U.S. Pro Staff member Perry Good. Anglers used a variety of Berkley Gulp! products and introduced a few new techniques to walleye fishing.
Effective presentations used by competitors included tipping jigs with Gulp! Alive! 3” and 4” Minnows. Also effective was Gulp! 6” Nightcrawlers added to a bottom bouncer and spinner harnesses. The bottom bouncer, spinner harness, and Gulp! Nightcrawler combination is relatively snag free allowing anglers to troll around structure and cover water fast.

Being forced to fish with artificial bait was a change of pace for the walleye pros. “Typically, live bait plays an important role in walleye fishing, but Gulp! is proving us all wrong and a Gulp! Minnow on a jig has become a standard bait on many northern waters,” said Gary Parsons, U.S. Team Captain and Berkley pro. “Gulp! baits are catching fish faster than live baits that we typically rely on. This tournament has changed many opinions about the use of Gulp! and competitive fishing.” 
Anglers can innovate new presentations with any Gulp! product. At this event for example, anglers double tipped Gulp! Alive! Minnows on a jig offering a bigger presentation and a slower fall for more walleye bites.
“It didn’t matter who won the event; everyone was winning on Gulp!,” said Cody Roswick, Berkley Field Services Manager. “The confidence that professional anglers developed while using Gulp! was tremendous. They wouldn’t use it if it didn’t work, and Berkley wouldn’t make a product that wasn’t proven. Anglers in this tournament found Gulp! to be cleaner, easier to store, reusable, and less costly than live bait.”
 

With the stained water on Wabigoon it was like fishing in a cup of tea with lots of milk. At one point when trying to troll crank baits I could not tune any of the baits because once they went below the surface you could not see them. I knew going into the Can-Am event that noise was going to be a factor, so I pulled out some Fin-tech Tech Stiks and started pulling round spinners with the Tech Stik ticking bottom every so often to make some noise. The fish where spread out around the flats I was fishing so I needed technique to cover water. At one point in practice I noticed the walleye where missing the harness and often just mouthing the bait. I switched out to slow death hooks and Berkley GULP 3″ Pumpkin-seed Frys and started catching fish. All of my 22 to 26″ walleye during practice and the tournament came of this set-up. I was usually fishing any where from 6 to 22 feet of water on the top and edges of flats next to deep water.

 I am also considering only fishing with Gulp at the next PWT in the Soo in a few weeks time. The GULP Alive crawlers and Fry have been a great addition to my bait arsenal and It is nice to get up in the morning and not have to get all the ice, coolers and live bait ready for tournament day.

I would like to thank Cody Roswickof Berkley soft baits for all the seport in this great artifical only tournament as it will surely shape the future of walleye tourney fishing.

What a great finish on day three for team Canada as we managed the big upset in winning the PWT Can-Am tournament.
The fishing was different than any tourney I have ever done as you had to work areas and hope for a couple of big bites as you could only weigh two fish over 18 inches. One day you would pull a 25 inch walleye in the area and then the next not get a single bite nor mark any fish in the area. The pattern I worked out in practice was pulling 3 inch Berkley Gulp Frys on red slow death hooks behind 1 ounce Fin-Tech Tech Stiks and bouncers. I worked flats next to deep water that had wind blowing onto the location.

Presently in Thunder Bay and making the tow to Sudbury. I will add some more information as we travel home. I would like to congradulate all of team Canada and Captian John Butts for the outstanding win.

On the second day the plan was to run and gun looking for big fish, but one of my spots was producing good fish in the 17 to 18″ mark and also produced a nice 26″ fish during practice. With all the fish in the  area I sat still most of the day and worked my way through 40 or 50 fish to get a bag just over 8 pounds with another day of no big bites. It is interesting fishing a team event as you have to think about your limit and the effects on team Canada’s total weight before swinging for the fence. At the end of the day before the run in I went to start the boat and the cranking battery was dead. After a scramnble to bost the starting battery from the trolling bank I made a mad dash into the weight-in to make it in with seconds to spare.

Canada still has a small lead of the USA and lets see what day three brings the anglers.

It was a very tough fish on day one with a change in the weather and brisk East Wind in the morning. Most of my spots produced today, but no big fish wanted to bite. I am in the middle of the pack after day one and need to get a kicker fish tomorrow to help improve my placing.

Team Canada is presently in 1st with 215.72lbs and Team USA has 193.16lbs. It is a three day tournament and a lot can change very quickly.

Lots of fish to be caught on the lake but the bite has been mostly smaller fish that are in the system. I have a very limited internet connection and no cell phone service, so I will do updates when I get a chance during the tournament. Last night at the arena in town they had all the pro boats on display and people from the community got to meet the pros and talk about the tournament.

Tonight is the rules meeting and a dinner at the arena and I also get to meet my armature partners for the tournament. The weather looks pretty stable for the tournament with no major changes, so hopefully the practice pattern will hold for all three days. One thing about this lake is the fish move quickly as a spot one day will produce a fish or two and then the next nothing. Lots of boats will be running around during the next three days.

Well, Wabigoon Lke is loaded with Pike and we have been catching some great Pike with the largest being over 35″ . In some areas the pike will hit the bait two or three times before they can find it in the murky water. The weather was great with sun and very warm temps, the next few days I will start to work on a patern to produce fish in all of the areas that I have scouted on the lake.

Made it into Dryden around 10:30 am on Wednesday morning and got out on the water to scope out Wabigoon Lake. The water on the lake has about 12″ of visibility and it is very difficult to see all the rocks or water hazards. The good thing about the clarity is it makes for a great shallow water and all day bite for walleye.

Checked out about 15 spots and ran about 30 miles and had a good first day scouting out potential tournament spots. Seen Gary Parsons, Chase Parsons and Keith Kavajecz on the water so many of the anglers are arriving as we get closer to the tournament start.