Welcome
to Dunkirk, NY! The site of the last MWC Eastern Division event of the season.
64 Teams have shown up to prove who the best team is on Lake Erie. In a time
when most numbers are declining, this event's number of participants has increased.Competitors may have 5 fish total and will weigh their best 5 at the scales each day. Culling is allowed prior to placing the fifth fish in the livewell. Once the fifth fish is in possession, fishing must cease by that team. Also, culling of dead or dying fish is not allowed. A dead fish penalty is not going to be given at this tournament. All fish will be donated to a food shelter through a local Ministry.
I spoke to a few of the competitors after the rules meeting this afternoon to get a feel for what the prefishing has been like, and what their expectations are this weekend.
The first person I spoke to was Jason Kopf, of Avon Lake, OH who is also in the running for Team Of The Year with his partner, Mike Miller of Lakewood, OH.
Juls: Jason, how was your prefishing this week?
Jason: We had a tough prefish in general. I think everybody had small quantity bag limits coming in. However, there are big fish, so someone is going to get lucky and pull 30 plus pounds.
Juls: When did you start prefishing and what kind of weather have you had since you've been here?
Jason: I started Thursday and Friday, and it was like "quarter skippin", it was like "On Golden Pond"....flat. After Friday, it all just went, and it hasn't been any good since then. Sunday we got blown off, but we did fish a little bit in the afternoon....probably 2-8PM. At it's worst, it was probably good 6-8 footers on Sunday morning. Monday was pretty treacherous out there....wasn't it?
Juls: (laughing) I don't know, I just got here!
Jason: (laughs) Everyday has been bad! We've only been able to fish the last two days, basically.
Juls: When I got to town and saw the lake there were white caps out there...were you guys out today? Was it rough?
Jason: It was beautiful out there today. It was probably the best day in the last 5 days. The waves were only 1-2's today, so it wasn't bad at all.
Juls: With the nicer weather predicted for the next two days, do you think that the fish that have been beaten up for the last 4-5 days will turn around and start to bite again?
Jason: I'm hoping that this weather will stabilize and those big fish will start biting again. So, hopefully the bag limit is going to increase for tomorrow and Saturday. Things are looking good. I'm expecting it to be a decent tournament.
Juls: Well good luck to you and Mike Jason...take home that Team Of The Year Title!
Next to cross my path was Matt Davis of Marion, OH and Dan Gies of Huron, OH. I asked both of them the same questions as Jason and here is what they had to say.
Juls: Hi Matt and Dan, when did you guys get to town and start prefishing?
Matt: We got here Friday afternoon and started fishing on Saturday.
Juls: What were the conditions like for you guys?
Dan: It was rough...3 footers or so, but we did catch some fish.
Juls: What was Sunday like?
Matt: It was a little rougher, and we caught a few more fish, and Monday got REALLY rough, but we got into them pretty good.
Juls: When you say, "rough" or "really rough", how big were the waves?
Matt: We had 4-6's with an occasional "roller".
Juls: Some people didn't even go out Sunday, but you guys did....
Dan: We knew we had limited time here and we knew that the weather was going to be rough, so we tried to find them and see if we could catch them when it was rough.
Juls: How far out did you guys venture that day?
Dan: 4-5 miles
Juls: What are your thoughts about starting tomorrow?
Matt: Well, we caught fish good until Tuesday, when the big blow hit out of the Northeast, and that seems to have really moved them.
Juls: Wait...wait...wait! What do you mean "Big Blow"? What happened on Tuesday?
Matt: It was....WE didn't even go Tuesday! After getting beat up for three days, we decided not to go. It blew about the same speed as Monday, but it was out of a worse direction.
Juls: So you learned your lesson on Monday?
Matt: Well, No...(he laughs)...it wasn't too bad Monday. We actually ramped about 15 miles to the West, and made one troll and actually pulled out at a different ramp than where we put in that morning. It wasn't bad. We were able to ride with them (waves) all day, and didn't have to run into them. But, with a Northeast blow, that wasn't an option for Tuesday, so we just decided to take it easy, and not beat ourselves up.
Juls: Northeast winds are the worst winds to fish in on Lake Erie, that's a known fact. Tomorrow and Saturday they are predicting some pretty good weather and winds out of the South (offshore winds here) at only 15mph or less. What do you think that will do for you bite? Will it make it better, or are these fish so scattered after this blow that it will remain a tough bite? What are your thoughts?
Matt: Well, they haven't bitten real well the past few days, so we're hoping that they start biting tomorrow! They should. On our end of Lake Erie (West end), we usually say, "the third or fourth day after a Northeast, is when it picks up", so that would be Friday and Saturday. With any luck the bite will be back on.
Juls: Dan would you like to add anything about the bite?
Dan: Yeah, it was hard to start with, but after that Northeastern that just shut everything down. They're just sitting on the bottom with lockjaw waiting for better weather to come.
Juls: How is that going to change your plan as far as where you will target them in the water column?
Dan: I guess it won't effect it. We're still going to target the same depth that they're hitting at, because when they are hungry, that's the depth they're going to come up to to start feeding again.
Anglers will be using a variety of presentations to catch Walleye over the next two days. Some will use downriggers with spoons or spinners, Dipsies with spoons or spinners, while others will try inline or snap-weights with spinners, or even Leadcore with crank-baits. There is more than one way to catch a Walleye on this end of the lake, so stay tuned for more information regarding how the winning teams caught their fish, tomorrow afternoon.
Trophies will be handed out on Saturday for the newly crowned Eastern Division's Team Of The Year, Husband and Wife TOY, and the Father and Son TOY.