PWT Day 2 Morning Coverage by Julia (Juls) Davis

PWT – Mobridge, SD May 28-30th
Day 2AM:

Number of Competitors: 104

Morning Take Off Conditions: Cloudy, misty, and 50 degrees with winds SE 18.

Today: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 4pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Southeast wind between 7 and 10 mph

Rookie Pro, Aaron Deal leads the field on day 2 of the PWT Lake Oahe event, here in Mobridge, SD.

I caught up to him this morning in the parking lot of his hotel, and I asked him a few questions…

Juls: How does it feel to be sitting in the number one spot? Did you get any sleep last night?

Aaron: “It really didn’t sink in until about 11 o-clock last night… I’m laying there in bed, and I thought…Hey! I’m in first place!  It never really sunk in. It’s something I never really thought could happen, so it’s pretty cool!

The couple in the room next to mine kept arguing about petty stuff all night, and they kept me up for about 2 hours, so I’m not running on very much sleep this morning.”

Juls: When you were fishing yesterday, did you think that you would be on top of the leader board when you weighed in?

Aaron: “Definitely! We figured we had it.”

Juls: How are you catching your fish?

Aaron: “I’m doing things a little bit different. I’ve been watching what other guys are doing, and in my opinion there’s a lot of slot fish being caught, and what I’m doing is, I’m catching bigger fish. Depending on which area that I’m fishing… I’ve got three spots that I’ve got going, and my best spot is mostly “over” fish…most of them are over 20 inches. So, yesterday at the end we struggled to get our “unders” of course we had some smaller slots, but we didn’t even consider them…you know, 17-18 inchers. We were trying to get 19 and above and then at the end, towards the last few minutes, we had to settle for a 17 and an 18 ½ incher.”

Juls: How was your Co Angler to fish with yesterday? (Artie Arndt a/k/a 10 Pound on WC)

Aaron: “Really good! Artie Arndt…I can’t say enough good things about him. We missed a few fish early on, and um…we were kind of in between his style and my style. When it comes to reeling in the fish, I said to do it my way, and he started to do it his way, so we were going back and forth… he missed that fish, and after that I said, pick one way to do it, whatever you feel most comfortable doing…and, I said, “just get the fish in the boat!” It went a lot better after that.”

Lee Pulse: Currently in 3rd Place

Juls: How did you do yesterday?

Lee: “Well, we had a pretty good day yesterday…the bite started off slow. I’m fishing an area that has big fish, and we got one to go yesterday. In a three day overall tournament, you want to keep yourself in position…I knew there would be bigger bags coming in, but ahh…we’ve been consistently hooking those 23” and better fish…hopefully that will continue, but this IS Lake Oahe. (he said with a knowing smile)

Basically what I’m doing is, I’m fishing around smelt, and obviously the smelt are always moving, and so are the walleye. I’m working a 3-4 mile area, and what I’ve been doing is trying to hook my “overs” and running to different areas to hook better slot fish, because I haven’t been hooking the good slot fish…that being the under 20 and over 19 inch fish. I haven’t been getting them consistently with the bigger fish, so I have to search for them.

I do like the cloud cover today.  I’m running quite a few miles, so hopefully this wind will stay down today. Seems like to get those fish to go, you need a little wind, and that’s what I’m hoping for today.  But, I’m hoping it doesn’t blow 30 right out of the gate, but if it does, it does…it will just be a rough ride, but we’ll get it done.”

Juls: How did you prepare mentally for today?

Lee: The mental part of this game is the most challenging…ah, you just got to keep a positive attitude, because the bites don’t always come in the right order. You’ve got to try to eliminate human error as best you can, by making the right decisions.

When the bites come in the right order, it takes human error out of it, but that doesn’t always happen. And, also, when that bite isn’t happening as fast as you want it to, ah, you know, you gotta really… it’s mental anguish, you know,  but you just have to hang in there, because you know...the electronics don’t lie. If the fish are there you’ve got to fish over the fish and gotta hope they eventually turn on. And, that’s what I’ve been doing, and will continue to do, and hopefully things will work out.”

It’s just a grind…they have these 3 day overall tournaments for a reason…to eliminate the big fish, the one day big fish, and guys just got to stay consistent. But, I’m going to take some chances, because like a lot of guys, it would be nice to be in that top ten, and to do that you’re going to have to take some chances, and a guy might get hurt trying, but I’m certainly…ah, that’s my game plan…to take some chances, and hold out for better fish, and hopefully it pans out. Because, to do well in these…you not only have to have a good tournament, you have to have a perfect tournament, and decisions…landing fish…getting fish triggered to bite… ah, some days that comes easier than others. But, ah, persistence and perseverance hopefully will payoff.”

Join us here this afternoon as the second day of competition continues at 3PM Central Time. We should see a lot of flip flopping on the Live Leaderboard by the end of the day. As Lee said above, the reason they have a 3 day event is to eliminate the big fish factor.

Let’s find out who found the big fish and will bring them to the scales today!

Coverage note: The weigh-in’s are lasting about 2 hours longer than any known weigh-in, so getting the story and pictures online takes a little longer than normal too. Your patience is appreciated! J