The Nebraska Walleye Association (www.nebraskawalleye.com)held their tournament at Sherman this weekend. Water Temps were in the 56 degree range on Friday morning but dropped due to rainfall and cold temperatures. Three different fronts moved through the area over the weekend causing a discoloration of the water a drop to the 53.5 degree range.
Results haven’t been posted but the top two teams weighed approximately 14#. We didn’t fish around anyone or talk on the water and we didn’t put in the ramp by the weigh-in trailer so I didn’t catch all the gossip at the ceremony, plus a lot of chatting, etc during the ceremony so I missed some things, sorry. I also won’t say where another team fished even if I know or heard, that’s not my right to share their info.
The top team (Charlie Velinsky??) drifted and backtrolled into the heavy waves on Sunday. They seemed like really nice guys and man were they excited. They mentioned catching some in 30′.
The 2nd place team of Steve Isom and Mike Polak weighed a 8+ for big fish and weighed a limit I believe. They drifted and ran their tiller, these guys are the ultimate in boat control. Steve and Mike are probably the NICEST guys on any circuit, true pro’s.
The third place team, the Sanger’s anchored in 3-4 different parts of the lake and used egg sinkers and hooks, they didn’t mention bait 
(Lots of people tried Creek Chubs if they could get them, a secret “big” walleye bait all over Nebraska, they didn’t work for us). Travis Sanger is a doc in Chamberlain, SD and has fished the FLW – super guy. Travis definitely fishes his own program, as do Isom/Polak and should be commended for that.
4th Place went to Brent Henricksen, I didn’t catch how they fished. They are a SD team sponsored by Weiland Marine.
Justin Lauby and myself took 5th place with two 24″ fish, one went about 5 and the other 4.5# or so. We took our fish between Thunder Island and Muddy Point drifting leeches, crawlers, and shiners though our only keepers came on leeches. For the most part, we fished a area and line all to ourselves most of the day. In pre-fishing we caught fish 5-32′ but found our fish in the tourney in 15-20′. I should have made a better adjustement though as our first two fish were in the boat by 9 AM and we never got another keeper, my belief is we stayed too shallow as we actually fished some very shallow water and never went to the 25+. Tough bite though, lots of very good fisherman blanked their whole time on the water, and even going back to the previous week. Tough bite this year. You know it’s rough when you have to kneel in a 21′ boat to fight a big fish to the net!
We do have a couple of tricks I can’t quite share that I think make us successful on that lake but probably more importantly we narrowed down a few things and areas we thought might be successful and stuck to those areas and presentations rather than chase boats, listen to rules meeting disinformation, or anchor in crowds. If you do that, win or lose, you learn more and feel better about your effort.
I also need to thank John Mascarello and Russ Glasshof for picking up a battery for me on Friday night, really bailed me out of a tough spot.
By the way, Calamus went very well this weekend for those anchoring and drifting in the west end fishing very shallow – think 4-8′ mostly.
I’m going to head up and do a little pre-fishing for the PWT at Chamberlain this weekend with some buddy’s and hit Big Mac in late May for the next tourney. That will be a fun one.
Tips from the Tourney –
1. Definitely buy the Jerky from Matschke’s in Ashton, NE wow is it good
2. In a tough bite, all you can really do is stay positive and be thorough on areas you trust pre-fishing yet also set aside time for new spots and offbeat that may produce. Tough bites usually boil down to downsizing, slowing down, and not missing the one bite you need because of not paying attention. Yes, I probably missed some fish yesterday from not doing it right all the time.
3. The new jetty’s and so on at Sherman are fantastic.
4. We caught fish miles from any other boat on a small lake in pre-fishing. There is one area we didn’t fish in the tourney that will bother me for awhile. It would have been almost impossible with the wind though.
5. Even though we caught fish in many different areas, ultimately we went with what we felt was the highest percentage spot and presentation that was away from the pack – even 100, 1000, or 10,000 yards can be the difference depending on what you are fishing.
6. Though it seemed that everyone was drifting, hovering or anchoring we pulled out cranks and spinners and got some fish that way too pre-fishing. It’s ALWAYS worth a shot to go against the grain for at least a little pre-fishing time. We never did it in the tourney – maybe we should of!
7. Leeches were our WORST bait pre-fishing, yet that’s what went for us in the tourney. Always start out with different baits, colors, etc. Every day is a new day, start with what you are confident in within certain applications.
In a tournament like this, there really is some luck involved, and we had some this time out. Better fisherman than us went away empty-handed.
Todd
Congrats on the 5th place finish! 
Keep up the good reports 
