by Chuck Dube
10/30/2006

This past spring I had an exciting tournament on Pools 3-4 of the Mississippi River out of Redwing, MN in the FLW Walleye Tour. After 4 days of competition, I finished in 9th place. Once again I returned to the well; Buffalo Slough on Pool 3; for my big fish.

I was entered in this event along with a FLW League event out of Bay City, WI and spent about 17 days on the river at the end of April and early May preparing for and fishing these tournaments. My sister had arranged for the first of two 'walleye consultants' that helped me out in my pre-fishing. Shooter had grown up on pool 3 and had shown me many new spots that had consistently held fish for him over the years. We had some nice catches on many of his spots but always made at least one run through Buffalo Slough later in each day. We would pick up one or two nice fish each day and hurry out of there. Many were in the 6-8 lb range. It seemed like they were biting much better later in the day but we knew that the fish were going in there. Our presentation of choice was Rapala #5 jointed Shad Raps. Most colors seemed to work. The jointed Shad Raps did a much better job than the traditional and glass colored Shad Raps that I have had much success with. I continued to long line my baits on 10 lb. Trilene XL from 100 to 150 feet. Most days had a strong flow on the river so trolling speeds were moderate at about 2 mph.

After the League tournament, my second 'walleye consultant' friend Ken Mitchell came up from the Quad Cities area of Iowa, to fish with me for 3 days before the Tour event. We spent a great deal of time on Pool 4 trying various techniques with limited success. We trolled with baits; used 3 way rigs with minnows, crawlers, and willow cats; and learned how to use my hand lines with much patience. It quickly became apparent to us that we would need to concentrate on Pool 3 for the tournament. My goal for the tournament was to catch 15 lbs. a day, which I figured would make the cut for the fourth day of the tournament with just the top 10 anglers being able to continue. Fishing with both Shooter and Ken, we had a number of times in Pool 3 where we would catch 15 lbs in a matter of 2-3 hours.

I started the first day of the tournament fishing the wing dams up by Prescott and many of the spots that I learned from Shooter. We caught a few smaller fish early in the day but it seemed like the river was changing and the fish were on the move. The river was quite changeable during this time of the year depending on if the Corp of Engineers had the dam gates open or not. This would affect the flow and the amount of debris in the river. It seemed that my fishing was better when the gates on the dam were open and the river was flowing faster. By mid-day I was back in Buffalo Slough and picked up enough nice fish to finish the day in 7th place. Ken fished the tournament as a co-angler and he and his pro partner also ended up fishing in Buffalo Slough, where he caught a 9-pound walleye. We knew the big girls were in there.

The second day of the tournament slowed down for me as I could not find many fish up at the Prescott end of Pool 3. Went back to Buffalo Slough mid-day and picked up a few decent fish. I lost my best fish of the day just out of reach of the net and ended falling back to around 17th place. I decided then that I would head back to Buffalo on the third day, first thing in the morning.

We pulled into Buffalo Slough and were set up to fish by 7:45 in the morning. On the first run through the slough we hooked on to a big fish that went nearly 10 lbs. What a great feeling to have that big fish in the box at the start of the day. We were able to pull four more fish and ended up in 4th place after day three. This was quite exciting as it was the first time that I had made a top ten finish in a pro tournament and was able to go on to fish the final day.

For the last day of the tournament, the top four anglers got a Fox Sports Net cameraman in their boat along with a shadow boat to assist with the shooting of the tape for the FLW Outdoors television show. It was a great opportunity for any competitive tournament angler. Upon pulling into Buffalo Slough first thing in the morning there was cause for concern. The flow was gone as the Corp had closed the gates on the dam. For the first three days of the tournament, the current was rolling through the cut like boiling water. So much so that it created tiny waves. Now the water was flat. I should have known better because this is what happened the previous Saturday during the League event where I ran into a tough bite. We trolled through the slough most of the day but could not catch a fish. We left for a period of time during the middle of the day to troll some spots out in the main channel but it was too dirty to keep our lines clean. Returned back to the slough for the end of the day and was able to catch one 3-pound fish thanks to a tip from one of my river-rat friends. He told me to troll the edge of the slough in the shallow water near the grass with a Hot-n-Tot. It worked, but it was too little too late.

I headed back to the weigh-in quite disappointed that I could not put together a better day seeing how I had the opportunity for a great pay-day along with the exposure of the Fox Sports cameraman. First place for the tournament was out of reach as an angler named Jeff Ryan had phenomenal fishing up from the mouth of the Vermillion River and had the tournament in his pocket after the third day. I was grateful to be able to bring one fish to the scales and ended the tournament in 9th place.

This tournament left me hungry to win one at this level. It also left me with a lot of great experience that I hope to apply to my next tournament opportunity in Redwing in the spring of 2007. When the fishing in Buffalo Slough went south, I didn't have a good enough backup plan on where to go. By the end of the tournament, I figured out where the other guys were catching the fish that left Buffalo Slough. I also learned that hand-lining just might do the trick in the main channel of the river when it becomes too dirty to troll!

Will let you know another time.