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Posts: 172
| WOW LAKE SHELBYVILLE spit them out under extreme cold front conditions as it set new records for numbers of fish.
I've competed in every PMTT event since it started five years ago and I found this event to be one of the most educating ones yet. I learn from every tournament I fish but this one really surprised me. Most guys including myself arrived to pre-fish on Wednesday and Thursday to find water temps in the low to mid fifties (warmer than the CAVE) with air temps in the 70’s and 80’s and water levels down 8 feet. With Shelby’s reputation most guys started trolling only to find that not much was happening. Guess where and what I started with? Yes Flats with TRAPS and they did produce but mostly smaller fish, when I went to casting the timber line in major feeder creeks we found bigger muskies. Several 40” plus fish were taken Thursday and Friday in these locations but as we watched the weather we figured something was going to change and it did. As we woke to a wind chill of 21 degrees and winds nearing 30 mph it was not pleasant. Most all casters didn’t see a fish, yet Lake Shelbyville showed it’s true colors (the troll bite was on) 26 muskies caught I think it was 23 trolling and 22 around the dam and of course inside Lithia Springs Marina area. As the previous tournaments on Lake Shelbyville it was a CIRUS in the marina area nearly 50 boats in less than 100 acres of water at all times with one report of 72 trolling at one time there.. It was truly amazing and something you had to see to believe as Don and I elected to do on Sunday. Crash even jumped in with the caravan and popped one with an hour left, we all laughed about being in there when we swore we wouldn’t fall that low to catch one of these crazy fish.Onew guy wore a towel over his head to avoid the shame, he caught a ton of laughs but to probably had to be there. It was truly a zoo, at one point there were 6 lanes of trollers packed in that small area, it looked like a freeway for boats. When the word PRESSURE is brought up to me from here on out I am going to laugh. Don & I personally watched 15 or 16 muskies caught on day two in the marina area, some less than 20 feet from my boat but none for us, those fish seen 1000's of lures each day. Fish were porposing in between boats passing. All those boats never bothered there feeding habits, as I have always said when muskies are eating they are eating. In fact at one point Scott Flat and his partner were passing me on the right and as I talked to Scott his rod went off, within seconds a boat on the other side of us hit one too, Don yelled “what the *@%# is wrong with our baits we just passed over those fish”, we laughed and keep trolling. Both boats rod tips were about ten feet from mine when both fish it, it was amazing. We held short conversations with other anglers as we pulled our lures joking that it was somewhat a crap shoot, right bait at the right time. Sounds like muskie fishing. That’s the way it happened most of the day, the muskies came in spurts. About every hour two or three boats would hit fish real close to each other, almost like the muskies were hunting in “packs” just like the fisherman?????? LOL
Day two 23 fish caught about 19 or 20 trolling.
Maybe the most impressive thing about the event was the winners, Steve and Duane took all three of there fish casting in fact they worked a 100 yard stretch for the entire 2 days and it paid off. My hat is off to these guys for sticking with their game plan.
Great job guys!!!!!!!
All in all it was a great event that showed Shelbyville is a real “Fish Factory” and they were healthy.
If you have any questions about the tourney please feel free to e-mail me, I am real busy so it may take a few days for me to answer.
ALSO watch for my report at each event of the PMTT and maybe some other tourneys too. Got to go I have to guide in 5 hours.
See ya Tony Grant
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Posts: 2091
Location: Stevens Point, WI | Thanks for the excellent report Tony. |
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Posts: 259
| What a great story! It Makes me happy that I'm just a weekend warrior.
Edited by jonfloater 4/7/2003 3:47 AM
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Posts: 929
Location: Rhinelander. | AS Tony said it was an education. I would have thought for sure that all those boats passing overhead would push the muskies deeper. What we found out is the guys that trolled at a level higher then we did caught the fish. So much for the thinking that pressure pushes them deeper. These muskies were not affected by a ton of pressure. All in all I like to say it was still alot of fun but it was #$%*(&^$ cold.
If anyone snags a cell phone there its mine. That should tell you how it went for us. Hopefully at the cave we will do better.
Don Pfeiffer |
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Posts: 172
| What Tony forgot to tell you was.....he thought he was Moses !!! 50 boats all going east and here come Tony right down the middle of us. Like Crash, I tried it for an hour but, couldn't stand it. Never have I seen anything like it. Color, speed, size didn't matter. I had two boats dead behind me and I mean right on top of my lures catch fish. I should have taken pictures. |
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Posts: 32957
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Thanks for the report, gentlemen. We are looking forward to your reports from tournaments all through the season! |
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Posts: 2691
Location: Pewaukee, Wisconsin | BACKLASH I did take pictures of that, we were in there Saturday and scored a 38 to get 10th for the day then Sunday all hell broke loose in that area, what a zoo. My computer is in the shop for upgrades and I will get these pictures up when I get to load them in to my computer.
Don and Tony don't feel like you guys were the only ones to go deeper, we worked under the fish almost all day Sunday and we got skunked for our efforts. You were correct when you said you should have fished higher, we worked it thinking the fishing preasure would keep them down some. Crazy fish didn't care about the boat preasure they just went about feeding as usual. Live and learn. Bring on the Cave. |
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Posts: 57
Location: Winneconne, WI | We stayed away from that area the whole weekend. Got one nice rip in there on Friday but that was it. Casted in coves Saturday morning and got a 33.75" at 7:30am. What a buzz kill. Did pick up a 37.5" on Sunday (trolling) in the same cove we were in Saturday to finish 18th. We had never trolled before Thursday and got a good grip on the whole concept. The fish came off a point between 25' of water when our lures came up to 16'. The guy behind us picked one up also right off the same point.
We did have a lot of fun down there and are definately looking forward to the Cave and the fine Southern hospitality.
Brad |
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Posts: 117
Location: champaign, illinois | As a regular of Shelbyville I can tell you that the seasonal pleasure boat traffic in that area probably wasn't that much different than what the tournament traffic was, so those fish probably thought that summer arrived a bit earlier is all! 
Jay
Lake Shelbyville Muskie Club
and
Illinois Muskie Tournament Trail www.illmuskie.com |
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Posts: 929
Location: Rhinelander. | I also took some pictures of this. I don't think I'll ever see it again.
Pfeiff |
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Posts: 212
Location: Madison, WI | I was in the mix too and it was controlled chaos. Boats going around and around and around in a circle. I was very surprised by the fact that we were not catching each others line in the process. I also thought it was a great display of sportmanship on everyone's part. That many boats is such a small place with a tournament on the line and nothing but encouraging words and jokes past between boats. It was fun to be apart of it all. Peter Boat#97
Edited by SharpHooks 4/11/2003 12:24 PM
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Report from the Trail