WMT - 2010 Pewaukee Classic

[Sam Ubl]

2010 Wisconsin Musky Tour

Hosting the 9th annual Pewaukee Classic!

West winds and overcast skies made conditions less than ideal the last two years during this 1-day event. Trolling motor batteries were put to the test in a constant battle against the rolling whitecaps, some proving less then sea worthy as some boats were forced to anchor and fan-cast small areas. With the limited coves to hide from the elements, fishing pressure on these few spots was immense.

While 2008 and 2009 shared identical conditions, a week separated the spawn between the two years making the bites polar opposites. Late post-spawn fish were sluggish at best, thus only 2 fish made the board in 2008, yet last year was a stellar event for WMT anglers on Pewaukee Lake as 15 musky were registered by the days end, including the first place team who doubled up within a half-hour of one another within 2 cast lengths away from me.

My usual partner, James Formolo, and I tallied 3 short’s that didn’t quite have enough to get us on the board. Several other follows throughout the day were enough to keep our confidence up, despite the terrible conditions.

This year, as Wisconsin embarks upon the 2010 Southern Game Fish Season, the WMT once again plans to pay a visit to Pewaukee and Okauchee Lake on May 15 & 16 as they have in the past. Pewaukee’s event always fills up with a full field of 75 boats for a one day tournament, thus paying out $10,000 for first place, on down to 5th place. With an additional Big Fish and First Fish pool in everyone’s crosshairs, this years event will surely be a battle.

My usual partner will be fishing this year with his father as he gets up there in age, a testament to his appreciation for time well spent with his loved ones. I will be teaming up with good friend, Mike Koepp, a professional guide on Pewaukee Lake, in search of bragging rights and $10K purse – not a Louie Vuiton.

The summary of this years Pewaukee Classic, hosted by the Wisconsin Musky Tour, will conclude here by Monday the 17th. Stay tuned to learn how we did.

Wish us luck!

[dan]

I will be rooting for you Sam!

[hotterthantiffany]

GOOD LUCK

[WiBowhuntress]

Good luck Sam - hope the musky gods are smiling down on you!!

[forgehunter]

Best of Luck to you Sam!

[Sam Ubl]

So here we are, a day and a half before we ease out into 10 hours of pounding her out. Mike Koepp, my partner, has been on the water every day but one since the opener and has some strong patterns working for him. Myself? I've been out 3 times and have rolled two and seen several, but water time these first two weeks have been seldom due to some time constraints life has dawned on me lately.

Koepp and I will be out this evening to get in tune with eachother and he will again be out early tomorrow morning to replicate the following days start-off.

Unfortunately I can't say more at this time as you never know who's reading in, but the details to come after the weekend - stay tuned!

[dan]

Good luck Sam!

[PeteJ]

Good LUCK!

[Sam Ubl]

Thanks guys!

[hotterthantiffany]

and the results are......

[Sam Ubl]

Thursday and Friday of pre-fishing before Saturday’s event was satisfying to say the least. Within an hour on both days, we doubled up with fish, of which 3 of the 4 were legal size and would have counted during tourney hours.

With strong 35MPH winds ripping out of the west, Pewaukee Lake looked like a small ocean with 3 footers rolling along the length of the lake. Fifteen foot wide white caps stretched themselves out and tested our sea legs as Koepp held our position over a chum line of debris the wind had created over one of the warmest places we could find. 101 lbs of thrust with 4 batteries as a backup were more than enough as we battled the wind in search of an active pattern.

Such a pattern we did find. Fish were stacked in three spots, of which none were well known community spots – perfect! Best of all, the battlefield would be limited to a select number of boats worthy of fighting these rough seas, while the rest of the playing field would be limited to the very few spots on the lake that runs West to East with high West winds.

Our confidence in the pattern we had dwindled, however, as the weather would do a 180 from the last few days. Overnight, the wind would settle to a mild 3 to 5 MPH breeze at times, otherwise, the water was glass. Further, the wind that had pummeled the East end so hard the last couple days had now done a 180 turn for worse, as the slight breeze now came out of the East.

Our choice to follow our pattern and hope for the best showed some remaining fish, but not in the numbers they were the day before – nor were they as active.

Dead flat calm is never easy, but 24 fish fell victim to the boards as 21 teams of the 75 scored, us being one of them. After seeing a half-dozen fish by 10:00, we were ready to stick one. A cast in the right place at the right time found an aggressor that had more fury than the window shoppers from earlier and I reared back in a hungry hook set. The battle ensued and soon we had a 34” female in the bag.

You can tell the females from the males in this lake without getting scientific – their bodies are deeper, fuller. A male this time of year is more slender and often times beat up.

While registering the fish, contestants have 15 minutes to wait to ensure a healthy release of the registered fish, before they are given the go-ahead to return to the battlefield.

In this time a quick conversation with the judges and a look over the board spoke volumes of what it would take to get in the money. We would need a second fish, that much was certain, but a 45” would win it for us and we knew of just such a fish I had raised shy of 20 minutes before hooking up to the 34”.

We slid back onto her home base and immediately raised her again – she wouldn’t go. Try to make a sale boatside to a window shopper with a Reef Hawg, and if you figure out a more effective method than my pause and twitch, such as an effective way of figure 8ing those suckers, call me!

A long 3 hours passed and only an hour remained. We knew we needed to make a change, but what would it take to stick one in the final moments?

We opted to slide out from the cover in search of suspendos – and suspendo’s we did find! With pods of baitfish at 6’ in 15 feet of water, big arcs looming just below told as good of a story as any desperate fisherman needed to hear. I ripped my dog at 5 to 6 feet down, trying to scatter the baitfish and hope those big arcs would chase down the aggressor. In the last 15 minutes of the tournament, I had a 4 footer up to the boat and it was game-back-on!

A couple slow turns and she returned to the depths, but in those 15 remaining minutes, we had her up two more times, as well as 6 other fish, ALL OVER 40 inches!! I have never landed on such a flurry of action in one spot before, and it seemed to be just in time, yet that clock struck 4 and it was game over before we could seal the deal.

We stuck around an extra 30 minutes as the launch cleared in hopes we could stick one of these pigs just for fun. In those 30 minutes, we rose 8 more fish, of which I’m certain a few were the same ones, but boy, they just wouldn’t eat

It’s great to get on the board, though, so for that we were satisfied. The big fish of the tourney was a 42.75 incher, and first fish came right around 6:15, a quick start for one lucky team. There must have been one of a window as the judges/tourney director, Tom McGinnis, said at one point he had 8 fish being registered at one time!

Below are 3 of the fish we caught during prefishing on Thursday and Friday. I am pictured with a 38” from Friday morning caught at 6:15, and Mike Koepp is pictured with the follow up to “win” in our moc-tourney Friday morning at 7:00 am with his 43.5” Koepp is also pictured with a 36” from Thursday evening and the 32” from Thursday didn’t get a picture.

My 34” from Saturday will be shown when the picture is published onto the WMT site.

[Sam Ubl]

Here are the same fish pics, only not modified. . . I was screwing around to see how to make them look less dull - I think all I did was make them look fake

[dan]

Awesome! Its great to stay in the race right to the end!

[huntinnurse]

Congrats on getting on the board!!!! Sounds like you had a great weekend on the water!!!!!

[forgehunter]

Nice work Sam! good day on the water!