PMTT Report-Eagle River

[Tom Dietz]

Dave and I returned from Eagle River, Wisconsin today after a very exciting weekend at the PMTT event on my home waters of the Eagle River Chain of Lakes. We finished in 16th place overall, one darn quarter of an inch out of the money with my 36 1/2" fish I caught Saturday. I missed a 35" class musky Saturday as well that just nipped my bucktail, and Dave and I had four other good follows late on Saturday afternoon. We were in 13th place going into Sunday, and I told Dave we weren't going to leave fish to find fish, and we pounded the same two hundred yard weed edge for six hours, and we had four nice fish follow to the boat again, when suddenly, at noon, Dave hollers "there's one!!!" and he goes into the figure eight and the fish hits him. I look down and see forty-four to forty-five inches of musky hooked on three feet of line and frantically retrieve my lure that was already out on a bomb cast!! Just as I set down the rod and grab the net, the musky turned and headed straight down in a violent corkscrewing power dive, and the big fish was gone. That musky would have vaulted Dave and I easily into third place in the event, and would have put us in first place for sure for Team of the Year! Anyways, we still rose in the Team of the Year standings and should now be in third place or so headed into the last event, which is very exciting.

We stayed at my Mom's house and had great meals and great times. We also went out and caught a bunch of nice Smallmouths on Friday before the event. What could have been.....but we still had a wonderful time, and it is always great to go home and fish home waters. Lastly, a HUGE congrats to my good friend Rob Manthei of St. Germain, who won the event, as well as to good friends Aaron Templin and Joe Andersen of Bemidji, MN for boating a legal, as well as good friend Phil Gutmann of Chicago, who also boated a legal to help his overall standings for Team of the Year. On to the St. Croix River in September!!