PMTT St. Louis River 2010
The PMTT – Musky Hunter Magazine’s tournament at the Superior, WI area by the Professional Musky Tournament Trail was a great surprise. The not so much talked about St. Louis River showed its true colors in a very large fashion. Forty nine muskies were registered by the anglers with at least seventeen muskies over forty inches being caught and released.
The fishery has various areas to fish. The seven mile stretch that was within tournament boundaries has a narrow area with weed beds on the edges of the channel. The river then meanders north and widens. Other areas to fish muskies had large shallow flats along with other structure such as bridges, pilings and riprap. The river then flows into a basin called Superior Bay.
The field of anglers had to contend with high west winds both days, which made boat control a challenge. Air temperatures were between fifty and seventy degrees, with some drizzle in the morning turning to clear skies. The water was sixty-four degrees which made the fish feed preparing for the long winter ahead.
The tournament was won by two Wisconsin anglers Jeremy VanErt of Clintonville and Greg Majka of Wausau. The gentlemen caught an astounding five muskies measuring 35.50, 40.75, 42.50, 44.50, and 44.75 inches. They enticed the muskies with orange baits which included bulldawgs, jerk baits and buck tails. The structure that muskies were holding on was the main river channel where it came into a weed flat. The anglers took home the first place trophies and over $7680 in cash.
Right on the winning teams heals in second place were Spencer Berman of Spring Park MN and local fishing guide James Gotham of Superior WI. They also caught five muskies that measured 38.25, 38.25, 38.75, 39.50 and 41.50.They found their muskies in isolated patches of cabbage and used a white shallow invader, suicidal suckers and glide baits. The anglers found that their fish would strike the bait as they would pause during the retrieve.
The third place winners caught three muskies that were37.50, 42.50 and 45.25 inches. Ross Korpela and John Adkins of Carlton, MN used cowgirl lures pink in color to catch their fish. In fourth place with a 43 and 47.25 inch muskies were two twin cities Minnesota anglers Troy Zuelke and Josh Borovsky. The two anglers mentioned that the fish they caught hit as the bait was stalled during the retrieve also. They used phantom jerk bait and a top raider in shallow weeds to catch their fish.
Rounding out the top five, in fifth place with muskies that were 37.50 and 52.5 inches was Mark Lijewski and Clay Schroeder of Minoqua, Wisconsin. Mark fished alone both days of the event and managed to net the big fish of the day for Saturday. He used brown, black and orange bulldawgs and cowgirls as his lure choice. The main thing he found was warmer water that attracted muskies and bait fish to the area he was fishing. Mark and Clay are currently the Top Gun Team of the Year anglers in the year standings. The big fish of the day for Sunday was caught by David Brown of Ashland Wisconsin and Scott Johnson of Racine Wisconsin. Their fish was caught on a bulldawg and measured 46.50 inches.
More info at www.promusky.com
Congrats to Greg and his partner on this win!!!!
