SHEFFIELD LAKE, Ohio (WFXR) — Young Will Brown, originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, brought the walleye to the scale.
“Six-point-49 pounds,” said Erie Outfitters owner and one of the organizers of the Fall Walleye Slam Craig Lewis. “That’s a nice fish, young man.”
Brown, is one of more than a combined ten thousand anglers entered in the Walleye Slam and the Walleye Fall Brawl. At least 47 anglers from Virginia are also contestants.
The Slam and the Brawl have grown into two of the largest and richest single-big-fish fishing derbies in the world. Both have top prizes of boats approaching $200 thousand in value, with vehicle an other cash prizes in the tens of thousands of dollars.
All it takes to finish in the money is a little luck, a lot of skill, and a single big walleye that weighs more than any of the others entered.
Anglers compete on Lake Erie, considered the best walleye fishery in the world, for six weeks from late October to the first week of December. The tournaments attract people from more than two dozen states.
“They’ll actually fly in for a couple of days from California or Florida,” said Lewis. “We’ve got competitors from Wisconsin, West Virginia, Virginia, Maine, we’ve got a lot of different states represented.”
The attraction of the tournaments is that contestants do not have to be pros, and they do not need expensive gear or make a huge time investment. Competitors fish when they can. And, lives can be changed in a heartbeat.
There’s two guys fishing 15 or 20 minutes and they had the winner for the Brawl,” said Shine’s Bait and Tackle owner Benjamin Stidham.
Stidham is a Brawl organizer and his shop serves as one of the weigh stations for that tournament.
He says he is amazed by the fish he sees brought in to be entered: “That’s the most exciting because I see fish larger than what I caught myself, personally. To see it in person, it’s quite the sight.”
So, why Lake Erie?
It is considered the best walleye fishery in the world, and that is one reason for the success of both tournaments. The lake holds great numbers of walleye, and good numbers of huge walleye. Right now, a 12 pound fish leads the Brawl; an 11 pound fish leads the Slam.
The autumn is trophy time. Big walleye move closer to shore to binge feed on forage in anticipation of winter. They are read to eat, and will readily hit a variety of offerings. However, fishing Lake Erie in the late fall can present its own challenges; with cold temperatures, high winds, and rough seas. Still, it is not enough to keep thousands of anglers to come from hundreds of miles to take a crack at catching a big money fish.
“It’s going to be windy, maybe bumpy,” said Blazing Reels Charters owner Mike Schenk as we cruised out of the harbor at Lorain, Ohio.
Schenk was right. Winds were blowing out of the southeast at more than 10 mph causing four foot rollers. Temperatures were in the high 40s.
Despite the boat rocking, Schenk and his friend Kenny Purkey started setting out lines. They were running stick and crankbaits, like Bandits, at different depths behind planer boards. It did not take long to hook up.
“I’ve got one on the outside,” said Purkey.
He reeled in a two pound fish. Not a trophy, and not a derby fish, but still a good eater-sized fish, so into the livewell it went.
“A little wind, a little waves, a little bit of fish,” said Purkey. “It doesn’t get much better than that.”
“We’re hoping to get that big fish,” said Schenk. “We want that big one on the board.”
But, on this day, there were no trophies, but there was a three-man limit caught of fish ranging up to five pounds. That is an exception day almost anywhere else. On Lake Erie, it is just about average; that is how good the walleye fishing is there.
“I’ve been on this lake now my whole life,” said Lewis. “I’ve never seen walleye fishing this good.”
We checked with organizers of both tournaments and anglers from Virginia and West Virginia have weighed fish, but so far, none have cracked the Top Ten to make it into the money.
