Achman / Behsman Towed to Victory

   The weeks leading into the fourth and final MWT Qualifier of the 2005 campaign showed promise of a good bite on the Mississippi river, but it wasn’t to be.  Even with steady weather and slowly falling water levels, the bite seemed to decline as each day passed leading into tournament weekend.  The Frontenac Sportsman Club annual tournament, held the day before ours, produced a nice winning basket from the wing dams in Wabasha, but the weights would fall off quickly after that with well over half the teams not registering fish.

   It would be a 30 plus mile run down to the wing dams at Wabasha from Colvill Park tournament headquarters and a few teams did make the run but it would do most little good.  Only four teams would opt to head north for the dam at ease off.  Most teams would go south to various destinations throughout the 44-mile stretch of tournament legal water.

   The area around Deer Island would prove to be one location that was popular with several teams, as it had been kicking out walleyes consistently throughout the pre-fish period.  However the lack of larger fish from this location was a concern.

   Eventual winners Lee Achman of Morristown, and partner Larry Behsman from Elysian, fished this area with success but they would have a much different concern later in the day.  Their concern wasn’t the size of the fish, but the amount of fuel in the boat that ended up being a little short!  About three miles short!

   Throughout pre-fishing Achman and Behsman had not found a spot that they thought could produce a winning basket.  Larry Behsman’s son, Troy and his partner Mark Daschner, suggested the Deer Island area to them, as they had caught numerous fish there, stating that they were going to go after larger fish up by the dam.

  Achman and Behsman made the 17-mile run down to the Deer Island area and began to pull Shad Raps on leadcore line at 2.8 mph.  They would troll the 3 to 4 mile stretch working the 15’ to 17’ depths all day from Bogus Point down past Deer Island to Pepin Point.  They would go on to catch 21 walleyes, of which only 6 would be of tournament legal length.  Even with the lack of a big fish in their basket they would weigh enough to snag the win.  Their 6 fish basket would weigh 9.72 lbs and cash them the $2,500.00 first place check with a winning margin of 7 tenths of a pound.

   Lee and Larry had filled (or thought they had filled) their boat with gas after pre-fishing Saturday, but evidently there had been an air lock in the tank, as it was not full.  On Sunday, while trolling, they noticed that their gas gauge was much lower than anticipated.  As they made they way back to Colvill Park for the weigh-in, they would run out of gas near the mouth of the river into Lake Pepin.  Jim and Andy, who were on their way back in after being out checking boats that afternoon came across Lee and Larry slowly making progress up river against the current with their trolling motor.  Jim and Andy would throw them a rope and pull them the last 2½ miles to the weigh-in.

   Second place finishers, Allen Vasquez and Jason Oman, from Andover and Oak Grove, spent the day drifting with the current and working the deeper holes in the Wisconsin Channel with orange jigs tipped with a ½ of a nightcrawler.  They had caught their 6 fish limit plus 6 other shorter walleyes when they decided to move closer to the weigh-in location later in the afternoon.  They settled into a 7’ to 8’ deep hole in an area known as Fisherman’s Cut at about 2:30pm where they managed to catch 3 more walleyes, upgrading a 15” to a 17”.  That turned out to be an important upgrade, as their 6 fish basket, worth $1,500.00 would weigh 9.02 lbs., just less one tenth of a pound over the 3^rd place finishers.  They credited Marty Hahn, a friend with whom they had pre-fished with on the Sunday before, for showing them some good locations and presentations.

   Third place finishers Kevin Klimmek and partner Troy Peterson, from Shakopee and Pequot Lakes, respectively, would also have a 6 fish tournament limit.  Their basket weighed 8.95 lbs and would be good for a $1,250.00 check and plaques.

   Kevin and Troy fished the cans by Presbyterian Point at the river mouth into Lake Pepin all day.  They would work a 5’ to 10’ deep clam bed on the main channel edge with very small leeches on a plain red hook anchored with a small split shot about three feet up the line.  They would catch their biggest walleye of the day by 7:30am on their first pass.  It would take until noon before they would put a 2^nd and 3^rd in the box.  Walleye number six would find a home in the livewell about 2:30pm.  Kevin and Troy stated that they lost 2 big fish at the boat and had caught 3 or 4 other short walleyes but were not able to upgrade any fish.  The pair spent a busy day though as they needed to weed through the catfish to find the walleyes.

   Big fish honors went to Randy Klasen from Maple Grove and his partner Joe Hyser from Minneapolis.  They only had 2 walleyes, but they were the right 2 walleyes, as they not only had the largest of the event, they also had the 2^nd largest walleye.  Randy and Joe took home $730.00 cash in the Big Fish Pot plus the Beckman landing nets.  They also finished in 7^th place for an additional $650.00 check.