Rookies - by Brett Wilson

Brett Michaels here - as Paul announced us at tourney weigh-in....thinking we might have to start wearing bandanas and grow 80's rocker hair!  When I saw the post the league was opening up more spots I felt like I had to finally give this tournament fishing series stuff a go. We're out nearly every weekend and then some so what's the difference? Well that was the kicker, we never really fished gills at all, mostly targeted walleye and crappies late season. Tactics, structure, approach was all going to change, but we thought - "we're decent fisherman we will do okay" well that was a rude awakening. 

Going into the season we thought if we can place middle of the road, that would be pretty awesome and honestly a fair achievement for year one. Well the meet and greet happened 12/6, we met some guys talked some technique and found out we're old school and things were going to have to change fast. Hitting middle of the road was going to take patience and work...lots of work to beat the good sticks in this league. After a defeating lake one...couldn't get that last crappie. We learned this was going to be a lot tougher than it appeared. Through the next three lakes there was plenty of frustration, confusion, and issues but each lake we improved our tactics, approach, and plan and for the most part we could execute. Just never found those bigger fish consistently. By the time we hit lake 4...Mazaska...frustration was high as we found fish, had them on camera but could not get them to bite. Lots of discussion and questions to other teams helped us identify a little better bait but still the struggle was real and it was deflating. I think, like most young teams we learned at this point patience is key and never getting discouraged will help you succeed. We did land two nice crappies and almost had big fish (4th) overall...I'll take that. 

In the end I can not think of a better year of ice fishing. The competitive edge mixed with the knowledge we gained over the two months trumps 30 years of previous experience. Our tactics are improving and our technique is changing, that is all thanks to other members of this great league sharing their knowledge and supporting our growth. We will keep practicing and pushing and we'll be back next year to try and move up the ranks. 

We want to say thank you all for your support, thank you for being welcoming of us "rookies" and thank you Jake and Paul for running the show and opening more spots for us to join in. 

Congrats to Nick and Leif, your season was truly fun to watch. To all the other teams, congrats to you too it was fun just watching bags come in, and seeing some real nice fish. We look forward to seeing you all soon on the lakes and next season. 

Brett