Fall Brawl fizzle: Plenty of wind, snow and ice, but no fish to be had

Like about 10,000 other avid fishermen, I got caught up in the excitement of the fall walleye fishing tournaments that just ended on Lake Erie. The original Fall Brawl, and then the Walleye Slam, has lured a lot of Lake Erie fishermen into entering their tournaments just in case they catch a big, fat momma during late-season fishing on the world-famous walleye waters.

How do they lure fishermen? Well in the case of the Fall Brawl, a total payout of over half-a-million dollars (this year $512,900) will do that. And, if you win both tournaments with one big fish, the lucky fisherman will be taking home over $250,000 in prizes.

While the tournaments both started in mid-October and ran through noon Sunday, Nov. 27, historically the winning fish are caught late in the tournament, over Thanksgiving weekend. I was banking on fishing hard the week before Thanksgiving, as hitting the big lake around the family holiday was out of the question for me, although I did have a free pass to fish Saturday, Nov. 26. But, with Ohio State hosting Michigan that day, and me being an ardent Buckeyes fan, I wasn’t leaving the couch that day.

Mother Nature's gale-force winds, lake-effect snowstorms

So, it came down to the week before, and unfortunately, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate as lake-effect snowstorms and gale-force winds not only kept my little boat off the lake, but every other walleye fisherman as well. The week I was hoping to fish, the forecast on Lake Erie was for waves “occasionally reaching 18 feet.”

My fishing buddy, Gene Post, even ran across a bunch of disgusted fishermen at Lake Erie Outfitters (Walleye Slam headquarters) who had come down from Wisconsin to try their luck at fishing the Fall Brawl and Walleye Slam, but they couldn’t get on the lake.

Post and I did get out one day to fish, on the Tuesday after the big blow, but even that was a struggle. We had decided to fish out of Rocky River where we had the option of chasing steelhead if the lake was too rough. The forecast was for 1-3-foot waves and freezing temperatures at daybreak, but warming up into the high 40s by the afternoon.

So, we picked a later-than-usual start time, pulling into the ramp at Rocky River just after 9 a.m. To our surprise, though, the ramp was iced in. While we could easily break through it, there was ice as far as we could see, and we didn’t want to test our luck. So, we changed plans and headed west to Avon Lake.

At the Miller Road ramp there were already over 20 boat trailers in the parking lot, and a steady line of fishermen were getting ready to put in. Knowing how much the ramp was going to be used that day, the Avon Lake street department even salted the put-in and take-out lanes to make it easier for the vehicles to navigate the steep launch.

Fishermen just couldn't hook up with the walleye

Some good waves greeted us out on the water, but thankfully we were fishing out of Post’s Hewes Craft, which handled the conditions just fine. The lake water temperature was 42 degrees and the constant 10 mph winds out of the southwest reminded us we weren’t fishing in June. While the word on the street was the schools of walleye had already moved farther west, we managed to mark random pods of walleye, mostly in 35 feet of water, and mostly in the bottom third of the water column.

We tried both casting and trolling for a bite, but we never did hook up. And, we never saw any other boats get their nets out of the holder. The walleye were there, but we couldn’t get them to go.

However, someone must have found the big ones, as while we were in the tie-down lane prepping the boat for the drive home, the Walleye Slam website was updated with a new leader as James Holton checked in a 31.5-inch walleye that tipped the scale at 13.62 pounds, knocking Tammy Stanton’s 13.44-pound walleye into second place.

I have no idea if Holton’s big fish held on to win the Slam and Brawl as I submitted this story for publication before the tournament ended, but I am sure it’ll put him in the money.

And, I’m sure there were plenty of fishermen out there chasing big mommas on Thanksgiving, as well as Friday, Saturday and Sunday. For me, though, I guess I’ll have to be content with the thought of knowing that at least I tried.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

With the best days of the tournaments still to be fished, there were already 71 walleye checked in at the Walleye Slam headquarters as of 11/22 that weighed over 9 pounds, including two 13 pounders and one 12-pounder (James Trent 12.22). And, two women sit in the top five as of this writing, with Pamela Flanagan fifth with her 11.61-pounder that measured 31.5 inches. Stanton’s fish was the longest so far at 32.25 inches.

In the Fall Brawl standings, the top three are the same as the Slam, with Nathan Bowman fourth at 11.81 and Daniel Burkholder (fourth in the Slam) fifth. Burkholder’s fish weighed 11.86 on the Slam scales and 11.80 on the Fall Brawl scales.

Outdoor correspondent Art Holden can be reached at letsplabal@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Big Fall Brawl, Walleye Slam hopes; Mother Nature's had other ideas