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4608 Tower St.
Edina, MN 55424
(612) 440-7171
tcwalleyes@gmail.com
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Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited - Monthly Newsletter |
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Ice Out… Get Ready
Greetings Club friends! Wow, what a great turn out we had for our April club meeting and guest speaker Jon Thelen. Jon gave a great presentation and taught us to NOT fear the weeds. I will for sure be using his ideas the next time I’m on the water and targeting those walleyes up shallow in cover. Thank you Jon and thanks to all of our club members who attended.
With the ice out early on our local lakes, hopefully you have had a chance to organize your open water gear and even put your boat in to do a little pan fishing. May 15th is the start of the walleye season and if the weather cooperates, it will sure make for a great fishing opener.
May 6th is our last club meeting before our summer break and I’m looking forward to our guest speaker Troy Smutka. Troy’s Great Day on the Water, Minnesota Fishing Guide Service focuses on guiding on Mille Lacs and several local Twin Cities area lakes. I can’t wait for Troy to share some of his ideas to get ready for opener.
Our club is so close to hitting our $1,000 goal for the Wasserman Lake Fishing Pier project. Our May club meeting will be your last chance to help us reach our goal. We are planning on presenting our donation at their grand opening in June. Look for more details for how you can join us at the celebration.
I look forward to seeing you at our May meeting and remember to bring a friend!
Dale Meinders
President of Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited
Connect | Educate | Give
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Location: Knights of Columbus
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Are you excited for fishing?
A club fishing outing is scheduled for Saturday May 22, 2021 at Lake Mille Lacs and we hope you can join us.
Click on the link above for full details.
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Jon Thelen's Tips
April Speaker Re-cap
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Membership has
it's advantages
You can find out more information about Twin Cities Walleyes Unlimited and our Events by going to our website and on Facebook
Connect | Educate | Give
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Featuring Troy Smutka
Thursday May 6, 2021
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TCWU is excited to host local guide, tournament angler and club friend Troy Smutka as our headline speaker for our May club meeting.
Troy is an experienced professional angler who channeled his passion as an educator (28 years as a school teacher) into a fishing career as a guide, fishing educator and writer for Mid-West Outdoors.
Troy truly enjoys sharing his fishing knowledge. Helping anglers improve their skills and success on the water is a sincere passion. Troy has vast fishing experience with many of the local metro lakes along with others such as Lake Mille Lacs where we will be hosting our club spring fishing outing. We can't wait to learn some of his fishing tips and apply them to the club outing, its almost like we planned to have Troy just to get us tuned in for it.
We hope you are all excited to meet Troy, below find a few fun facts!
Fun facts and a little history about Troy
- Central MM fishing guide (Great Day on the Water Guide Service) for 20+ years
- One first place finish and multiple top ten finishes in Minnesota Tournament Trail and Full Throttle walleye tournaments on Mille Lacs Lake
- Monthly staff writer for Midwest Outdoors Magazine
- You Tube show “Fishing and Hunting the North Country” as well as equipment reviews and short how-to videos on You Tube
- Troy taught Middle School social studies teacher and coached high school football in the Eastern Carver County School District for 28 years
Thanks for joining us Troy!
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Club Sponsor Spotlight
Scheels Outdoors
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Club Members Dale Meinders, Rusty Nelson and Erik Mosell who is a Scheels fishing manager pose at Scheels "Fish Fest" |
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Welcome Scheels of Eden Prairie!
Welcome to one of our newest club sponsor's, Scheels of Eden Prairie. Scheels joined us as a partner in November of 2020 and have become a valued club supporter. We are excited to partner with the Top Outdoor Retailer and couldn't be happier to have their amazing new store open in the Twin Cities.
A few fun facts, attractions and special offers
SCHEELS is one of the largest sporting goods stores in America with over 115 years of retail experience. They are unlike the many other's as they feature all the essential outdoor cool stuff that we need all in one stop.
Scheels features:
- High-quality product selection by leading brands
- Experts that are passionate about the products within their department
- Hosts fishing personalities, seminars and many other outdoor events
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Fun! They added special attractions to create a superior shopping experience for the entire family. Ferris Wheel, Aquarium, Indoor synthetic ice sheet, Rollerball, Shooting Gallery, Arcade, Candy Shop and more. Scheels Attractions
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Special Offers
Now through June 30th Scheels is offering a $50 gift card when you sign up for their Visa card and you earn points with every purchase, which equals more Gift Cards. Click this link for more information: Scheels Visa
SCHEELS is devoted to discovering your passion with a superior quality of customer service. Currently, SCHEELS has 29 locations in 13 states, including North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Nevada, Illinois, Utah, Kansas, Texas, and Colorado
Make sure you check out the New Scheels Eden Prairie experience you won't be disappointed
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Our Stringer of Guest Speakers
We are excited to share the list of great speakers we have lined up for our next club season. It's because you, our members, that we get to hear and learn from these amazing people. We are excited for upcoming season and hope to see all you at our meetings.
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Special Thanks to TROPHY Level Sponsors |
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Spring Club Fishing Outing Saturday, May 22, 2021 |
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Hello there fellow club members, I hope everyone is excited for fishing opener. We are so fired up we scheduled a club fishing outing on Saturday May 22, 2021 at Lake Mille Lacs.
We plan on working the north and east side depending on which way the wind is blowing. We have a couple different landings picked out on each side of the lake. We will let everyone know the plan a day or two before.
The coveted TCWU Trophy will be up for grabs as newly crowned Club Walleye champion Scott Kemmet attempts to defend the title he earned at the Fall outing. He is looking to repeat, let's hope he can be beat!
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Grinning and winning! Scott Kemmet receives the club trophy from Club President Dale Meinders for catching biggest Walleye last September on Lake Mille Lacs. |
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Sign up information:
- if you plan to attend let us know how many fishing buddy’s you are bringing. Son's daughter's grandchildren and their friends are all welcome. Please also share your phone number so we can check in as needed.
- Are you bringing a boat and do you have room for another club member?
- If you don’t have a boat, let us know so we can try to partner you up with someone.
- Bring a chair and your favorite beverages for lunch break.
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Event details
Date: Saturday May 22, 2021
Time and Schedule
- 6:30 am – Arrive at the landing, feel free to come earlier or later.
- 7:30 am - Fishing strategy breakfast meeting, TCWU will provide Breakfast snacks.
- 12:00 pm – lunch provided by the club, feel free to bring a favorite side dish.
- 1:00 pm back out fishing
North and Westside Landings
Eastside Landing
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Liberty Beach - Public Access 5382-5454 Waterway Rd, Isle, MN 56342
Club Event Contact: Kail Lavigne - 763-286-6130
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Early-season walleye anglers on Mille Lacs Lake will be able to keep one walleye 21-23 inches long or one longer than 28 inches. Summer will bring catch-and-release walleye fishing, with a mid-season closure, before the potential for a one-fish limit returns in the fall.
Upper Red Lake walleye regulations announced for open water season
Anglers fishing during the summer season on Upper Red Lake in northern Minnesota will have a three-walleye bag limit, with only one walleye longer than 17 inches allowed, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Reminder: Anglers can help prevent the spread of
aquatic invasive species
The approaching fishing season comes with a reminder from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to always follow state laws to prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. It’s also important for anglers to take a few minutes for invasive species prevention every time a boat comes out of the water.
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Thank You to all our Lunker Level Sponsors |
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TCWU Pro-tip of the Month
Featuring Mark Martin
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February guest speaker Jon Thelen shared this “Pro Tip of the Month “ with Club President Dale Meinders. Thanks for the great meeting Jon!
Click on the photo below to learn one of Jon's secrets for success
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Thank You to all our Slot Fish Level Sponsors |
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TCWU Guest Speaker Re-cap
Featuring Jon Thelen
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TCWU hosted Jon Thelen at our April 1st Club Meeting.
We had a huge member turnout and an awesome night at our April 1st club meeting featuring Jon Thelen as our special guest speaker.
It was truly refreshing to have Jon share his story from the early hard times and his transition to finding success. Jon’s honest sincerity really stood out with his story and really resonated with the club members. I think these attributes are what makes Jon so special and such a popular educator.
To the Club members that couldn’t make it in person we share Jon’s story and fishing secrets below. Enjoy the re-cap everyone!
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Jon's Drift to Success
Jon had a slow start to his career. He declared his first three years 2003 – 2006 as very mediocre. He wasn’t making any money, and he was preparing to return back into his previous career in logistics. “The tour was hard” he said. “I was away from family, missing the kids and had a long discussion with my wife about retiring from fishing.” Shortly thereafter Jon went fishing with his wife at Lake Mille Lacs and they caught 40 fish, which prompted his wife to say “why don’t you fish like this in the tournaments?”
This question turned out to be a career changing revelation. He said “well I am trying all this new stuff out on tour and aha!” He realized that he had abandoned the proven and simple techniques that worked that same day on Lake Mille Lacs. Jon applied these techniques and found immediate success as he started to consistently finish in the money.
His techniques were simple, find a place that others are not fishing around, and focus on fish that were undisturbed and less likely to spook (In the Weeds). There may be less fish in these spots but you also have them all to yourself, opposed to large schools with many more fishermen all fishing and pressuring the same school.
Jon was fishing the weeds and there was literally no one around. He had fine-tuned his fishing in the weeds techniques over the course of his Professional career and lucky for us he shared them all with us.
Fishing the Weeds
- After spawn the little fish stay in the weeds all summer, they are scared but come Mid-Summer as they finally get the courage to move out
- The Weeds provide feed, shade and cover, which means there is always a chance for a bite
- Must have deep water close by, so they can hide quickly from storms
- Weedlines with deep water in different directions are the best and allow you to play the wind. Example: bar stretching across the lake you have deep water on both sides.
- Pencil Style Weeds work nice in fall when the minnows move back in the shallows, lake minnow’s love these areas. Fish the outside weed line.
- Walleyes know two things, how to spawn and eat
- Cabbage creates great cover, comfort and escape
- Timing, they are not in the weeds early on, as soon as the weeds start growing the Walleyes come back in.
- Thick weeds = fish feeding all day - Sparse weeds = early mornings, evenings and overcast
- Walleyes in a cover situation have a different spook level. They feel more comfortable and won't disperse like they would on shallow flats and bars
Two ways to fish the weeds
- Look for depths in the 10 – 12 foot range
- Fish above them with spinners, their eyes are on top of there head and they are looking up watching for your spinner to go by
- Weed growth 4 -6 feet off the bottom with 5 feet of clean water above is the ultimate weed fishing condition
- Lindy Spinners at least 6 foot long and use fluorocarbon. Burry the hooks in the bait to help keep them weed less
- Uses Lindy rig tackle 7 ½ foot rod, ¼ ounce weight. If they are finicky go to an 1/8 ounce and let out more line.
- Cast out and Let more line out 5 feet at a time until you find your sweet spot 1.5 MPH is the median. .8 mph to 2.5 mph range
- Get your boat up to speed before casting out.
- Fish will relate to thick clumps of weeds, pay attention to these areas and notice the trends
- Cabbage with a canopy top provides the best cover for the fish and you in the boat
- Likes using one hook on a crawler harness with half a crawler hates all that junk down there.
- Uses rod holders and says don’t set the hook right away. Let them hook themselves they will tug of war with you, don’t open the bail, give them line
- Jon also uses floating cranks over the weeds.
- Try the Lindy Lil Guy. It floats and will help keep your rig out of the weeds if your boat slows down from waves or wind
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Tips for fishing the Weeds
- Set the hook high to keep your catch out of the weeds, move him in the right direction. Lose more fish side hooking
- In the weeds spinners and meat out perform all other baits
- Fire line = no room for error. if you lose tension the line goes limp immediately and if you pull too hard you lose them. Mono has stretch and forgiveness
- Large fish are dependent on lake the forage base.
- Pitching into the weeds brings error into the equation and you will get hung up in the weeds and ruin the cast. Spinners and Little guys eliminate the error.
Equipment
- Action and power of a fishing rod are two different things. Jon likes a fast action rod with tip bend and stout back bone
- Lindy walking sinker work the best over the weeds
- Try the Lindy Little Guy
- Use 6 foot mono leaders on braid
You can connect with Jon's host of educational videos, TV shows and Social Media outlets by checking out these sites:
Jon left us with this quote, which is good advice but hard to do.
"Don’t get sucked into fishing in the crowd. There are not that many fish to go around. Fish the weeds and you're sure to succeed!"
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Click on Jon's picture above to view one of his fishing the weeds videos |
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Thank You to all of our Keeper Sponsors |
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Thank You to all of our Club Donors! |
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TC Walleyes Unlimited, Inc. |
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