The first tournament of the year is over. Although it was disappointing finishing 52 out of 123 it was still a great time. Lessons were learned, the bite was great and the new Lund/Mercury is everything that I expected and much more! Here is a recap of the pre-fishing with part II coming soon.

Pre-Fishing



March 19-20 - One of my favorite things about fishing tournaments is I get to spend a few days pre-fishing with friends that I normally I do not get to spend a lot of time with. On the 19th I shared the boat with one of my high school buddies, Scott Gordon who lives in Bloomington, IL and one of my fishing mentors (Sat and Sun), Mark Michael who lives in Princeton, IL. We spent the morning trolling number 9 rapalas and some custom stick baits down at the clam beds. The bite was pretty good when we concentrated on a tight break in 14 to 17 feet of water. Most fish were in the 15 to 17 inch range with a few a little bigger like the one Scott is holding above.

We jigged through the same area with similar results. I tried to jig, against doctors orders, with my broken left arm. I thought I could get away with it, that was until I tried to set the hook on a fish that absolutely crushed my jig and plastic. I screamed with pain and dropped my rod immediately. Needless to say the boys gave me a hard time and questioned if I had a fish at all. I learned my lesson, at least for the next couple of days, and only jigged with my right arm.

We moved up to the Peru flats for the afternoon and caught a few. When I tried to start up the brand new Verado nothing happened. Uh Oh! We used my kicker motor to get back to launch. At the time we thought the batteries were wired wrong, which they were. After the tournament we found the new battery was also bad and wasn’t holding a charge which led to an interesting situation the last day of the tournament which I will discuss in Part II. Mark and I were going to fish the IWT the next morning but with the uncertainty of the battery situation we decided to make sure everything was working Ok for the next weekend as being dead on the water during the tournament is not a good thing!

Day 2 Mark and I spent the day checking spots from Spring Valley up to the Starved Rock dam. We jigged all day and caught fish everywhere we went. The bite was awesome with most fish again in the 15-17 inch range. However, we were able to get a couple that were close to 2-1/2 pounds. There was an eddy near the dam that was absolutely loaded with fish. We could have sat there all day and pounded 15-17 inch saugers but we knew we had to find bigger fish so we moved on.

Mark Mearvy and his partner won the IWT with 6 fish that weighed over 19 lbs. They caught them where we were fishing on Saturday in the clam beds. The rest of the field was stacked between 9 and 13 lbs. This verified our thoughts that the MWC was going to be a shootout. Finding the bigger fish was going to be the key.

March 21-23 - To save vacation days for later tournaments I went back to work. The nice thing is I had a sales meeting in Chicago those three days so I was able to drive straight from Chicago Wednesday night which saved me some time. I hate not spending a whole week on a body of water prior to a tournament as it puts us at a disadvantage to our competitors as most spend the entire week pre-fishing. If there is one tournament to skip a few days it is the MWC IL River as spring conditions usually change everything. It looked like this was going to be the case as rains drenched the upper midwest Monday and Tuesday. Somehow the majority of the rains did not fall in the IL River watershed. The river did rise about two feet but I returned to find the river in excellent shape.

March 24 – Two days prior to the tournament, now it is time to get to work! Dale Bowman, the outdoors writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, was supposed to be fishing with me but had to cancel. In his place I recruited my long time fishing buddy Brad Munda to help me find the right fish. My partner for the tournament, Ol’ Shooter brought his boat. Our plan is to cover as much water as possible looking for big female sauger. Brad and i will jig through the same area that Shooter trolls through.

We start right near the launch and I caught a couple decent saugers. We then headed down to the clam beds. The bite was on but nothing huge. Shooter caught a good one on the green can side of the river. Brad and I jigged up one about 2-1/2 pounds and then we pulled it upriver with a three way rig. Almost immediately I caught one about 2-1/2 pounds on the dropper jig. Not a bad start, time to head to the next spot.

Shooter got a head start up river and called us over when we reached the peru flats. He had already caught 2 good fish with one a pre-spawn female sauger that was almost 20 inches. Brad and I jigged through the same area and we each caught two 19″ pre-spawners and a 17″ male who was milking like a cow. These are tournament winning fish, if they are still there on Saturday we have a great shot of winning this thing. To make things even better, nobody was fishing this area. Mark and I had fished it last Sunday and we only caught a couple of small ones. This is the same area that we finished 3rd a couple of years ago so we were feeling pretty good.



We got out of there and headed up and across the river to a place the locals call Auggies. There were a bunch of boats fishing the outside bend. If you stayed tight to the break the bite was really good, if you slipped off of it, not so much. In the middle of the pack of boats I caught one that looked like it was 18-1/2″ or so. It was one of the rare ones that I hooked with my bad arm. I tried to hide it from everyone so I just held onto my rod and acted like I was dragging my jig and would try to shake it off when no one was looking. I only had one more tournament boat to hide it from. He was trolling 3 ways up-river and asked how we were doing. I said “oh, one here and there, nothing of any size”. The entire time my rod tip is pounding. Just when I think we are clear the fish comes up to the surface and the guy said “he’s got a good one” and pointed at me. I felt pretty bad and said I just didn’t want everyone to see it. The games played are kind of funny and is worth a blog at a different time.

Brad and I ended the day with 26 keepers that we put in the boat with several more that we could have gotten in had we used the net and were not hiding fish. Shooter had 14 by himself, we were feeling pretty good.



March 25 - We have the same game plan as the day before. Today Brad fished with Shooter and Mark Michael fished with me. We decided to head to Utica and fish our way down river. Mark and I absolutely killed them with fish after fish. We had 10 keepers on our first pass. We went through a bit of a dry spell when I noticed a change in the bottom on my humminbird. I was just about to say something when Mark said “there’s one”. It turned out to be a fat, pre-spawn, walleye. Kicker fish like this is what we need tomorrow!

Everywhere we went we caught fish and so did Brad and Shooter. Even though we caught decent fish including one that I would die for the next day we were convinced the spot we caught fish yesterday was going to give us the best opportunity to win. We headed in feeling pretty good.

Coming soon – See what and how we did, warts and all, during the tournament with part II .

Special thanks to Mark and Brad for helping us out!

Illinois River Spring Sauger

The short and cold days of winter are giving way to the warmer and longer days of spring. That can mean only one thing, it is sauger time! From a recreational and tournament angling standpoint there is no better place to catch sauger in March and April than the Illinois River.



The largest population of sauger on the Illinois River is in the Starved Rock pool. The key to success in this section, and any other sections of the river, is understanding and adapting to the ever changing river water levels.

Each day before fishing, I check the water levels at the National Weather Service Forecast website for Central Illinois. Here I can find out whether or not the river is going up or down in addition to predicted future levels. High water is not bad to deal with. However, high water that is dirty with ‘chocolate milk’ clarity is not so good.

In addition to water levels, I check the weather to see if rain is on the way. Measurable rain in the LaSalle/Peru area isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, measurable rain in Chicago usually is a bad thing as the runoff will eventually flow downstream from the Des Plaines and Kankakee River watersheds into the Illinois River system. As a result, water clarity will be muddy. The good news is if the rain is isolated only in the Chicago area it usually takes a few days to make it down the river.

Finally, the last thing I will do is call a local bait shop such our friends at Time on the Water Outdoors, to find out the visibility of the river.

With all of these steps finally taken cared of, you can finally get on the water and start adapting to the river conditions.



If the river is muddy, regardless of river levels, the first thing I look for is the cleanest water in the system. An improvement as slight as an inch of visibility can make a huge difference in the productivity of fishing.

Locating cleaner water can be impossible but there are some things to look for. The first places I check are feeder streams and creeks. Sometimes it is the feeder stream that is pumping in muddy water like the Vermillion or Little Vermillion River. Other times it is the opposite; those rivers are pumping in clean, emerald color, water. If the water is high and muddy, but dropping, the cleanest water will usually be closest to the Starved Rock dam. Other places to look are at the mouth of the backwater lakes and outlets from dams holding back water.



In 2007, the day before the MWC tournament, the river was muddy and rising, well on it’s way to record flood levels. The visibility in areas where I was catching fish had diminished to near zero and I could not get a bite. I finally found a creek that was pumping in clean water. I slid in there with my trolling motor, dropped my jig and plastic down, jigged it once and caught a 2.5 lb. sauger. Shortly after, my partner caught another one that was 3 pounds. We then concluded, thinking that we had found the secret spot. By the time we reached the same location t the next day, there were 30 boats in this small area and the clean water was all gone as the dirty river water backed up the creek.

Of 200 boats participating in the tournament, there were only 4 fish caught and none of them were anywhere near the mouth of that creek!

If water levels are high I will search for current breaks closer to shore in the 12 to 14 foot range. Don’t be afraid to fish shallower though as I have often found big sauger in the 6 to 10 foot, range and in some cases in as little as 2 feet.

Higher water will usually concentrate fish on those current seams. Therefore if you catch one, make sure you cover that area thoroughly. If water level is stable, or dropping, sauger will often spread themselves out into the main channel and can be caught in the 16 to 20 foot range.

My favorite way to catch Illinois River sauger is to slip the river with a jig and plastic combination. Some of my favorites are Hutch’s Ringworms, Paddle Tails, and Berkley GULP!

I was once told that plastics don’t work on the Illinois River. I can assure you that is far beyond from being the truth. Sometimes the fish may prefer a live minnow in opposition of a plastic. When this holds true, I usually have my partner use a live bait jig with a minnow to see which one the fish prefer most.

I like to use the heaviest jig I can get away with, which is usually a 1/2 oz. Hutch River Jig. Meanwhile if I am using minnows, I use a 1/2 oz. Do-It live bait jig that I make myself.

In regard to jigs, it is important to note that the heavier jig reaches the river bottom faster. With heavier jigs, it is easier to keep your presentation vertical and allows you to jig more aggressively. Most importantly, a 1/2 oz. jig allows you to “pound” the bottom.

Usually the best spots to catch sauger in the spring are in areas where there is a hard bottom. Sauger are curious fish and I think this continuous “pounding” draws them in. Sauger are also very aggressive and have no problem sucking into their mouths a 1/2 oz. jig. The best places to jig are on a current seam and sharp breaks that follow the shoreline’s contour. Many times the fish will be holding tight to these areas, making a vertical jigging presentation very effective.

If I am preparing for a tournament, which I will be on the last week of March, I will jig and also try other tactics.



A great place to catch sauger during spring are on the flats, which are areas with little change in depth. Flats are usually located on long, straight stretches of the river. The river bottom of the best areas usually possess hard bottom composition and are often featureless with the exception of humps that are caused by passing barges. The fish are usually spread out making jigging a little more difficult. For these fish the most productive way to catch them is to hand line, pole line, troll lead core or use heavy weights on a three way swivel presentation. You can also use a 3 way swivel with the dropper line being a 1-2 oz. jig tipped with a plastic and a hook or a Phelps floater on the other line. I prefer to use the latter method on current seams, distinct breaks and spots rather than on the flats because I can’t cover as much water.

The key advantage of these tactics is you can cover more water by trolling upstream in an S pattern in comparison to a straight line that is needed to vertical jig. The S pattern also helps trigger fish as the bait speeds up or slows down and pauses. An experienced boat operator can also increase the odds by “sliding” across the current which keeps the stick baits in front of the fish longer giving them a greater opportunity to eat the bait. In areas where barges have created humps the heavier weights used in these presentations keep the baits in the strike zone longer than with jigging.

Many trollers use smaller, Rapala style stick baits that are number 5’s or 7’s. I prefer to use number 9’s and sometimes 11’s. If you think a number 9 or 11 is too big your concern will go away when you catch a sauger that is smaller than your bait!



The Illinois River isn’t a glamorous river. In fact, the locals call it a ditch, probably because it is dredged out to allow for barge traffic among other things. However, it is a resilient river full of history. You can catch fish right next to a barge loading coal or next to a beautiful, historical landmark like Starved Rock.

Either way the Illinois River is full of sauger. If you keep an eye on river levels and adapt accordingly, then you are sure to catch your share of sauger! If you happen to encounter a Lund 1975 Pro V with a 225 Verado sometime this spring, stop me on the water and say hello!