Adam Strainer the FWP fishing technician for Canyon Ferry was on the Montana Outdoor Radio Show live broadcast the first morning of the tournament and he predicted that the team that caught 32 pounds would win it. Mark thought that number was a little high based on my experience of fishing that week with my son, William. We fished that Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning on the south end of the lake and we caught 20 walleyes and not one of the fish would of qualified to be tournament fish which takes a minimum length of 14 ¼ inches.

Strainer’s knowledge of Canyon Ferry is based on spending 50 plus days a year working the lake. He is an avid angler, too. As it turned out, there were at least five teams that would reach 30 pounds with the winning team catching 46.14 pounds.

Now, keep in mind that there were 144 teams competing in the two-day tournament and quite a few of those teams didn’t catch a weighable fish. So what that tells Mark is that if you know how to fish for walleye, you will catch larger fish.

Most of the bigger walleyes were caught on the mid-lake and north end of the reservoir. Mark also understand the top anglers were also jigging as opposed to pulling bottom-bouncers with a crawler or leech harness.