Mr. April strikes again
WALKER, Minnesota -- Tommy Skarlis has a new
nickname.
On the Professional Walleye Trail these days, he's
referred to simply as "Mr. April."
Three season-opening wins in four years --
including a victory two weeks ago on the Lake Winnebago chain in
Wisconsin -- have earned that moniker for the Fishing the Wildside
pro.
Those triumphs, along with a 2003 summer victory on
Lake Erie, have also put Skarlis in elite company. Only Ron
Seelhoff has more PWT wins on his resume with five. Skarlis and
Perry Good of Minnesota are the only active anglers with four.
It all starts in April for an angler who grew up
jigging for walleyes on the Mississippi River while growing up in
Iowa.
"I think it's just a matter of fishing bodies of
water where I can do things that I'm good at," said Skarlis, whose
resume also includes a Masters Walleye Circuit tournament title
and Team of the Year award. "It's been vertical jigging and
dragging jigs with a little bit of trolling mixed in.
"I've had some Aprils that haven't been very good,
too, but I've had some to remember."
The Winnebago event was a classic. Skarlis caught
the winning fish with about 30 minutes to go in the tournament,
edging out his teammate and close friend, Wisconsin's John
Kolinski, by approximately half a pound.
In this case, who Skarlis knew was as important as
what he learned during four days of prefishing.
"I got in a day late because of other commitments,
but I was staying with Kolinski, and he's a local legend on that
chain," Skarlis explained. "He grew up fishing that body of water,
and he lived on the lake for years.
"We also have numerous friends there to help with
information, so we had a pretty good network to begin with. I was
pretty confident we'd do well. I've been pretty blessed on that
body of water (8th, 9th and 12th in previous PWTs there)."
Because of an exceptional year-class of fish in the
14-inch range, tournament officials reduced the standard 15-inch
PWT size limit to 14 for the event.
That told Skarlis that his first priority had to be
putting a six-fish limit in the boat each day.
"We found some fish trolling little Frenzy
Firesticks and crawler harnesses in the upper lakes, but the wind
came up and roiled up all the water. It was really dirty in those
upper lakes.
"We figured the Upper Wolf River was our best
opportunity to catch fish. We found some fish -- not a lot over 15
inches -- but enough that we felt we'd survive and do OK.
"We were just hoping that by the second or third
day the smaller lakes would clear up a little bit and the water
temperature would warm up and we'd be able to roll into Winneconne
or Poygen and either catch the rest of the fish we needed for a
limit or upgrade our limit."
Many of the walleyes in the Winnebago chain spawn
30-40 miles up the Wolf River in natural marshes that have avoided
urban sprawl and ensured the system's reputation as one of the top
walleye producers in the country.
With all of the presentations involved in this
intricate, ever changing bite, Skarlis loaded the boat up with 18
fishing rods so that he would be prepared for the tournament.
Interestingly enough, he rigged with five different types of
fishing lines throughout the event: “For the tourney, I used
Berkley’s Fireline and Vanish as well as Trilene’s XT, XL and
Sensation monofilament. It’s a good thing that it wasn’t a Golf
Event, I would have had too many clubs in my bag!”
During the PWT event, many of those fish were
working their way back down the river.
"One day, one spot would be red-hot and the next
day it would be devoid of activity," said Skarlis. "Kolinski kept
telling me that one particular stretch of the Wolf could turn on
any day. We prefished it and never caught much, but he said that
didn't mean anything."
On the first day of the tournament, Skarlis headed
way up the Wolf and caught his limit of small males. Kolinski
didn’t make the long run and ended up fishing the stretch that he
had mentioned would turn on, Skarlis joined him late in the day.
"I ended up catching a 19-incher there, which was a huge upgrade
for this tournament," said Skarlis.
Kolinski had several of those fish in a 12.76-pound
limit that was the best of the day. Skarlis stood in 29th place
with 7.26 pounds.
Both anglers focused on that spot the second day
with Skarlis weighing six fish for 9.89 pounds and Kolinski four
walleyes for 5.02. They stood 10th and ninth, respectively.
"The third day, I stayed in that area and I just
whaled on them," said Skarlis, who made a tactical switch from
vertical jigging Lindy's Techni-Glo Fuzz-E-Grubs to dragging Max
Gap Jig heads. When the sun was out, chrome chartreuse and lime
colors were productive. When cloud cover prevailed, orange and
glow combinations worked best.
"The fish were dumping downstream and we'd had a
lot of rain so there were probably a lot of nightcrawlers washing
down," he noted. "It was a very natural way to present pieces of
nightcrawlers dressed with Berkley Power Bait.
"I probably caught 15 weigh fish, and I had about
nine pounds when I opted to go out in the lake. I trolled for
around four hours and the last spot I hit, I caught a 25-incher
that weighed 5 or 5 1/2 pounds."
That pushed Skarlis' final-day weight to 13.27
pounds and was just enough to surpass Kolinski's 12.04-pound catch
for the $64,000 top prize. Skarlis won another $7,000 via
Berkley's "Artificial Challenge" and $1,000 for the heaviest
single-day catch of the tournament.
Kolinski, the PWT's 2002 Angler of the Year,
finished with 29.82 pounds.
"John was more consistent. I was just fortunate to
get the big bite," said Skarlis. "That's what I was fishing for.
"It was kind of bittersweet due to the fact that
John taught me the system and he's one of my best friends. I
really wanted to see Kolinski win, but if anybody was going to be
ahead of him in the standings, I would prefer it to be me."
Note: To learn more about Tommy Skarlis
and Fishing the WildSide, log onto
www.fishingthewildside.com
