First Annual New Mexico Governor’s Cup July 31st-August 1st, 2004

High Desert Walleye would like to thank all the volunteers, participants and sponsors for making this a successful event. Special thanks to Bill Dunn, Larry Mohler, Bill Rutter and Mona Rutter for all the help and making sure that the tournament could go as smoothly as possible for a newby to the promotional side of tournament fishing.

The tournament was largely a success due to the generous contributions of many sponsors. The title sponsor, Charlie’s Sporting Goods in Albuquerque, donated over $2,100 in product ensuring nobody went home empty handed. ABQ Sportfishing was the next largest donor adding $400 in cash, $300 in prizes and $800 in startup capital. Mack’s Lure was very generous with their support of over $500 in product which helped the second place team of Carr and Duren garner the comeback award. American Home Furnishing’s in Albuquerque and the Logan Lodgers each donated $300 in cash toward the prize list. Thorne Brother’s in Minnesota donated a St. Croix Legend Elite jigging rod worth $300 engraved with “First Annual New Mexico Governor’s Cup”. Pure Fishing donated the weigh-in bags and over $200 in product. Pro Techt donated a Mantis sun shade that everyone wished they had during the tourney J worth $225. Reef Runner donated over $200 dollars in Reef Runners that made the first team out of the money still feel like they were rewarded for their effort. Power Pro donated $180 worth of line for the door prizes and Stowmaster donated a Tournament Series landing net that was valued at $155. With $4400 in prizes, $1000 in added cash and an 80% payback, it made for a generous payout to the top three places. Total cash and prizes for our first annual tournament added up to over $8000. 

The team of Mullen and Stringer from Kansas walked away (well, actually ran) with big fish both days and the overall for a total of $1800. Second, Carr and Duren from TX/NM, was the comeback team of the tournament winning $900 and the Mack's Lure "biggest fish on a Mack's Lure" (a Cha Cha rig) $150 in Mack's Product. Patience and hard work paid off for third with the team of Reining and Meaker taking home $600 cash. First place out of the money went to Hank and John McWilliams of Borger winning the Reef Runner "Oh, you just missed it!" award worth $100 of Reef Runner product. 

The team of Mullen and Stringer started pre-fishing Thursday with a survey of the lake and some light fishing. Friday proved to be a tough bite for many, but the winning team was confident in their strategy and went with spinners on bottom bouncers in a variety of areas to land nine fish giving them a solid five fish bag of 10.64 pounds and the big fish of the day at 3.56. They were considerably ahead of the rest of the teams as the next best team of McWilliams and McWilliams weighed 6.31 for five fish. Rounding out the top three on day one was Reining and Meaker with a bag of 5.99 just out of second and a big fish out of first with only four fish making up their bag. From there it was a fast drop in weight and fish to fourth with my partner and I weighing only 2.90 for two fish. Five more teams each weighed one fish rounding out the top nine teams. All but one of the fish were released on day one.

Day two was interesting as many boats that had fished the dirty water were going east in search of clearer water. The lake had risen two feet in the last week with monsoon rains typical for this time of year shutting down the pattern that had been productive for me the last few weeks. Down near the dam, the boats were stacking up and it wasn’t long before the nets were coming out. Mullen and Stringer had already put a confidence fish in the boat two minutes after they arrived on their spot, 4.88. Not long after Duren also boated a nice fish and it wouldn’t be long until we put one in the boat also, right… not so. We had spent most of Saturday trying the program that had worked so well the last few weeks and we were able to pick up two fish, but only after covering a lot of water, the fish seemed to be scattered. 

With the only fish caught pre-fishing by us on a crawler harness, you would have thought that it made us realize that we were going to be pulling harness’. I was so convinced that was the ticket I called for more supplies before Bill left Charlie’s mid day on Friday. On day one when we only had caught fish on cranks, this was creating some confusion, at least with me. Spinners or Cranks! After lots of thought Saturday night, I decided we were going to pull spinners all day Sunday and that would be it. I know that crawler harnesses probably put the most fish in a boat out of all the presentations out there and it is a good summer pattern in our reservoirs. After two and a half hours and not a Walleye (plenty of other fish) in our livewell, I caved to the pressure of not having a fish in the box. We went back to the lead/crank program and stuck with it all day. We tried a few different areas, checking the river again to see if it turned back on, shallow, deep, fast, slow, trees, rocks, bottom, suspended (got some huge whites 40 feet down in 70 FOW), NOTHING. Back down to the pack and we were able to get the skunk out with a barely legal fish and we then died with the cranks in the same area as everyone else. 

This has taught me one of the most valuable lessons that I have heard rumors about but never really understood. The difference between a tournament winner and participant is the knowledge to know what is working, to stick with it and to have the patience to wait out five or six good bites a day if that is the bite. Fishing when you are culling fish all day is easy, having the confidence to stick with something that you know will only produce five or so fish in 8 hours is really hard and separates a winner from a donor. My compliments to Steve Mullen and Dan Stringer for putting together a program Friday that they had the confidence and patience to let work for them. It is easy to write about after the fact but not so easy to adhere to when it is all on the line.

The comeback story was the team of Carr and Duren with only one fish on day one moving into second on day two. The story from that team was covering a lot of water on day one with no pre-fishing time and then Duren sticking out the program from day one on day two and finally convincing Carr that spinners were the ticket after Duren had boated four fish. Carr still convinced that the fish could be jigged or rigged up went to it for a little while but ended up rounding out their limit on a Mack’s Cha Cha rig moving them into second. 

Reining and Meaker did a variety of techniques with spinners putting most of their fish in the boat. Slabs and jigs also worked for a couple but the majority were caught with spinners and crawlers. A lot of hard work and changing spots helped this team move past the team of McWilliams to get a check in third.

As for the rest, nobody went home empty handed, some very happy even with the tough fishing, here are some examples:

Bill Mueller       Minn Kota 65# AP        US Charlie’s Sporting Goods
John McWilliams        Striper Guided Trip for two        ABQ Sportfishing
Kevin Audrain        St. Croix Legend Elite rod        Thorne Brothers
Kalin Audrain        Mantis sun shade        Pro Techt
Rick Soto        Loomis Walleye Jig rod        Charlie’s Sporting Goods
Russell Wilkinson        Loomis Walleye CB rod        Charlie’s Sporting Goods
John Mueller        Stowmaster TS94X net        Stowmaster
David Wilkinson        Daiwa Emblem X reel        Charlie’s Sporting Goods
Dan Turner        Daiwa Emblem X        Charlie’s Sporting Goods
Gary Mylander        Fenwick HMX        Pure Fishing

Everyone received Mack’s Lures, Reef Runners and Gamakatsu hooks in their packets at registration. Thanks again to all the sponsors and volunteers to make this a very successful event. Next year promises to be bigger and better for everyone and we hope to see you there.

Thanks,

Brian