20-30 mph on plane(small wake), is much better than 10 mph(big wake). I agree 40 mph+ is overboard thru crouds, but the channel is for navigation.

Well I would knot blame the Grand Slam for pour judgment and I would look at who was driveing the boat? I would ask my self Who am I to judge if they are in the grand slam or not. So to you all I hope you all have a great week of fishing and have fun fishing. The Grand Slam Walleye Tournament is not the point here it is who now's when to slow down and safe Boating at all times safty first is the rule. Be safe to all and do not judge a event on others if you do not know they are in a event thank you all.

The river has been giving me nice big fat females but i want some eaters. were are they?? catch and release is fun but i want a few smaller males for a dinner. love the st louie. i remember as a kid actual seeing floating excrement after any big rainstorm. it was so polluted then. now and then i will take a "foreigner" out there and they cannnot believe we have such quality walleye fishery next to a city

I wish I had you're problem! Besides the occasional female my bags have mainly been comprised of males. I'll be out in the morning with Capt. Blaine and we'll be working our way up throughout the day. Spent friday on fish lake but the river is calling my name. I've been spending a fair amount of time anchoring and jigging the upper portion but we'll be looking for some better quality fish. I'm guessing they are more highly concentrated near the spirit region but since there hasn't been much for actual reports...it is what it is. A guess. I've been up and I've been down. Tmrw it's the middle. Good luck to everyone in the slam. Feel free to cruise on plane and troll inches from my lines. I really don't care what anyone does out there as long as I'm safe and my gear doesn't get touched.

The "Blow by's" are always gonna happen, especially on bigger water. I usually just take notes of boat description and hull numbers, now that I have a little bit bigger boat, I try to return the favor later in the day.

I will agree though, either stay on plane and get by quickly or slow to a no wake speed. Slowing to half throttle and throwing a 4ft wake is really the worst.

rofl. I always slow down near boats. i thought i was being courteous

Wade, Wade Wade. That's how boat rage starts ya know?

There was a lot of boats from boyscout and up. Saw two fish caught out of 100-150 on our way up. We picked up six walleyes in two hours and left for the day. Couldn't break the 20 inch mark though. The wind was bothersome and the clouds looked threatening. After a while we kept getting blown off the spot with a 30 lber in 6 fow. I've caught enough rough fish/sturgeon on crawlers but have yet to LAND a walleye on them. Until my jig fishing goes downhill I'm not planning on dragging harnesses. Anyone having somewhat consistent success with them? Also thanks to whoever donated a shad rap to my anchor line. I'm going to need a new box for all the tackle that thing has recieved this season. I didn't see any grand slammers put walleyes in the boat while we were en route or fishing. Tough conditions out there. Best of luck to those that are duking it out!

The big issue on the river is in certain areas like buoy 61, boyscout, walleye alleye you get guys fishing the the navigation channel and the coast guard does nothing about it. The channel is for travel and too many people fish in it. Believe me I would rather have a big boat go by me on plane than have to throttle down and blow a 2-5' wall at me.
If you sit in the channel prepare to get "buzzed". Especially on weekends, league nights and any tourney days.
I hate trying to get up river and every time I turn a corner having to drop plane and crawl at trolling speeds through the mess of fools sitting in the center of the navigation channels.
Weekdays or slow times of year I dont mind it but this time of year and for the next month it will be busy.

I hitched a ride on a friends boat and we hit the SLR today. We fished upstream from Boy Scout. It was slow, but we kept at it and did manage to catch a few W's. I think that just about everybody got a couple of fish. We had to deal with squirrelly winds and one super crack of thunder about 1:00 PM. We were up by the 23 bridge when that happened.

I do think that some of the boats running on plane in crowded sections of river were way over the line and endangered the safety of lots of people. Especially one guy in a Ranger 620 with a big VMax that was running near WOT as he zipped between 30 to 40 boats just upstream from 77. Several other boats were hazards as well. There is just no call for the blatant disregard for the safety of others. I saw a lot of guys who were fishing the tournament and didn't see any of them operating their boats in a hazardous manner.

Did I mentioned that a gust of wind caught the bow of our boat. My line got caught up in the prop which wrapped up my Fireline and snapped my 10' St. Croix Avid rod. I got my Shad Rap back and ended up with the butt of the rod and a reel.

LOL Matt, maybe I didn't explain that clearly. I didn't mean to say I return the favor to all, just those who either "blow by" too close, or the guys who come down to half throttle and try to wash everyone up on shore. I don't mind if you stay on plane when you go by me, just give a guy a little space, as much as you can without endagering yourself or someone else.

After getting our four fish we bugged out and hit another nearby lake for craps and dare I say, pike. My "coon eyes" are starting to show. The sunburn doesn't feel great though. If possible, would someone please post the results of the slam? I'm curious to see how everyone wound up. Good fishing to you all. Seeya at the dam tmrw!

anybody have any idea how the bite is going in the st louie or superior bay??

I don't like to get "buzzed" like anyone else. However, If I ever fish inside any channel, I would expect to get buzzed by anyone, tinhead or glasshead, seeing as it's agaist the law to fish in the channel. All you guys that are rippin on the Ranger drivers, sounds like sour grapes to me. I did not buy a ranger to go 50, I bought the boat because it is the best, most stable boat I have ever fished out of. Not because of the sparkels (which I don't even like), or the speed.
I fished the grand slam this weekend and had a great time. I didn't buzz anyone, however I couldn't help but troll close to a few guys, only because it is the bumper boat time of a year. As a river rat, I know that that is the way it goes. There were quite a few guys that cut me off with smaller boats then mine, or would throw a cast my way like they were the only boat in the river. I'm used to it,and it seems that is the way it is on the river. I'll get off the soap box and get back into the garage. Follow the rules of the water and we can all keep the boat rage to a minimal.

I had my father in law out for his yearly walleye trip on saturday as well, and we were a bit below 23 when that thunder crack hit, and I dont think I've ever heard him say "we're outta here" so fast!! Pucker factor for him was near 10

If I'm not mistaken, the tourny boats all had a pink piece of marking tape tied onto their boat in some way, many on their trolling motors, or marine antenna's. I'm in the "go by me on plane in a safe mannor" camp. You just can't expect folks to go upstream at idle basically from boyscout up to 23.

We pulled about a dozen eye's and two pike, one snake and one 31"'er. The eyes's were all decent, smallest was 18 and biggest 21". The 4 we kept were all males still milting. Will hopefully be out on thursday with Junior either on the river or big lake.