Slow-trolling cold water with stickbaits and Dubuque Rigs was key to second place at Illinois River NWT Tournament
March 21-22 saw NWT anglers competing on the Illinois River out of Spring Valley, Illinois, the entire lot faced with drastically changing weather between pre-fishing and the tournament.
“When we got there, air temp was 50 degrees and we were catching a few casting swimbaits and having some success. We weren’t getting a lot of fish but they were nice ones. The water temp was around 42 degrees,” says South Dakota-based walleye pro, Duane “Dewey” Hjelm.
Then, on Thursday, a cold front came through and the temperatures dropped significantly. The high on Saturday was 15 degrees with 30 mph winds and the water temp crashed to 37 degrees.
“We took Saturday off,” says Hjelm. “We went back out on Sunday and the water temp was still 37 degrees. So we worked the areas where we ha the most success pre-fishing but the few fish we were seeing weren’t active.”
He says that on Monday the water temp climbed a couple degrees and they caught one legal fish, a disappointment.
“We were trying to get baits dialed in. We needed to figure out the best bait to catch the most fish possible, not really caring about quality. Our goal was just five legal fish a day.”
On the first day of the tournament, Hjelm caught an 18-incher right off the bat, which have him the confidence to stay on spot.
“Problem was, we kept getting bites but we were losing them. We’d get them half way to the boat and they’d come off,” says Hjelm.
So the duo put themselves on a one-bite-an-hour time frame to stay on each spot located during pre-fish.
“On Day 1, we put our fifth fish in the livewell—a 3 and a half pounder—around 11 a.m., and there weren’t any other boats in the area, so we decided to save the spot for the next day,” recalls Hjelm.
With five legal fish in the box, Hjelm went back into pre-fish mode from 11 to 3:30 and rifled through a bunch of spots.
“The fish were so lethargic, just nipping at the back of the bait. We lost a few more fish that would have been upgrades. So, at the end of the first day, wee ended up in 4th place. All the weights were super tight. I was one ounce from third; six ounces behind second place. So we were in a pretty good spot.”
Day 2: Hjelm on the Illinois River
“There was a lot more boat traffic in our areas on Day 2,” says Hjelm.
“I knew I was around the right fish to win the tournament but the bite windows were really narrow. We put 5 fish in the ‘well by 10:30 but only two were decent, three were small—pound and a half fish. We wanted all 2-plus pound fish.”
Later in the day Hjelm made two key culls, one which was a solid 3-pounder.
“That put us where we wanted to be. My goal on day 2 was 10 pounds. The bite was that hard.”
Key Presentations: Stickbaits & Dubuque Rigs
Hjelm says two different presentations for their second place finish at the NWT on the Illinois River: 3-way rigs with #9 Rapala Original Floating Minnow stickbaits in bright colors and Dubuque Rigs.
“Stickbaits on a 3-way was our primary pattern until I decided to go up to the dam spot,” recalls Hjelm.
“Then my primary pattern switched to pulling a Dubuque Rig with a 1/2-ounce jig and plastic trailer on the 6”-10” dropper and a 3-foot leader to plain hook with a chartreuse bead. We were tipping both the dropper and the leader with minnows.”
Due to water visibility between 10 and 12 inches, Hjelm fished primarily orange or chartreuse VMC SLJ Sleek Jigs. His main line was Sufix 832 braid in 10 pound with a Sufix Advance fluorocarbon 12-pound lead and 10-pound fluoro dropper.
“I like to size down in line with the Dubuque dropper in case of snags. Make retying a lot easier,” says Hjelm.
As far as dressing the dropper jigs with plastics, Hjelm says they fished and caught fish on everything from 3-inch Gulp Minnows, to Keitechs, to Walleye Assassins, to Pulse-R ribbed paddletails.
On Day 1 they’d give the fish a second or two to eat the bait but the minnow on the jig plastic combo and hook and bead lead were coming back bit in half, so after losing 4 or 5 really good fish they added VMC Stinger Hooks on the backs of their jigs. After introducing the stinger, the next two fish they caught were three pounders.
When asked if most bites came on the jig dropper or leader hook and bead, Hjelm says it was about It was half and half.
“If the majority of the fish had come on the dropper I would have switched over to jigging with two rods, one in each hand, but that just wasn’t the case.”
Hjelm’s advice for fishing Dubuque Rigs?
“The biggest thing is matching the correct dropper jig head weight to the current flow. The current was changing a lot on the Illinois River between days one and two. So we fished heavier jigs on Day 1 and then moved down in weight on Day 2,” offers Hjelm.
He says the other thing is maintaining the correct line angle of the Dubuque Rig off the boat.
“You don’t want it right under the boat,” advises Hjelm. “You want a 45-degree angle on your line. You don’t want to pound bottom; just a slow touch down and slight lift sometimes.”
Hjelm sums up the early-season, cold-water tournament: “We didn’t fish super clean. We lost about 10 fish over the tournament, but we still ended up pretty good. I’m happy with how we did. I’ll take second place anytime.”
