Links r Us
06-11-2004, 06:45 PM
-of the Western Reserve Walleye Association
Team Dossi - Committed, Confident
By Frank Ross
June 10, 2004
Back to 2004 NTC
Wednesday morning, the last full day of pre-fishing for Cabela's National Team Championship (NTC) tournament, dawned under cold, gray, violent skies that kept most anglers in their motel rooms watching the Weather Channel or flipping through local news broadcasts.
Driving north on Highway 41, a light, steady rain quickly turned into a torrential downpour, which is not necessarily bad news for all fishermen in the area, even those in the tournament. Bays de Noc are down about 4 feet due to less than normal snowfall for the past two years. I was squinting through the slapping windshield wipers, trying to read the road signs when a bolt of lightening locked onto an object on the ground and jolted the air for what seemed like minutes. "A great day for GORE-TEX," I mumbled, not thinking there was much that was going to be great about it at all.
I was enroute to a 6 a.m. rendezvous with Joe and Darren Dossi, the only two time All Americans in this NTC, which is barely three years old. This distinction is achieved by finishing in the top 25, after qualifying for this prestigious team tournament, which is tough enough. The Dossi father and son team finished second at Mille Lacs, after leading on day one, in the tournament's inaugural year (2002) and 22nd last year at the event on Milford Lake, Kansas.
Had it not been for a critical decision that was made in the first few minutes of the Milford Lake tournament, their finish would have been significantly higher. Like this year's event in Escanaba, the Kansas tournament rules prohibited culling. Joe, 58, explained that they had been on big fish in that event and boated two 19-inch fish almost immediately. Thinking their bite was holding from the pre-fishing days, they tossed these two keepers back and opted to try for larger fish. "We go out to win," Joe said. "Yesterday a guy told me he would be happy with a top 50 finish, I just don't understand that type of approach."
I was really looking forward to spending some time on the water with such a consistent pair of fishermen, to see if I could learn what the secret to their success might be. In addition to their success in the Cabela's NTC, they have finished two of the last three seasons as the top team in their Ohio regional circuit, the Western Reserve Walleye Association. They are currently in the points lead for this year as well.
I found them at their rental cabin in Rapid River, where Darren was alternating between watching the radar on TV and looking out the window for a reality check.
Since neither of them relished the thought of dodging lightning bolts, I sat down, relieved to talk about fishing and hopefully do some in an hour or so.
Over steaming cups of coffee, Joe laid out the secret to their success, with intermittent objections from Darren who protested his father's praise. "We're finesse fishermen, light line, small jigs or Lindy rigs and a slow presentation. I give all the credit to my son, Darren. I started him out running the electric motor when he was about 12 years old and he would stare at the fish finder until he learned how to use it. Now he does all the research, and he really does our homework very well. He runs the electric motor, is excellent at boat control and I just fish."
Darren explained that his ambition during the early planning stages is to eliminate water. "As soon as Cabela's announces the location I get on the Internet and find out as much as I can, I buy some paper maps and go over lake contours and depths looking for structure that will hold walleye. Then I try and find any anglers that have fished the waters before to see what their experience has been. It's as important to eliminate non-productive waters as it is to target specific locations. The benefit of eliminating water is to save time prospecting areas that will never produce. When we came up here, we'd never been on this water and when we went out the first day we had two nice keepers in the boat 10 minutes after we hit our first spot."
When the question of trolling came up, neither angler hesitated. "Oh, we've got boards and crankbaits, but we hate to troll. Actually Darren hates it, I'm more open to the technique if you absolutely have to use it to catch fish, but for us it's a last resort, the very last. In some tournaments you have to troll, like on Lake Erie, that's why we don't fish them. We'll take an electric motor and a Lindy rig or light 1/8 or 1/16 oz. Jigs and spank the walleye on structure any day. Sometime we get spanked, but it's not very often," Joe said with a grin.
Darren confirmed that they were struggling with the same decision that every angler was facing with Bays de Noc, to run or not to run, out into Big Bay de Noc. "We've been up here for several days and fished most of the Big Bay, down by Ford River, in 4-foot swells. We caught some good fish on a couple of spots, but that's a very long run to make, not knowing if your fish are going to be biting when you get there, or even be there at all. It could be a tournament breaking decision, either way," he added.
For the past two days, this pair of Ohio anglers have been concentrating on Little Bay de Noc and not finding much encouragement in terms of size, but catching decent numbers of fish using four to six-pound Stren mono and very small firetiger jigs due to the weed growth they are fishing. They're tipping their jigs with half a crawler, threading it on most of the way to combat the perch that swarm their target areas. Occasionally a leech will find its way onto the jig, but crawlers have been most productive for them up to this point.
When asked about minnows, Joe quickly explained that temperature dictates what they use for bait, adding that with the water temperature rising to the upper 60s on the surface, worms were the best choice for their preferred technique.
After an hour of staring at the same dismal radar screen, the decision was made to give it a shot, since there hadn't been any close lightening for a while, and the worst seemed to have passed. In a few minutes we were on the water, and Darren was working his electronic mojo. He is most pleased with the recent addition of a Garmin 176C. As we moved across the bay he pointed out the various structure that we were crossing and commented on how they had fared at each.
In a matter of minutes we were shutting down the main motor in a light drizzle, with only three other boats in sight. Darren mounted the trolling motor, positioned us where he wanted to start and explained the plan.
"What we've got here is a shallow area that drops off from six feet to about 9 or 10, with a weedline that has been holding fish. We'll be using 1/8 oz. jigs, because Lindy rigs are too hard to work through this thick weed growth. You need to cast it over to the shallow water and work it very slowly back through the weeds, letting it drop down into the holes as you work it along. You don't really want to reel much at all. The bite is very delicate, and the perch will take a lot of bait, but we don't mind the perch because the walleye will come up to feed on them. Where there are perch, there will be walleye, eventually."
In a short while, I pulled up the living proof, if barely, - a fat perch that had been severely gashed on its tail section by teeth that most certainly could have been walleye. A wound about the size of a nickel was evidence that it had a very close call recently. For the remainder of the morning, I watched these two accomplished anglers work one hard-won walleye after another out of the weeds, while I concentrated on the perch.
As we fished from one area to the next, Joe and Darren swapped opinions and analysis on what they were doing, or should be doing. It was clear that these two have a very strong relationship and mutual respect that prohibits tacit comments or derision. Bottom line analysis by the Dossi's, was that the cold front blowing in over night had given the fish lockjaw and they still didn't know as much about the areas fished as they needed to know. "We've still got a lot of pre-fishing to do tomorrow," Joe said.
Joe summed up the secret to their success by saying that you have to have confidence in what you are doing, and stick with your plan, noting that at this point their plan was still somewhat fluid.
Finally, the allotted time for our outing was about to expire, and we had barely caught a dozen fish, most of which would not have made the livewell come tournament time. This lack of success only added to the pressure of deciding where to start on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m.
The bite was so delicate it was almost non-existent, and feels very similar to the type of resistance you get when trying to pull the jig over a weed. The perch are very aggressive and hit with a vengeance, but these walleye are something else. The Dossi team are definitely master finesse fishermen. I'm thinking that come the final weigh-in, they'll be the only three time All Americans.
Weigh-in activities begin at the UP State Fairground on Friday, if you're in the area. There are many family activities scheduled prior to the first basket that is schedule to arrive at 4 p.m.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/community/inthefield/fieldguides/Fieldguides_home/ntc_article_dossi.jhtml;jsessionid=GXH1YS1H3ZYSUCW QNVCSCOAK0BWUMIWE
Team Dossi - Committed, Confident
By Frank Ross
June 10, 2004
Back to 2004 NTC
Wednesday morning, the last full day of pre-fishing for Cabela's National Team Championship (NTC) tournament, dawned under cold, gray, violent skies that kept most anglers in their motel rooms watching the Weather Channel or flipping through local news broadcasts.
Driving north on Highway 41, a light, steady rain quickly turned into a torrential downpour, which is not necessarily bad news for all fishermen in the area, even those in the tournament. Bays de Noc are down about 4 feet due to less than normal snowfall for the past two years. I was squinting through the slapping windshield wipers, trying to read the road signs when a bolt of lightening locked onto an object on the ground and jolted the air for what seemed like minutes. "A great day for GORE-TEX," I mumbled, not thinking there was much that was going to be great about it at all.
I was enroute to a 6 a.m. rendezvous with Joe and Darren Dossi, the only two time All Americans in this NTC, which is barely three years old. This distinction is achieved by finishing in the top 25, after qualifying for this prestigious team tournament, which is tough enough. The Dossi father and son team finished second at Mille Lacs, after leading on day one, in the tournament's inaugural year (2002) and 22nd last year at the event on Milford Lake, Kansas.
Had it not been for a critical decision that was made in the first few minutes of the Milford Lake tournament, their finish would have been significantly higher. Like this year's event in Escanaba, the Kansas tournament rules prohibited culling. Joe, 58, explained that they had been on big fish in that event and boated two 19-inch fish almost immediately. Thinking their bite was holding from the pre-fishing days, they tossed these two keepers back and opted to try for larger fish. "We go out to win," Joe said. "Yesterday a guy told me he would be happy with a top 50 finish, I just don't understand that type of approach."
I was really looking forward to spending some time on the water with such a consistent pair of fishermen, to see if I could learn what the secret to their success might be. In addition to their success in the Cabela's NTC, they have finished two of the last three seasons as the top team in their Ohio regional circuit, the Western Reserve Walleye Association. They are currently in the points lead for this year as well.
I found them at their rental cabin in Rapid River, where Darren was alternating between watching the radar on TV and looking out the window for a reality check.
Since neither of them relished the thought of dodging lightning bolts, I sat down, relieved to talk about fishing and hopefully do some in an hour or so.
Over steaming cups of coffee, Joe laid out the secret to their success, with intermittent objections from Darren who protested his father's praise. "We're finesse fishermen, light line, small jigs or Lindy rigs and a slow presentation. I give all the credit to my son, Darren. I started him out running the electric motor when he was about 12 years old and he would stare at the fish finder until he learned how to use it. Now he does all the research, and he really does our homework very well. He runs the electric motor, is excellent at boat control and I just fish."
Darren explained that his ambition during the early planning stages is to eliminate water. "As soon as Cabela's announces the location I get on the Internet and find out as much as I can, I buy some paper maps and go over lake contours and depths looking for structure that will hold walleye. Then I try and find any anglers that have fished the waters before to see what their experience has been. It's as important to eliminate non-productive waters as it is to target specific locations. The benefit of eliminating water is to save time prospecting areas that will never produce. When we came up here, we'd never been on this water and when we went out the first day we had two nice keepers in the boat 10 minutes after we hit our first spot."
When the question of trolling came up, neither angler hesitated. "Oh, we've got boards and crankbaits, but we hate to troll. Actually Darren hates it, I'm more open to the technique if you absolutely have to use it to catch fish, but for us it's a last resort, the very last. In some tournaments you have to troll, like on Lake Erie, that's why we don't fish them. We'll take an electric motor and a Lindy rig or light 1/8 or 1/16 oz. Jigs and spank the walleye on structure any day. Sometime we get spanked, but it's not very often," Joe said with a grin.
Darren confirmed that they were struggling with the same decision that every angler was facing with Bays de Noc, to run or not to run, out into Big Bay de Noc. "We've been up here for several days and fished most of the Big Bay, down by Ford River, in 4-foot swells. We caught some good fish on a couple of spots, but that's a very long run to make, not knowing if your fish are going to be biting when you get there, or even be there at all. It could be a tournament breaking decision, either way," he added.
For the past two days, this pair of Ohio anglers have been concentrating on Little Bay de Noc and not finding much encouragement in terms of size, but catching decent numbers of fish using four to six-pound Stren mono and very small firetiger jigs due to the weed growth they are fishing. They're tipping their jigs with half a crawler, threading it on most of the way to combat the perch that swarm their target areas. Occasionally a leech will find its way onto the jig, but crawlers have been most productive for them up to this point.
When asked about minnows, Joe quickly explained that temperature dictates what they use for bait, adding that with the water temperature rising to the upper 60s on the surface, worms were the best choice for their preferred technique.
After an hour of staring at the same dismal radar screen, the decision was made to give it a shot, since there hadn't been any close lightening for a while, and the worst seemed to have passed. In a few minutes we were on the water, and Darren was working his electronic mojo. He is most pleased with the recent addition of a Garmin 176C. As we moved across the bay he pointed out the various structure that we were crossing and commented on how they had fared at each.
In a matter of minutes we were shutting down the main motor in a light drizzle, with only three other boats in sight. Darren mounted the trolling motor, positioned us where he wanted to start and explained the plan.
"What we've got here is a shallow area that drops off from six feet to about 9 or 10, with a weedline that has been holding fish. We'll be using 1/8 oz. jigs, because Lindy rigs are too hard to work through this thick weed growth. You need to cast it over to the shallow water and work it very slowly back through the weeds, letting it drop down into the holes as you work it along. You don't really want to reel much at all. The bite is very delicate, and the perch will take a lot of bait, but we don't mind the perch because the walleye will come up to feed on them. Where there are perch, there will be walleye, eventually."
In a short while, I pulled up the living proof, if barely, - a fat perch that had been severely gashed on its tail section by teeth that most certainly could have been walleye. A wound about the size of a nickel was evidence that it had a very close call recently. For the remainder of the morning, I watched these two accomplished anglers work one hard-won walleye after another out of the weeds, while I concentrated on the perch.
As we fished from one area to the next, Joe and Darren swapped opinions and analysis on what they were doing, or should be doing. It was clear that these two have a very strong relationship and mutual respect that prohibits tacit comments or derision. Bottom line analysis by the Dossi's, was that the cold front blowing in over night had given the fish lockjaw and they still didn't know as much about the areas fished as they needed to know. "We've still got a lot of pre-fishing to do tomorrow," Joe said.
Joe summed up the secret to their success by saying that you have to have confidence in what you are doing, and stick with your plan, noting that at this point their plan was still somewhat fluid.
Finally, the allotted time for our outing was about to expire, and we had barely caught a dozen fish, most of which would not have made the livewell come tournament time. This lack of success only added to the pressure of deciding where to start on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m.
The bite was so delicate it was almost non-existent, and feels very similar to the type of resistance you get when trying to pull the jig over a weed. The perch are very aggressive and hit with a vengeance, but these walleye are something else. The Dossi team are definitely master finesse fishermen. I'm thinking that come the final weigh-in, they'll be the only three time All Americans.
Weigh-in activities begin at the UP State Fairground on Friday, if you're in the area. There are many family activities scheduled prior to the first basket that is schedule to arrive at 4 p.m.
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/content/community/inthefield/fieldguides/Fieldguides_home/ntc_article_dossi.jhtml;jsessionid=GXH1YS1H3ZYSUCW QNVCSCOAK0BWUMIWE