The Professional Musky Tournament Trail (PMTT) visited Eagle River, Wisconsin for what would be the second leg of qualifying events leading up to the PMTT’s Ranger Boats World Championship set to take place in Indiana on the Barbee Chain, Tippecanoe Lake & Webster Lake. One hundred and seventeen boats lined up on Saturday morning, June 23rd, on Eagle Lake and eased out one by one at 7:00 AM from the docks of Eagle Waters Resort.
The sun was high, clouds were absent, and not so much as a ripple could amount from the lack of breeze – it was hot. Water temperatures ranged in the low-70’s as tournament anglers picked apart the chain looking for that musky to add points to their names on the leaderboard and help earn their invitation to the musky fishing world championship.
Only 22 muskies would be registered by the end of Day 1, with Legendary Angler ambassador, Sam Ubl, and his partner, Bryan Schaeffer in the lead. The duo popped two fish between 11:30 AM and Noon, and would be just one of three teams to double on the first day. After the Day 1 ceremony, Team Ubl and Schaeffer had revealed they were definitely on to a hot bite as the two fish they tallied were out of seven total hooked that day for the team! A combination of high lure retrieval speed and quick reaction strikes were likely to blame for the poor hookups on the five that got away.
Legendary Angler ambassador, Sam Ubl holds up the first fish of the tournament
Here’s #2 which put them in the lead after day 1 despite missing 5 other fish!
Day 2 would be a carbon copy of Day 1, bringing high skies and very little wind with unsettling heat throughout the day. For the first time in tournament history, nearly as many fish were caught on Sunday as on Saturday, and the average size went up, too!
By 8:00 AM, team Ubl and Schaeffer landed their third fish of the event, a 41-inch musky that crushed a Lake X Lure XTOAD soft plastic, and by 11:00 AM, the team had struck their fourth and final fish of the event, eventually sealing their victory at the 2-Day tournament.
Bryan holds up the third fish the Legendary Angler team landed.
Sam holds up number four.
Burning small bucktails and jigging soft plastics were the winning combination for the tournament. The Legendary Angler team of Sam Ubl and Bryan Schaeffer focused on shoreline current seams between the channel mouths entering a lake and leaving for another. Weeds and wood may have helped, but weren’t as big of a factor as the swift-moving current, itself. This was the first time in decades water levels have been as high on the chain as they were over the weekend, so current was at an all-time high and anglers that took advantage of it reaped the rewards.
Congratulations to Legendary Angler team, Sam Ubl of the Lake Country area of southeast Wisconsin, and Bryan Schaeffer of Tomahawk, on their 1st Place victory on the Eagle River Chain of Lakes during the PMTT’s Mercury Marine Summer Event!
