08/30/2026
The other day I shared this picture of my first ever walleye tournament and catching big fish of the event. Well, as promised here is "the rest of the story" and how this may have NEVER happened, how I may have stayed a banker and never even started on the fishing path that led me to now....
Story Time – Failure can be an inspiration
My first tournament! Couldn’t wait, I was going to set the world on fire and become the next great walleye angler. Well…..not so fast!
The tournament was on Holloway Reservoir, a short drive from my house, but a place I hated fishing. So different from where I had learned walleye fishing. Pre-fishing was awful, with only 1 15” walleye caught in 3 days, and on Wednesday night I started feeling bad. By Friday I was running a fever over 100 degrees and felt awful.
Still feeling terrible, my partner showed up Saturday morning, and we headed to the ramp. Got to our first spot and immediately hooked – and lost – a nice fish which ended up being the only bite of the day. By the end of Day 1 I felt awful, hated fishing and told my partner to forget about Day 2, I was not going to fish.
When I got home, I just wanted to get warm and rest, but before I headed to bed, I saw an envelope on the table with the Professional Walleye Trail logo on it, so I opened it. At that time is was fishing as an amateur on the PWT and got recaps of every PWT tournament in the mail. They had just fished the Mississippi River, and the results and recap were in the envelope. I scanned the results for friends who were fishing and for my walleye fishing idols. I got to the bottom of the pro results and found my idol Gary Roach; Day 1 0 fish Day 2 0 fish Day 3 0 fish! One of my idols had 3 zeroes!
Now I’m thinking if Gary Roach can 0, it’s not so bad that I did. Called my partner and told him to be ready to go for Day 2. After a hot bath, a good meal and a good night's sleep, I felt much better on Day 2; and guess what? It was a success! 5 nice walleyes moved us from last to 16th place AND I caught big fish of the tournament, a fish just over 7 lbs., winning us $900! I was hooked.
Later that year at the PWT event on Lake St. Clair I ran into Gary, told him the story, showed him a picture of the fish and said thank you! His response was so cool. He told me congratulations, asked if he could keep the picture and told me no one had ever thanked him for NOT catching fish! His “failure” was the sole reason for my “success” that weekend and more importantly, the ONLY reason I didn’t quit fishing tournaments. Without his three zeroes, and that letter coming at exactly the right time, I would not have started Walleye 101 all those years ago. Thanks Gary!
