Jesse Buechel, NPAA #711, won the AIM Pro Walleye Series-South Dakota Walleye Classic tournament on Lake Oahe this past weekend by over 15 pounds! Starting on day one, he brought in the largest 7 fish limit for 39.23 pounds, giving him a little over an 8 pound lead over second place finisher, Chase Parsons, NPAA #806. On day two he brought in another 27.66 pounds, moving his lead to just over 11 pounds. On the final day, he topped it off with another huge limit of 28.67 pounds. This is Jesse’s first major tournament win, and when asked how it feels he replied, “The first win is obviously going to be the one that you remember most. To think of all of the people that have done it for so many years and have had the opportunities…it’s unbelievable! I just figured, if I can get in the top ten with the competition that I’m against it would be phenomenal, but to get a win, and this size of one, (he stumbles over words)…it hasn’t sunk in yet”.
Jesse explained how he was catching his fish, and what he felt was the key to his program. Pulling any crankbait in a white color was more important than a single crankbait profile, in Jesse’s opinion, and didn’t mention one particular crankbait as working better or best.
In Jesse’s own words:
“I fished about a three to four mile stretch that had good fish on it, and there was one point that was about 200 yards long, that held the most “good” fish. It didn’t hold the biggest fish, but it held a bunch of 21’s and 22’s. Most of my 21’s and 22’s came off of that one stretch. I decided I’m going right to that stretch, and I’m just going to pull it, and pull it, and pull it until I’ve got all 21’s and 22 inchers and then I’ll go searching.
Today, the final day, I knew it was going to be a slower. I went through probably 150 fish the first day, about 75 the second day, and I went through about 35 fish today. My first pass, I hit a 20 3/4. My second pass was a 21 3/4, so I said, “You know what? If I just get one fish a pass, and a good one, then I don’t care.” It was probably wasn’t 9 o’clock before I got my limit in the boat today. At Noon, I still needed to upgrade a 19 1/2 incher and, at 12:18 I popped a 25 1/2 inch fish. That’s the big hog today…I popped it and it was…I was just doing the “Happy Dance” up on the front of the boat. (Laughs)
That was when I knew, that for somebody to beat me, they were going to have to have 40 some pounds, and after seeing the weights the past two days, I knew that it was done.
I was wondering what to do, so I came back and Jason Przekurat was running my secondary spot, and I just said, “You know what? I’m going to respect you”, and I left there and gave him that spot, and I went out to take my GPS Tracker and wrote, “Hi Mom!” It took me about two miles to write it…and, I just wrote, “Hi Mom!” with a heart. I figured if anyone was watching online they would have been able to see that, and if I got the win, I didn’t have to call.
The turning point for me was on day one, about two hours into it, we were letting a board out, and on the way out, when it slammed down, it had that 25 3/4 inch fish, and it just told me instantly that you need to slow your presentation down. I was going 2 MPH during pre-fishing and up until I caught that fish! That first fish told me I had to slow down, so slowed to 1.5 MPH and 20 minutes later I had a second kicker fish and less than an hour later I had a third kicker. So, within an hour I put three kickers in the boat all because I slowed down, that was the turning point.”
Other top finishing NPAA Members this past weekend are:
- 2nd Place: Chase Parsons, NPAA #806 with 79.82 pounds.
- 4th place: Bruce Samson, NPAA #80 with 78.81 pounds.
- 5th Place: Robert Blosser, NPAA #255 with 78.79 pounds.
- 6th Place: Joe Okada, NPAA #660 with 78.43 pounds.
- 7th Place: Jason Przekurat, NPAA #169 with 78.31 pounds.
- 8th Place: Mike McMaken, NPAA #97 with 76.84 pounds.
- 10th Place: Chad Schilling, NPAA #283 with 73.17 pounds.
- 12th Place: David A. Anderson, NPAA #509 with 71.43 pounds.
- 13th Place: Gary Parsons, NPAA #24 with 71.42 pounds.
- 14th Place: Pat Neu, NPAA #77 with 70.20 pounds.
- 15th Place: Richie Boggs, NPAA #495 with 69.78 pounds.
The NPAA sponsored Youth event was a big success, but the kids didn’t get to fish in the farm pond, due to the less than favorable weather conditions. Pro angler, Marianne Huskey, NPAA # 150 did a tremendous job of organizing the event, and other pros including; Scott Duncan, NPAA #197, Lynn Jurrens, NPAA #982, Dennis Gulau, NPAA #504 all helped out with the “Kid’s Fishing Clinic”. There were a large number of children that turned out for the event, and after receiving brand new rods and reels, tackle boxes, and other goodies, the kids received their “NPAA Future Pro” T-Shirts that they were able to get signed by all the pros as they weighed in.
The NPAA is a non-profit organization focused on growing the sport of fishing and increasing the professionalism of its members. Its supporting partners include Northland Fishing Tackle, Navionics, Mercury Marine, Evinrude Outboards, Lund Boats, Ranger Boats, Off-Shore Tackle, Fin-Tech Tackle, Berkley, AIM Walleye Series, Masters Walleye Circuit, FLW Outdoors, Frabill, U.S. Forest Service, Liddle Marketing, FPS Financial Planning Services, Do-it Corp., Optima Batteries, John Butts Outdoors, Pasha Lake Cabins, Oahe Wings and Walleyes Guide Service, Outdoor First Media, Advanced Tex Screen Printing, Pro Staff Gear and Worldwide Marine Underwriters.By: Patrick Neu, NPAA Executive Director
