Getting back to basics on Devils Lake wins top honors for McQuoid and Rosen

While using basic techniques and keeping their rigs as simple as possible, pro Kevin McQuoid of Isle, MN, and co-angler Don Rosen of Rosemont, MN, brought in the winning weights and received the top prize money on the final day of the last of the regularly scheduled Wal-Mart RCL tournaments of 2001.

During his eight days of pre-fishing, McQuouid found a tiny pocket of fish within the huge waters of Devils Lake. The walleye were stacked right on top of each other within a small area along a rock strewn shoreline, approximately eighteen miles from the launch sight at Spirit Lake Marina in the town of Spirit Lake, North Dakota.

Simple rigs equaled bigger walleye
With his boat anchored, McQuoid found the simplicity of a 3/8-ounce jig, chartreuse in color, tipped with a lively leach or night crawler and tied to an eight-pound mono, was just what the walleye ordered. Once lowered vertically to the bottom, he would simply lift his baited jig just an inch or two, and hold it there, and that is all it took to catch the winning fish each and every day of the tournament, which was held September 5 through 8.

“I found that simply holding the jig two inches or so off bottom and holding it still, seemed to be what those walleye wanted,” said an ecstatic McQuoid just moments after the official weigh-in. “Oh we caught a few by pitching the jig out a little ways and hopping it in, but the motionless action of that jig hanging vertical under the boat really caught the most fish.”

On day four, McQuoid found the walleye would no longer touch a leach tipped jigs and it quickly became obvious it would be a crawlers-only bite. Ironically, the picky walleye that wanted this crawler and jig duo, were bigger. “We also caught a few of the weighable fish each day while using these same baits under a slip bobber,” he added. “However, it was that jig and crawler that would really shine through.”

McQuoid’s spot had extremely muddy water conditions, but this didn’t seem to hamper the walleye bite. “You could not even see what kind of fish you were fighting until it came splashing to the surface,” said McQuoid. Beside walleye, he and his co-anglers sorted through a few northern pike and stripped bass during the first three days of competition.

McQuoid also knew that there was a good trolling bite going on and had a few spots lined up just in case his jigging spot didn’t keep producing. “Trolling was producing some big fish for me in the afternoon during pre-fish, but not with the consistency of my morning jigging hole,” commented McQuiod. “In fact, on day four, we had our winning fish by eleven in the morning and came back to the launch area and hung out until everyone else came back.”
When fishing a tournament on Devils Lake, there is more to a winning strategy than catching bigger fish than everyone else. Devils Lake has a “no cull” rule on its waters meaning that once a walleye is placed in the live well, it has to stay there, even if you catch a bigger one. McQuoid’s rule of thumb during tournament time? “We wouldn’t put a walleye in the well unless it was twenty inches… and this can be a difficult rule to follow when you have a nineteen incher on your line. But we stuck to it, and it paid off.” And pay off it did for McQuoid as he caught five fish for a 19-pound, 5-ounce weight, and won $50,000 and a new Yamaha powered Ranger boat, filled with Garmin electronics.

The co-angler and his winning techniques.
As a financial planner, Don Rosen will now be planning out his future with an extra $15,000 from his Devils Lake tournament winnings. But this moneyman is also an avid outdoorsman, and he even commented about changing his career plans from that of financal planner to fishing guide after this big win. “The luck of the draw was in my favor as I had great pros to fish with everyday of the tournament,” Rosen said just after the final weigh-in.

His first two days found him and his pro companions trolling crankbaits behind leadcore line. “Both of the pros I fished with produced some great fish these first two days, some on the new jointed Rapala Shad-Raps, and others on Cotton Cordial Wally Divers,” said Rosen.

However, with the luck of the draw on days three and four, he found himself camped out in McQuoid’s hole, and catching some great fish. “The spot Kevin found was only the length of a semi trailer, and I found out just how good this spot was right away. After Kevin explained how these walleyes were hitting, I lowered my jig, and came up with a seven-plus pound walleye within the first five minutes of,” Rosen stated graciously.

In addition to fishing the tournament as a co-angler, Rosen also had the opportunity to pre-fish with his son, Bart Rosen. Devils Lake was Bart Rosen’s first tournament as a pro angler, and his father was proud to be there with him.

The tournament was smooth sailing
Tournament director, Sonny Reynolds was as happy as can be with the outcome of the Devils Lake tournament. “The weather was great, the accommodations were great, and the fishing was great… what else could anyone ask for,” commented Reynolds.

Reynolds is now working diligently on the next, and final Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit stop for the 2001 season; the championship on the Fox River and Green Bay, in Green Bay, Wisc. Both McQuoid and Rosen plan on fishing the championship with the other 199 pros and 199 co-anglers who also qualified for the championship and will be competing for part of the 1.4 million-dollar purse on Oct 2-6, 2001.