Mark Martin Wins In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail
Tournament and $50,000 in Chamberlain, South Dakota

Chamberlain, S.D.óPro angler Mark Martin of Twin Lake, Michigan, weighed 18 fish for 37.26 pounds to capture the three-day In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) tournament and the $50,000 first prize on the Missouri River in Chamberlain, South Dakota.

The win at the April 25  27 event is Martin’s second on the tour since its start in 1990, when he won the Championship on Lake of the Woods, Minnesota. Since then, Martin has been the only pro to fish every PWT tournament, scoring 13 top-10 finishes and competing in every Championship event. 

  This win means well more than the money,” Martin said.   It shows my abilities are top-notch and I’m still able to compete. You get down to crunch time and this time it all came together. To win one is a lot more difficult than a lot of people think. You’ve got to catch the right fish out of everybody.”

Northland Fire-Ball. Jig

In Chamberlain, Martin’s strategy was to position his Lund 2025 in 10 feet of water and pitch 1/16th-ounce Northland Fire-Ball jigs and minnows to one-foot shallows where he saw walleyes swirling.   Fireline Martin said he sensed strikes  and watched the fish swim off with his jig  with thin-diameter 6-pound Berkley flame FireLine that didn’t catch in the wind and blow his offering out of position

MotorGuide Tour Edition

At times he let the jig rest on bottom for up to five seconds and imparted minimal action to it while holding the boat in 30 mph winds with his 107-pound-thrust Motor Guide trolling motor running on full blast with his Trojan deep-cycle batteries.They wanted the jig sitting there or moving with short little jerks,” Martin said.   It wasn’t how many casts you made in the day. I had to make strategic casts and a slow retrieve.” Martin’s key locations were a series of bluffs with gravel and shale near an area known locally as Boyer’s Bottoms, about 15 miles south of Chamberlain, with most of the fish biting on the upstream side of the points. There he caught up to 30 walleyes a day, keeping a six-fish limit every tournament day that included four fish under 18 inches and two over 18 inches as part of the Dakota slot limit.