The student and the teacher

When you're up against your best friend and mentor, Dan Griep says, you know it's a special moment.

"Stu (McKee) is the best fisherman in the area, and it's sort of a feather in your cap to be there with him," Griep said.

Griep and McKee, both of Cleveland and friends of 30 years, are members of the top two teams in the Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourneys series, which winds down the regular season Tuesday at Lake Tetonka with a winner being crowned. 

McKee and partner Roger Kramer have won team of the year the last three years, so an upset by the student would be appropriate.

McKee says if Griep and partner Bill Holland win, he'll be very happy for them. Griep says the winning aspect wasn't the most important part of fishing the tournaments.

"I'm just out there on Tuesday nights to have fun," Griep says. "If I catch fish, great. If I win money, even better. If we win team of the year, of course we'd like that."

Griep's admiration for McKee goes beyond what he's learned technique wise.

"He's kept me on the cutting edge of what baits are out there," Griep says. "He'll share his information with you. He's not secretive at all. He likes to teach everybody so they can catch fish."

After Tuesday's tournament, the field will vote on which lake to hold the postseason tournament. Griep says his vote is for Lake Washington, but he'll fish where ever the tournament takes places.

McKee says he usually just waits to see what everyone else votes and then goes along with the vote. But he said he wouldn't mind seeing the tournament at Washington or Tetonka.

McKee's take

Received a nice little e-mail from Stu McKee the other day. Here's his take on Lake Tetonka:

"The Tetonka tournament should be a good one, and as of this last week there are a good number of walleye's biting. There are a bunch of fish in the 13 inch range, but the lake is giving up some nice 17-inch fish."

McKee says the Aug. 25, regular-season finale at Tetonka is shaping up to be a good one. He says the approach for he and teammate Roger Kramer will likely be the same.

"I've been getting some new lure from J.B. Lures and some new fishing line from Premium superlines (FINS Fishing) in the 30 and 50 pount test. This has really helped
Roger and I put some very big fish in the boat."

McKee said the trick is to stay in shallow water. To be fair to him, I won't give away the exact depths he is shooting for, just in case any of his competition is reading this blog. But I will say this, you'd be surprised at just how shallow they go.

The purpose of the heavy line is to allow them to get into tough spots and not worry about breaking their line, and also to keep their lures "up a bit."

We'll see if that strategy works or not.