If you don't believe in the Fishing Gods, try this tale.
While fishing on the Detroit River in October, the motor on Jim Holton's boat whistled a few times, made a couple of clanging sounds, and then shut down.
The Crestliner 2150 Sportfish had ceased to operate, so Holton limped to the nearest launch area with the electric trolling motor pushing the big boat along. Holton had initially launched near Gross Ile and fished a long route down the waterway to the Ambassador Bridge, leaving the Michigan angler nearly 20 miles from where his truck and boat trailer were parked.
The Holly resident took an Uber back to the original boat launch, drove to downtown Detroit, and dragged the broken-down Crestliner out of the water. He determined he would fish the rest of the season from the boats of his friends.
Fast forward to late November and Holton's fishing buddy Tim McKinney from Hadley Township decided the duo should go work the Ohio waters of Lake Erie since they were both entered in the two big fall walleye tournaments and the clock was winding down on those events.
They left southeast Michigan in the darkness of early morning and drove to Rocky River west of Cleveland where they checked into a hotel that would be their base of operation for two days of intense fishing. They then hurried to the nearest boat launch, but found it was locked up with ice.
“We debated where to go next, and talked to some guys there in Rocky River, and decided to go try the Lorain area,” Holton said. “We didn't get out on the water until around 11:30. You don't start many fishing days at noon and expect to do well, especially when you've never fished there before and you really don't know where to go.”
McKinney said the pair of General Motors retirees and decade-long fishing partners engaged in friendly bickering over where to fish, drawing up images of Statler and Waldorf, the two quarrelsome old men heckling from the balcony on The Muppets.
“He was saying let's go here and I was saying let's go there — it was like a couple of stubborn and grumpy old men trying to make up their minds,” McKinney said. “Finally, we saw a group of boats out in one area and he started yelling at me to head that way. I told him to get the lines set.”
Once they had the trolling boards and baits in the water, the wind caught the boat and turned it sideways.
“We didn't get off to a great start,” Holton said.
As the boat straightened out, Holton questioned whether they might be fishing too deep.
“Then the center board went back and I knew I had a good fish. You crank them up, take the board off, crank a bit more and take the inline weight off, then you have a pretty good idea what you've got,” Holton said.
“He was on his phone when the board went back and I yelled at him that there was a fish on,” McKinney said
The fish was turning on the retrieve, and Holton thought he might have a lake trout.
“The way it was turning, I thought, what the heck is this,” he recalled. “Then its face came up and I saw it was a walleye, a really nice fish.”
Once the fish was netted and in the boat, the pair put it on McKinney's hand-held scale.
“The scale was bouncing between 13.5 and 14 pounds, so I knew it was a really big one. I've caught one that was 14 pounds in the past, so I knew it was close,” McKinney said.
A fish that size would take over first place in both the Lake Erie Fall Brawl and the Walleye Slam, the two big money tournaments that run simultaneously and pay out enormous amounts in prizes and cash. About $300,000 was on the line for any angler who won both events.
“He was calling everyone and asking what to do, so I said I'm the captain and we're going in,” McKinney said, acutely aware that fish begin to lose weight after they are caught and placed in a live well or cooler.
The pair rushed to the official weigh-in site for the Slam in Sheffield Lake to the east, and then raced to Sandusky and the Brawl weigh-in site. The fish hit 13.61 pounds on the Brawl scale, and 13.62 pounds on the Slam scale.
“We took the lead, but there were still five days left in the tournaments at that point, so you just kind of sweat it out,” Holton said, citing the fact that the winning fish has been caught in the final days of the Brawl numerous times. “Plus there are so many good fishermen out there, with the charter boats and all of the locals. It was going to be a long wait.”
After weighing in the big fish, Helton and McKinney went back out on the lake later in the day and caught little, but the following day provided a limit of Lake Erie walleye, with some approaching 10 pounds.
When the clock struck the equivalent of walleye tournament midnight on Nov. 27, Holton was still in the lead in both events and all that remained between him and the $300K in winnings was the obligatory polygraph test to make certain all of the rules had been followed.
“I've never been in jail, never taken a polygraph test before, so your biggest fear is that you'll be so nervous that for some season you fail,” Holton said. “That could trash your reputation for the rest of your life.”
He passed with ease and became the champion of the Brawl and the Slam, and the winner of a Warrior V238 boat valued at $175,000 and a Ranger 622 FS Pro boat valued at more than $125,000. So what does a 71-year-old retiree with a broken boat back home do with two new, fully-equipped, state-of-the-art fishing machines?
Holton kept the Warrior . . . and he gave the Ranger to his fishing buddy McKinney.
“You might think that's a hard thing to do, since it is a $130,000 boat you are giving away,” Holton said, “but when you are out there as fishing partners and friends, it just seems like the right thing to do.”
His moment of good fortune was not lost on Holton.
“I think of myself as a pretty good fisherman, and I've caught a lot of fish over the years, but this was just a meant-to-be type of thing,” he said. “We were just doing what thousands of other guys out there on the lake were doing. No matter how good you are, when it comes to a big fish like this, there is a luck factor involved. It's a right place, right time thing.”
Holton praised the fall tournaments for providing “regular” guys with the opportunity to fish with their family or friends and have a chance at winning such big prizes. “These are amazing tournaments, and I don't think there is anything like this anywhere else in the world,” he said.
First Published January 14, 2023, 2:00 p.m.
