Performance Profile: Dennis Jeffrey
2004 Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour Angler of the Year
Ask Dennis Jeffrey for his life’s angling highlights, and he has a few:
• Helping his son and daughter catch their first fish.
• Teaming with his then-8-year-old grandson, Matt, to win a big walleye tournament.
• The time his wife, Irene, caught a 14-pound, 3-ounce walleye.
• The joy he gets volunteering for a program that introduces disadvantaged kids to fishing.
Only when pressed does Jeffrey mention the 2004 Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour, and even then his first words are about the other fishermen.
“Those are a tough bunch of guys,” the 53-year-old from Garrison, N.D., said of the other top contenders on the circuit. “It never crossed my mind when I was starting out that I could compete at that level.”
Yet in only his second full year on the RCL Tour, Jeffrey won the tour’s coveted Angler of the Year title.
His humility and passion for hospitality have been honed in a lifetime spent helping others, first as an Air Force jet mechanic, then as a hunting and fishing lodge operator, and now as a motel owner and occasional fishing guide. For Jeffrey, to take care of things on the RCL Tour in 2004 took a combination of hard work and good fortune.
After a solid 44th place at the season-opening tournament on the Illinois River in early April, Jeffrey had an awesome performance at Lake Erie a month later, finishing third and winning $20,000. He vaulted to fifth in the tour standings, but even then he could not imagine winning.
“I was hoping just to finish in the top five,” Jeffrey said.
Those hopes took a blow at Devils Lake in May, when a 72nd-place finish dropped him a few valuable spots in the points race. It all came down to the season’s final event at South Dakota’s Lake Oahe.
“I knew I had to have a great tournament,” Jeffrey said. “And the other guys had to have a bad tournament.”
That is exactly what happened. Jeffrey finished 16th, just high enough to edge past Jeff Taege of Rhinelander, Wis., in the Angler of the Year standings. His prize was a Ranger boat, equipped with an Evinrude outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Garmin electronics and EverStart batteries and $10,000 cash.
“And I had just bought a new Ranger 30 days earlier,” he said, laughing.
The new boats are quite a step up from the one in which Jeffrey got his fishing start. While growing up in Minneapolis, he learned to catch walleyes from a tiny boat powered by a meager 20-horsepower outboard.
After eight years in the Air Force, Jeffrey and his wife settled in Minot, N.D., where he became a cattle rancher. When the cattle business slowed, he started hosting hunters on the ranch.
During the summer the couple spent most of their time fishing for walleyes at Lake Sakakawea, located about two hours from the ranch.
Jeffrey started fishing competitively in local and regional walleye tournaments about 20 years ago and got started on the RCL Tour in 2001.
“When the RCL came along, that seemed like a great way to compete against some of the best professional walleye fishermen,” Jeffrey said.
The outfitting business was good but challenging, so a couple of years ago the couple decided to sell the ranch. They moved to Garrison and bought the 30-unit Garrison Motel on the shores of Lake Sakakawea.
“Irene does most of the work,” Jeffrey said of the motel business, which is expanding. “I spend 90 percent of my time fishing.”
His bride of 33 years does not argue.
“My job is to keep Dennis in minnow money and crankbaits,” said Irene, who sometimes fishes events as a co-angler.
When he is not fishing, Jeffrey is usually passing fishing tips on to guests. Although he passes a lot of guiding business on to other lake guides, Jeffrey sometimes takes clients out on the water himself.
“I want to help them catch fish,” he said.
Of course he does.
Crankbaits key to Jeffrey’s success
Dennis Jeffrey knows that bait wins many walleye tournaments. Still, his favorite technique involves pulling hard chunks of plastic.
“I love trolling crankbaits,” said Jeffrey, who used the technique often on his way to winning the 2004 Wal-Mart RCL Tour Angler of the Year title.
“You can attract bigger fish and cover a lot of water,” he said of the technique. “Fish that are on the bite will move to hit a crankbait.”
Jeffrey’s approach to trolling is well-orchestrated. While pulling his lures along breaklines and across points, Jeffrey uses line-counter reels and puts the lures out at different distances so they dive to a variety of depths. He also starts with different colors and may even try several different types of crankbaits.
“The fish will tell me what they want that day,” said Jeffrey, who uses long, limber rods to absorb the often brutal strikes of big fish. His favorite crankbaits are from Reef Runner, Storm and Rapala.
Although many anglers use planer boards while trolling, Jeffrey rarely does unless the water is extra clear or calm. He also pays close attention to his electronics.
“Too many people use their electronics as depth finders, not as fish finders,” he said. “Find the baitfish, and you’ll find the walleyes. After that it’s up to you to catch them.”