2020 TITLE CHAMPION
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE other things beside chasing bass and tournament checks .
Salewske fished local tournaments for the next nine years , focusing on his contracting business , ushering both of his daughters down the aisle , and occasionally jumping into Toyota Series events on fisheries that he liked ( he finished sixth and seventh on Lake Cumberland and Lake Mead , respectively , in 2019 ). He and wife Kelly surveyed the FLW schedules every year for the right set of circumstances that would allow Salewske to jump back into national-tour-level tournaments .
And 2020 turned out to be that year . Rusty and Kelly committed to a two-year plan to fish the Pro Circuit , followed by a financial re-assessment in 2022 .
“ Everybody who fishes at this level and then has to leave for various reasons wants to get back to this level ,” Salewske admits . “ I didn ’ t even really like the 2020 schedule – I hadn ’ t fished a single day on any of those fisheries before this year – but my wife and I decided that we were in a good enough financial position to do it for two years .”
SALEWSKE ’ S TITLE PATH
Salewske entered the TITLE fresh off a top-40 finish in the smallmouth-dominated Lake Erie Super Tournament , but with a different mindset about Sturgeon Bay than other tournament frontrunners ( and smallmouth specialists ) like 2020 AOY Ron Nelson and eventual seventhplace finisher Grae Buck . Salewske practiced for two days without a single spinning rod on deck , instead fishing a spinnerbait , swimbait , jerkbait and jig in search of groups of fish , only picking up a spinning rod for the final hour each day .
“( Sturgeon Bay was ) a whole new fishery to me , so I ’ d lay in bed at night staring at maps on my phone ,” Salewske says . “ None of my spots stuck out to me as THE place . I didn ’ t have a spot where I felt like I absolutely needed to start there . I had spots where I ’ d get eight to 10 bites , but I knew that eight to 10 wasn ’ t going to do it . It was a straight grind for me .”
Salewske weighed 20-1 on day one to settle into 16th place but upgraded with 44-6 on day three to finish the Qualifying Rounds in seventh . He powered his way into the Championship Round with 17 fish for 61-10 in the Knockout Round .
As the tournament developed , Salewske gradually homed in on more efficient ways to fish his spots after evening chats with fellow TITLE competitor and travel partner Wade Strelic . Instead of bulling his way around with his trolling motor on 70 , Strelic suggested Salewske spend a little more time fishing each of the breaks he ’ d marked on his electronics .
“ I wasn ’ t fishing in a manner to best take advantage of the areas I found ,” Salewske admits . “ I ’ d found several little ledges in 8 to 11 feet of water that dropped down to 15 or 20 , and that ’ s where I ’ d get bit , every time – right on those little breaks . I slowly started to realize that every time I ’ d get bit , it would be right there on my mark , or within half a cast . I started to Spot- Lock and fish those places a little more . Strelic told me ‘ There ’ s more down there than you think ; they ’ re just hard to make bite ’, and I think he was right .”
Salewske finally stowed the casting gear for good after day four , committing to the drop-shot , and battling through a war of gear attrition as he broke a rod and reel , and went through all of his Gamakatsu drop-shot hooks , Kanji tungsten drop-shot weights , and almost all of his Yamamoto Shad Shape Worms . On the final day , as he headed out to his main area – a 350- yard-long shoal on the inside of Riley ’ s Island in Little Sturgeon Bay – he had three spinning rods on deck ( one of his
For Rusty Salewske , figuring out Sturgeon Bay smallies was about more than just turning up the trolling motor and covering water .
own , two borrowed ), and an assortment of weights , hooks and baits that he had gotten from Strelic .
THE WINNING SPOTS
Championship Day dawned with forecasts of sustained winds of 15 to 20 mph , which put most of the field of 10 in defense mode right from lines in . Salewske committed the day to his best spot , a 350-yard-long shoal extending off of Snake Island at the mouth of Riley ’ s Bay ( the bay just north of Little Sturgeon Bay ), stacking 28-15 on SCORETRACKER ® in the first period and staying within a scorable fish of the lead for much of the day .
“ I liked that spot because it gave me some protection if the wind blew from three directions ,” Salewske explains . “ It was a big , long point that came off that island , and had grass out to about 6 or 7 feet . It got real rocky at 6 feet , so I ’ d catch them on the grass line in the morning , and they ’ d slowly move deeper and wider off the point onto these little break lines , either for shade or for a current break . I think what made that place special was the amount of current that would roll through there . There was always some current moving over that point , no matter how the wind blew .”
Salewske doggedly fished that shoal through an ever-increasing wind in the second and third periods , but his bites gradually decreased ( along with the charge in his trolling-motor batteries ) as the wind shifted directions . With roughly an hour left in the Championship Round ,
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FLWFISHING . COM 29