MWC Bitter Lake 2026 | Webster South Dakota

A Tough Bite, a Lot of Work, and Plenty Learned

The 2026 Masters Walleye Circuit stop on Bitter Lake brought 91 teams together for two days of tournament fishing in northeast South Dakota.

For Tim and me, this tournament was a little different.

Bitter Lake is now much closer to home for me, and it is a fishery I expect to spend considerably more time learning in the years ahead. That made this tournament about more than simply trying to cash a check. It was another opportunity to continue learning a body of water that is going to become increasingly important to both my tournament fishing and my guiding.

Prefishing Bitter Lake

Going into the tournament, fishing was not easy.

We spent a lot of time trying to eliminate water and understand what the fish were doing. Trolling was not producing consistently for us, and finding dependable concentrations of baitfish was difficult.

We could pick up an occasional smaller fish trolling, but we never developed the confidence in it that we needed for tournament day.

Eventually our attention shifted almost completely toward casting.

We found several areas where we believed we had an opportunity to catch the quality of fish necessary to compete. We had a few locations holding better fish and several additional areas where we could work jigs and try to build a five fish limit.

At that point, the plan became pretty simple.

trust what we had found and fish it.

Day One

With 91 boats on the water, we knew fishing pressure was going to play a role.

We went into the first morning looking for five good bites.

Early in the day, we had opportunities around some of the better fish we had located during prefishing, but getting those fish to actually commit was another story.

We stayed with it and eventually brought five walleyes to the scale.

Our two overs measured approximately 22 1/2 and 23 inches.

At the end of Day One, we were sitting in 30th place.

That was not where we wanted to be, but we were still very much in the tournament.

Day Two

The second day became about grinding.

Tournament fishing has a way of testing you mentally as much as physically. There are days when everything seems to come together and other days when every fish has to be earned.

This was one of those events where quitting on the program was never really an option.

Tim and I continued working the areas and presentations we believed gave us our best opportunity.

By the end of the tournament, we finished with a two day weight of 29.02 pounds, moving up to 21st place out of 91 teams.

They paid through 18th.

So we finished just outside the money.

Of course you always want to leave a tournament with a check or a trophy, but I have been doing this long enough to know that those are not the only things you can take home.

The Value of a Tough Tournament

One of the biggest things tournament fishing continues to teach me is that you have to keep working even when things are not going according to plan.

There is always something to learn.

Sometimes it is a new presentation.

Sometimes it is learning how fish position on a particular piece of structure.

Sometimes it is discovering water you never would have looked at otherwise.

And sometimes the lesson is simply realizing that you and your partner are willing to keep working until the final fish is weighed.

That was probably the biggest takeaway for me from Bitter Lake.

No matter how difficult the fishing became, neither one of us quit.

A Thank You

Tournament fishing is never just about the two anglers sitting in the boat.

I am extremely thankful for my family and for their support that allows me to continue doing something I have loved for most of my life.

I also want to thank Tim’s wife and kids for supporting him and allowing us to spend the time necessary to prepare and compete.

And above everything else, I am thankful to God for simply giving us the opportunity to be out there.

We did not come home with a check or a trophy from Bitter Lake this time.

But we came home with more knowledge, more experience, and another tournament together.

And sometimes those lessons are worth considerably more down the road.

Final Finish: 21st of 91 teams

Two Day Weight: 29.02 pounds

We will keep learning.

We will keep fishing.

And we will be back.

Tom Tom’s Guide Service

South Dakota Guided Fishing