Bruce Samson—Looking for a Few Good Fish

In three In-Fisherman Professional Walleye Trail (PWT) events in your career, and you’re doing things right. Very right. Executing on tournament days is one of them. Pinpointing the proper fish in practice is another. And, of course, it only makes sense that you couldn’t have one without the other.

A case study in prefishing proficiency yielding tournament results is Dr. Bruce Samson, a physician from Minnetrista, Minnesota, who has captured one win on Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, and two on Devils Lake, North Dakota. In an overall strategy that puts him either at the top or down in the nether reaches of the standings, Samson focuses on fewer but better fish with thorough preparation that drives him to search for as many spots as possible.

“I’m just looking for a few good fish,” Samson says. “I just don’t do well in community spots. There are thirty fish there, you catch two, and you think you’re being slaughtered.

“I used to fish to be more consistent. Now I want to win. I have to bite the bullet a lot and end up at the bottom more often.”

Risk, however, yields its reward. For Samson, such a calculated gamble starts with a practice approach that eschews catching numbers of fish in favor of finding a few good fish and many spots. If he nails a big walleye in practice, for instance, he leaves the spot almost immediately to look for new territory.

“It seems to me I don’t catch many fish during prefishing,” Samson says. “If I catch a 25-incher, I’m gone. I might go back and check the spot two days later.”

Samson acknowledges that the decision to bolt shortchanges him in his effort to decipher the structure. “If I knew on the first day of the tourney what I know on the second or third day, I’d do much better,” Samson says. “But if I spend a lot of time on a spot, that takes away other options.”

When Samson decides to analyze a structure, he does it the old-fashioned way—with a buoy marker. He’ll drop it even if he only marks a fish on electronics. Then he works his way around the area to determine the lay of the underwater terrain.

“I’m happiest when I have a focal point,” Samson says. “I can read the structure a lot faster when I have a buoy out there.”

When Samson catches a fish, he immediately goes looking for something similar. “When I find one fish at a certain depth, I try to reproduce the same sequence—depth of water, time of day, bottom content.” I try to find fish on the exact same thing in a different spot.”

Unlike other anglers, Samson is unconcerned if he catches walleyes outside tournament hours, simply preferring to find new spots and the presence of fish. “Besides,” he says, “you never know what weather might arrive during the tournament.” If Samson nails a fish in the low light of morning or evening, it’s a cue that active fish might be present during the day if wind or rain replicates similar conditions.

Another component of Samson’s strategy is a tape recorder to take notes. After dissecting an enormous body of water and numerous spots, Samson has a note of whether waypoint 72 indicates deep water next to a wing dam, or whatever, and he can make connections in establishing a pattern.

It’s become something of a tournament axiom that, “He with the most spots wins,” and that thinking is nothing if not the essence of Bruce Samson. “I like the times a tournament ends and I haven’t had the chance to get to some spots,” he says. “I like to fish a small spot for the right bites. On Devils Lake, I caught six fish in one day where I had caught three in all of practice. But sometimes in a tournament I don’t run enough.”

If that is, in fact, a downfall, it’s difficult to second-guess.