Two in a row
Crankbait caster Walter leads RCL semifinals with same Devils Lake pattern one day later
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – In the semifinal round for the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on Devils Lake, where prairie winds up to 40 mph whipped to water to froth, the standings were adjusted all over again with one notable exception: leader Rick Walter of Casper, Wyo.
Without giving up the lead or deviating from his pattern from the first two days, the Crestliner pro turned in another strong performance with a five-fish limit weighing 23 pounds, 3 ounces to top the field when only three other competitors turned in weights over 20 pounds; namely, Lund pro Mark Courts (21 pounds, 12 ounces), Land O’Lakes pro Eric Olson (21 pounds, 5 ounces) and Lund pro Jerry Hein (20 pounds, 5 ounces).
Again, Walter cast crankbaits to weeds in Pelican Lake, where all elements unite in the perfect shallow-water walleye hole.
“When I pre-fish an area, I go through the whole thing and fish it thoroughly,” Walter says. “When I find a weed patch, I work around it and look for a lot of different things. There are rocks from when the lake flooded, and on one side there’s a drop-off.”
Early and late
While Walter never faltered with his crankbait pattern, many of the last remaining bobber anglers had to adjust because of the wind and waves. A case in point is second-place Lund pro Mark Courts of Harris, Minn., who left his heretofore productive bobber spot, where the wind now raged, to head for a backup spot that was protected from the gusts.
“Today I had to find some calm water and go fish it,” Courts says.
The difficulty Courts encountered in the wind was keeping his leech or night crawler within six inches of bottom – any farther than that on Devils is too far.
“Here you’ll see a lot of local anglers just hanging jigs off the bottom `deadsticking’ them,” Court says. “And what I look for in the trees is points along the shoreline that force the fish to me. It’s like I’m hunting for deer – I’m looking for a funnel. You need something to send the fish to you when there are a zillion trees.”
True, Devils, a natural lake that has tripled in size since record rainfalls started in the early ’90s, is loaded with trees and more than 600 flooded building. But while not all trees are created equal, neither is the way you fish them in the wind and out of it.
If the successful tree anglers have one thing in common – and many of them withered on Friday in the high winds – it’s being able to keep a bait in the fish zone near bottom. Another is the ability to wrestle them out of the obstacles, which Courts accomplished with stretch free 8-pound Berkley FireLine above a barrel swivel and leader of 8-pound Berkley XT monofilament.
Meanwhile, making it happen at the eleventh hour – compared with Walters, who had his weigh fish by 9:15 a.m. – was Ranger pro John Campbell of Marco Island, Florida.
“I was in dire straits,” says Campbell, who was short of a limit with an hour to go. “I had three nice fish, but all of my keeper spots died. I thought East Bay had the most keeper fish, so I went there and caught two 17 1/2-inchers.”
Campbell, who caught his fish casting shallow with crankbaits, ended up in sixth place with 19 pounds, 2 ounces – certainly enough to fish tomorrow.
Angler of Year seals deal
The same was true for ninth-place Jason Przekurat, a Ranger pro from Stevens Point, Wis., who nailed down the RCL Angler of the Year title with 13 pounds, edging out his closest competitor, Ranger pro Joe Whitten of Toledo, who weighed 12 pounds, 4 ounces. Whitten rounded out the top 10.
Przekurat, too, made it happen late after putting one fish in the box with bobbers early and then abandoning bobbers because of the wind and switching to crankbait casting. With minutes to go, Przekurat and co-angler partner Raymond Oatman of Canton, Mich., put a 20-incher and an 8-pounder in the box to seal their – and Przekurat’s – fate.
In advance of Saturday’s finals, more tempestuous weather is forecast, with winds of 25 mph and afternoon thunderstorms entering the picture. Again, it won’t be easy for any of the top 10 – any of whom could take it all when they start anew with zero on the final day.
Saturday’s takeoff starts at 7 a.m. from Spirit Lake Casino and Resort.
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