At least half of Lake Sharpe field on bubble, within reach of top-20 cut at RCL Tour’s second regular-season stop
PIERRE, S.D. – After a day with 125 limits, milder weather and lighter winds could kick the catches up a notch by dint of better boat control and, therefore, improved jigging precision. And with less than half the field out of the hunt after posting poor first-day performances, another half – or perhaps even more – is well within reach of vaulting into the crucial top 20.
Sitting in first going into the second day of competition in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on the Missouri River is Rick Nascak of Winona, Minn. With an impressive limit of 15 pounds on day one, Nascak does not need to perform on par with yesterday’s pace to put him into day three.
“I’m not going to be real selective,” Nascak says. “I hope to catch 10 pounds. I’ll give it to 10 o’clock. If I don’t do anything, I’ll probably start trolling.”
Selectivity in a no-cull tournament, where only two of six fish may stretch past 18 inches and the anglers must decide immediately whether to keep them or release them, is more of an issue for the anglers hoping to climb into the top 20 from a little ways out or well down in the standings.
“My strategy is the same as yesterday,” says Ranger pro Mark Brumbaugh of Arcanum, Ohio, sitting in 21st with 10 pounds, 9 ounces. “I’m going down south and hoping to come up with a limit of 17-inch fish and one 20-incher. Right now I’m on the bubble.
“The mild weather will help with a lot better boat control. But everyone’s going to have a better day.”
One such angler in search of a better day in the weight department, though improving upon numbers would seem almost impossible, is Crestliner pro Jeff Koester of Brookville, Ind. On Wednesday, Koester cycled through more than 85 walleyes and sauger to bring a 10-pound, 7-ounce limit to the scales, good for 23rd place.
In somewhat of an aberration, Koester caught fish after fish in water as deep as 20 feet on cannonball-like 1-ounce jigs – far from the shallows and mid-depths occupied by most of the other competitors and a serious departure from the lightweight leadheads pitched by most everyone else. Koester says he attributes the sheer numbers of fish to their move away from boating pressure in the shallows and their tendency to stage in the depths before spawning in the upriver reaches where the water temperature remains at 43 degrees.
“The fish are not that far from where they’re going to spawn,” Koester says.
The top-20 cut will play out today when the 195-boat field weighs in at 3 p.m. at Steamboat Park in downtown Pierre. While some will undoubtedly be able to repeat their day-one performance, others on the bubble within a few pounds of the lead could squeak into tomorrow by precious ounces.
Thursday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:29 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 45 degrees
Expected high temperature: lower 60s
Water temperature: 43-53 degrees
Wind: from the west at 7 mph
Relative humidity: 97 percent
Day’s outlook: mostly cloudy; light and variable wind becoming east by late morning and increasing to 10 mph
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