Balm ahead of storm
Top 10 in RCL Tour on Erie make cut a day before forecast turns ugly
PORT CLINTON, Ohio – On a day when monster bags were slightly more precious, Ranger pro Patrick Byle outdid the rest of the top 20 in the perfect spot one day ahead of what might be the perfect storm.
Byle, a 41-year-old from Hartford, Wis., caught 44 pounds, 10 ounces by trolling crankbaits in Canadian waters in an area less than one-fifth of a mile long when his company was a group of charter boats that hindered access to three key fish-holding locations.
“I had to go around them to get to my waypoints,” Byle says. “When they’d move out, you could get in.”
Byle says the area has the perfect mix of water temperature, clarity, baitfish and, therefore, the big fish that are necessary to take it all in the finals.
But tomorrow is not promising for any of the top 10, for high winds and thunderstorms are forecast – by mid-afternoon small-craft advisories had been issued in Michigan, less than 40 miles to the west.
“If I can get to my spot, I think the wind will help it out,” Byle says.
“If” is the operative word when winds could reach 35 mph and electrical storms could enter the picture.
Spinners or cranks? Cranks or spinners?
The rest of the top 10 includes a mix of trollers who are pulling either spinners or crankbaits.
Yamaha pro Shannon Kehl of Menoken, S.D., a fourth-place finisher in the last tournament on Lake Sharpe, came in sixth in the semifinals with 37 pounds, 3 ounces from Canadian waters at the north tip of Pelee Island. All of Kehl’s fish, he says, were caught behind planer boards with two-ounce inline weights ahead of spinners with night crawlers. Kehl’s best distance behind the board was 20 feet to reach, at speeds of 1.5 mph, to reach 12-15 feet down in the water column. Blue and silver blades seemed to do the trick better than any other colors.
Meanwhile, inveterate Lund pro Mike Gofron of Antioch, Illinois, departed from the Canadian script with 35 pounds, 13 ounces taken on crankbaits at the north tip of Kelleys Island, in U.S. waters. Although hundreds of boats were working depths in excess of 25 feet, Gofron had relatively little company in about 22 feet of water, well inside of the pack of boats.
Gofron says the water temperature in the somewhat shallow water reached 65 degrees on the surface, triggering a hot bite that yielded doubles and even triples on his four trolling rods. For Gofron, the key speeds were 1.9-2.4 mph, and the key crankbaits were Down Deep Rapala Husky Jerks in rainbow trout. The color was so effective Gofron ran three of four rods with the rainbow pattern.
Even though tomorrow’s weather is foreboding, Friday’s was kind, with winds under 10 mph, which allowed Gofron to troll in all directions, thereby saving him the time of reeling in all his lures and motoring upwind to reset them.
“You can get the cranks down at the same level as spinners and can cover water a lot faster,” Gofron says. “[The walleyes] need something going over the top of them fast, and out of instinct they hit it.”
Border crossing
Another competitor in the same general area was rookie pro Adam Hammons of Westland, Mich., who also trolled crankbaits. Still another competitor of note is Lund pro Jim Klick of White Bear Lake, Minn., a confidant of Kehl’s and a powerhouse troller who won the first RCL event here in 2001.
In the company of Kehl around the north tip of Pelee Island, Klick trolled spinners to waylay a bag of 35 pounds, 8 ounces for ninth place.
Then, in something of an, ahem, disappointment, the leader from the first two days, Evinrude pro Tom Brunz of Madison Lake, Minn., didn’t get to his key spot in Canadian waters until 9:15 a.m. The reason? His co-angler partner did not have a Canadian license, in spite of colleagues who tried to get him one Thursday night but ran into a snafu crossing the border.
And so Brunz had to wait for his partner to buy a fishing license on Pelee Island, in Canadian waters. While Brunz waited, he caught two walleyes he later culled before reaching his primary spot off of Pelee.
Despite the setback, Brunz scored a very respectable 11th place, with 33 pounds, 9 ounces.
What does tomorrow hold? It’s hard to say until the 7 a.m. launch at Catawba State Park. That’s when and where RCL tournament directors will decide whether to send the top 10 if inclement weather does indeed arrive.
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