RCL Tour weigh-in on Devils Lake far exceeds expectations in flat calm with high skies
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – For the opening day of competition in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event, the trees were the place to be. Most of the big weights – including Lund pro Keith Seidlinger’s enormous 30-pound, 9-ounce five-fish limit – were plucked from the inundated forests created with the floods of the last decade.
The timing, temperatures and wind – or lack thereof – were ideal for the tree bite on slip bobbers with leeches and night crawlers to fire on all cylinders, surprising onlookers who thought 18 to 20 pounds would have been a heck of a bag. To be sure, 30 pounds shocked Seidlinger.
“If I had had 20 pounds today, I would have been a very happy camper,” Seidlinger says. “We got big bites and we put them in the boat.”
All told, 39 of 196 boats surpassed the 20-pound mark – far better weights than most anyone had expected.
See the trees, be the tree
Part of the reason why is that the crankbait-casting bite failed to materialize with the hot, calm conditions, forcing many of the competitors to the trees, where the shade and the progression of the walleyes from shallow to deep found them holding in the tangles in less than 20 feet of water.
“I tried crankbaits, but I couldn’t put anything together,” says Ranger pro Duane Ten Cate of Sioux Falls, S.D., in 13th with a limit weighing 24 pounds, 6 ounces. “I was looking for trees with falldowns in 7 to 11 feet of water.”
There, Ten Cate fished bobbers and cast weedless jigs with bait into the gnarliest spots, where the biggest, best fish held.
“Most people aren’t willing to get rid of the equipment we got rid of,” Ten Cate says.
Another factor: Not all trees are created equal. While Ten Cate concentrated on leaning trees, 24th-place Lund pro Todd Frank of Pulaski, N.Y. – well within striking distance of the top 20 with 22 pounds, 3 ounces – noticed a separate set of particulars that held the better fish.
“They were in the trees where the branches go this way and that,” Frank says. “A couple of the fish we couldn’t wrestle out.”
In addition, Frank focused on trees position atop slight ridges that give the walleyes a pathway to come and go from deep water. If there’s a downside to the trees, it’s their sheer unpredictability.
“The trees are so iffy,” Frank says. “You could go back tomorrow and they could be gone.”
Crank Yankers
Even though the crankbait casters brought in fair-to-middling bags in the low to middle 10s when the skies were high and the surface with almost a mirror reflection, Thursday could bring an altogether different scenario.
Winds of more than 20 mph are forecast, which might be enough to inspire the crankbait-casting pattern around the weeds all over again. Which is why even the leader, Seidlinger, says he’s willing to consider changing his presentation.
“If we get these conditions, I’ll do the same thing,” Seidlinger says. “I feel confident enough to try something else if we get more wind.”
For Seidlinger, who has lived in the Devils Lake area for more than a decade, a local’s hard-won wisdom is something of a Catch-22.
“There are pros and cons to being a local,” Seidlinger says. “I know what the conditions do to the fish, but sometimes your discipline gets tested because you might leave a spot for another that produced in the past.”
Fishing memories, then, is a tempting though tricky step in the decision-making process. If anything, memories from one day to the next will be less of a factor if a weather switch in the extreme gets Devils dancing with wind and whitecaps.
Thursday’s takeoff starts at 7 a.m. and departs from Spirit Lake Casino and Resort.
Click here for a preview of day two.
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