Less is more

When lower weights debut at Erie RCL Tour event, the best bags go to the slow

PORT CLINTON, Ohio – Combating a considerable cold front, too-close-for-comfort winds and, in places, cruddy water clarity, the top performers turned tricks on the first day of the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour on Lake Erie to weigh five-fish limits of 27 pounds, 10 ounces or better to rate in the top 20.

Take leader and Lund pro Mark Christianson of Walker, Minn., who trolled up exactly five fish – and the right ones, at that – to take the tourney lead with 36 pounds, 1 ounce. A composed Christianson did it in a somewhat dicey bite with spinners and slow speeds in increasing winds as opening day progressed.

“It wasn’t all that bad,” Christianson says. “It was all right until noon, but then it got windier and windier and windier.”

Compensating for the wind, Christianson says he slid his kicker trolling motor in and out of reverse to put the brakes on his Lund in waves that grew to more than 4 feet. Even so, a weight in the mid-30s exceeded his expectations.

“With the conditions we had, I figured average fish would be good today,” Christianson says.

By Lake Erie standards, where five fish weighing more than 40 and even 50 pounds are possible, the weigh-in was somewhat substandard. After all, 30 pounds a day will normally bury an angler in a tourney here. But with the overnight cold, progressively stronger winds and shifting clouds of silt-strewn water, the leaders pulled off their coups in spite of the conditions.

Slow going

With a similar strategy for stealth, Lund pro Mark Meravy of Shorewood, Ill., likewise trolled spinners with night crawlers, his offerings dredging up a five-fish limit weighing 34 pounds, 3 ounces, good for fourth place. Muddy water, which is advancing toward the key areas north of Kelleys Island, could pose a hindrance, however, when and if the RCL pros and their co-anglers are able to fish again Thursday. Early forecasts are calling for winds of 35 mph in the morning – winds that would undoubtedly spawn dangerous 6- to 8-foot waves and continue to roil the water and visibility.

“It’s getting dirtier and dirtier,” Meravy says. “So I’m worried it’s going to get cloudy.”

With an eye to the water clarity as well was John Kolinski of Greenville, Wis., who weighed five fish for 29 pounds, 10 ounces to take 13th place.

“It’s not good and it’s not bad,” Kolinski says. “You can catch fish if you can see your prop.”

Meanwhile, one top pro who is anything but nonplussed by the declining water clarity is ninth-place Carl Grunwaldt of Green Bay, Wis. Out over deep water, Grunwaldt is running both crankbaits and spinners, which are speed-compatible in the low-1-mph range and did the trick for Grunwaldt with a limit of 30 pounds, 13 ounces.

“Half of Kelleys was crud,” says Grunwaldt, who landed 10 fish. “But I don’t care about the mud. Most of the guys look for clean water. But I’ve always had good luck in the mud.”

Drift control

Besides slowing the boat with a kicker motor in reverse, another strategy that paid was putting out a pair of drift socks. With them, eighth-place finisher Mark Brumbaugh of Arcanum, Ohio, slowed his boat to the 1-mph range to procure bites from tentative walleyes that often were barely hooked – and many other anglers lost. To get the job done to the tune of 31 pounds, 2 ounces, Brumbaugh says he deployed two 25-inch Drift Control wind socks on the back if his boat and also slipped the kicker motor in and out of reverse.

The conditions, though fishable, were on the verge of mayhem.

“She was cranked up, baby,” Kolinski says. “And it’s going to get more cranked up.”

Indeed, forecasts are calling for morning winds from the southwest at speeds of 35 mph. If the conditions appear dangerous before Thursday’s start of competition, Mark Dorn, director of walleye operations for FLW Outdoors, says he will consider canceling day two when the competitors launch at 7 a.m. Eastern from Catawba State Park.

Stay tuned to find out if the wind hums and whether the water is fishable. If not, the top 20 after day one will make the cut and press on to fish the first round of the finals on Friday.