DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – Hitting numerous spots rather than camping on one, tucking into and emerging from abundant flooded trees, pro Nick Johnson of Elmwood, Wis., took his co-angler on a premeditated tour that turned out 28 pounds, 6 ounces to take the day-one lead in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on Devils Lake.
“A couple here, a couple there,” says Johnson’s co-angler partner, John Blanchard of Crystal, Minn. “There was no special technique or spots that worked. He had a plan and he’s got it going on. It wouldn’t surprise me if he came in (Thursday) with another good limit.”
Blanchard made it happen casting crankbaits and fishing slip-bobbers, sometimes in the trees and sometimes out, but more than anything his run took the pair to locations that would produce regardless of the wind, a regular nemesis in the Dakotas.
“(Johnson) set up where it didn’t matter what direction it blew,” Blanchard says.
Meanwhile, the next two anglers in the standings took the opposite tack, sitting on precise spots that ended up holding big fish despite some uncertainty. In a close second, one click out of first with 27 pounds, 6 ounces, was Lund pro Tim Reitan of Sabin, Minn. One tick – er, ounce – below that, in third, was Lund pro Mark Courts of Harris, Minn., with 27 pounds, 5 ounces.
Trees of life
Knowing not what to expect coming into the day, Reitan ended up putting an early limit in the box by 10 a.m., rather than finishing up at 2 p.m. like Johnson.
“I was a little scared because the wind had switched,” says Reitan, who parked in a small clump of trees. “It had been blowing in there. Today it was blowing out and they were still there.”
The location, too, had been Reitan’s pick after experimenting successfully with casting crankbaits, trolling and jigging during the practice period. But when he came upon the mother lode Friday, checking it again Saturday and Sunday, Reitan says he decided to leave well enough alone on the last two practice days before returning on game day.
And while Reitan feasted, a friend found famine not far away – a common quirk of Devils Lake.
“My buddy was next to me and pulled one,” says Reitan, a seventh-place finisher in the 2002 championship on the Mississippi River at Red Wing, Minn. “Last year I took 4.19 pounds here on the first day, so it was comforting to get them early.”
Third-place Courts, meanwhile, got them somewhat later rather than sooner. After trying another spot first that yielded a single fish, Courts returned to the area that had produced an eighth-place finish in last year’s Devils tourney.
“I went to Old Faithful, my baby, which has been good to me for two years now,” Courts says.
There Courts fished perch-colored jigs below bobbers in 10 feet of water, baiting them with either leeches or night crawlers. Rounding out his tackle repertoire was 8-pound Berkley Flame FireLine for its toughness, and a 1-foot leader of 6-pound Trilene XT, a little lighter to break free from snags.
Corking and conking
That’s not it for the newsworthy and notable performances. With his own itinerant maneuvers following a 2003 RCL season with $45,000 in winnings, Crestliner pro Shannon Kehl of Menoken, N.D., “corked,” as they call it, in one spot with slip-bobbers before heading out for another spot, where he casted crankbaits, to bring 24 pounds, 1 ounce to the scale, good for fourth place.
“I went bobbering to start with,” says Kehl, who caught his first four fish by 8:30 a.m. “I had 11 fish, and then I got out of there to go casting. We got four more and kept one.”
Just a touch out of 20th, then, was Lund pro Dave Truett of Valparaiso, Ind. Making the most of a rough start with motor troubles, Truett worked his way back from Pelican Lake, about 15 miles from the launch, hitting every good-looking point on the way. En route, Truett plucked off an unexpected five-fish limit that weighed 18 pounds, 10 ounces.
Crestliner pro Rick Walter of Casper, Wyo., last year’s winner again showed his shallow-water proficiency in his own version of Old Faithful, returning to his top spot from 2003 to nail a limit of 17 pounds, 11 ounces, good for a 28th-place tie.
While Walter’s not out of it, almost any of the top 20 could drop out of it if they falter on day two. In the next test of their mettle, the 174-boat field departs at 7 a.m. Central on Thursday from Spirit Lake Resort and Casino.