Quick Bites: RCL Championship, Day 2
2003 Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Championship
Mississippi River, Moline, Ill.
Opening round, Thursday
Keenan vs. Allar II? … By both making the cut this week, Tom Keenan and Scott Allar have positioned themselves for a rematch of their final-round showdown at last year’s RCL Championship, where Keenan edged out Allar for the title. While 10 other pros will have something to say about it, Keenan and Allar are the only returning finalists at the championship, this time some 12 pools down the Mississippi River from where they last went at it for the big money. Keenan, however, is likely more worried about the conditions than Allar. “The wind blew the weeds in today,” said Keenan, who caught a single keeper walleye Thursday. “It was untrollable.”
Blown grass … Keenan wasn’t the only one having trouble with the wind and vegetation. Most of the leading weights have been caught on a trolling bite, but a lot of anglers came in Thursday saying that wind had blown grass into their areas, making it extremely difficult to make clean trolling passes. Consequently, many of Wednesday’s top-ranked pros fell off. Still, with the already diminutive limit count down even more on day two, anglers like Keenan, Allar and John Hertensteiner still made the cut.
Still a hot fishery … If not the grass, anglers continued fighting the slot monster Thursday. Countless competitors came in with stories about how many fish between 20 and 27 inches they had to release. That kept weights low again, but anglers were quick to defend this stretch of the river’s walleye fishery despite it all. “This is showing no justice to both the bite that’s going on here and this area,” pro Tommy Skarlis said about today’s weights. “There are so many fish being caught in the slot. This is going to be one of the premier walleye destinations in the country down the road.”
Avoiding the slot 101 … One way to avoid the walleye slot limit: catch saugers. Pro leader Dan Plautz found his way to the top with a number of fish between 20 and 27 inches. They were saugers, which are exempt from the walleye slot limit. In fact, Plautz, whose 11-pound, 5-ounce limit Thursday propelled him to the top of the division, said that he’s caught just one walleye in four days of fishing so far. “I’m very pleased with what happened today,” he said.
Quick numbers
29: Numbers of pros who managed to catch a two-day total exceeding 10 pounds.
10: Number of limits caught Thursday.
0: Number of fish caught above the 27-inch slot ceiling Thursday.
Sound bites
“It’s a hog. It’s a pound and a half.”
– Pro Tom Keenan, when asked to guess the weight of his single fish Thursday.
“You know, after 30 more days of this, I’ll be right up there with the leader.”
– Pro Chad Hall, who caught one fish weighing 1 pound, 2 ounces Thursday and was the last angler with weight listed in the opening round. He finished in 186th place.