Quick Bites: FLW Walleye Tour Championship, Day 2
2005 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship
Mississippi River, Moline, Ill.
Opening round, Thursday
Laying in the weeds … Pro Jeff Ryan didn’t catch a single keeper walleye Thursday, yet he still managed to make the cut. The day-one leader’s 16-pound, 9-ounce limit Wednesday was good enough to nab the third-place position despite the goose egg on day two. And that’s just smart strategy … or so you would think. “Everybody was telling me to take the day off today, but it was my fish that took the day off,” Ryan laughed. Word is that Ryan fished the same area where he caught his big stringer yesterday, and with the same intensity, but just couldn’t hook into anything. His co-angler partner Thursday, Lynn Jurrens, explained: “We fished our tails off today.”
Speaking of weeds … As expected, limit numbers were down again on day two on the Mississippi River. Unexpected, however, was one of the reasons behind many of the anglers’ tough day: an onslaught of grass that mucked up a fair share of fishing holes Thursday. “There were a lot of weeds floating down where we were,” pro Danny Plautz said. “We just couldn’t keep our baits down.”
More Big Muddy madness … Ah, fishing on the Mighty Mississippi: It’s just good, clean fun. Take, for example, the case of co-angler Dewey Watson. He hooked into a catfish Thursday but had a little trouble bringing it up. The reason? When he got it to the surface, the catfish was already hooked to a stringer that was itself attached to the river bottom. “That poor old catfish,” said Watson’s pro partner Tommy Skarlis. “He probably just thought he had to eat if a meal comes by again.” Then there was the tandem of pro Jeff Taege and co-angler Keith Strauss. At one point, Taege somehow reeled in a 6-pound rock on the end of his line. Shortly thereafter, Strauss dredged up a sock. All was not lost, however. They quickly moved about 75 yards away and landed their only keeper fish of the day – a 1-pound, 5-ounce sauger – which helped propel Strauss into the cut. Asked tournament director Mark Dorn: “So you landed a rock, a sock and sauger, huh?”
Quick numbers
3: Out of 50 boats, the number of five-walleye limits caught on day two of the championship, the same as day one.
8:15: Time in the morning by which pro Carl Grunwaldt said he had his limit in the livewell Thursday.
4-11: Weight, in pounds and ounces, of Rick Olson‘s lead over the rest of the pro field in the opening round.
Sound bite
“Well, I hate that, but I’m going to go out and give it my best shot anyway.”
– Second-place co-angler Jimmy Cox, in response to tournament director Mark Dorn, who congratulated him for making the cut and getting out of his camera-boat duties Friday. Cox, a Wal-Mart FLW Tour regular and founder of Mizmo Baits, is often tapped to drive camera boats at many FLW Outdoors events.