Quick Bites: FLW Walleye Tour Championship, Day 1

Swank earns backyard swagger on day one, ‘eyes on the move, long hauls dominate day-one strategies, and Oahe offers up the catch of the day

Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour

Lake Oahe, Pierre, S.D.

Opening round, Wednesday

Hustle and Flo … Local co-angler Flo Swank was the picture of humility in front of her hometown crowd after opening up a large day-one lead, but the Pierre resident had every right to swagger after helping to land a championship-worthy limit of walleyes Wednesday. Swank, a six-year co-angler veteran of the tour, caught three of the five `eyes that she and her pro partner weighed in on day one for a whopping total of 19 pounds, 3 ounces. “It’s pretty exciting, but I was pretty nervous,” she said. “You never want to bomb on your home water.” She fished Lake Oahe with another South Dakotan, Dustin Kjelden of Brookings, who sits in first on the pro side. “I was really happy that I drew Dustin. He’s just an awesome fisherman and from our home state.” Speaking of awesome anglers from the area, her husband is none other than six-year Walleye Tour pro Darold Swank, winner of the 2003 FLW Walleye League Finals. If Swank can muster enough weight Thursday to make the championship finals, it would mark her third trip to the top 10; she was the runner-up this season at Green Bay, and she has another backyard top-10 to her credit – in 2002 when she placed ninth on Lake Sharpe in Pierre.

Elusive Oahe walleyes … The species isn’t referred to as the “wily walleye” for nothing, but the cunning of Oahe’s population gave fits to many of the best walleye anglers in the world Wednesday. Lots of teams reported visiting some of their most fruitful spots from practice only to find greatly diminished numbers, if the areas yielded anything at all. Red Wing, Minn., pro Eric Olson said: “I have no idea why we only caught one fish today … but one thing about reservoirs is things change. You can count on that.” Many competitors who came up dry today said they would still go back to the well Thursday in hopes that the lunkers they got to know during practice would return with changing conditions. The FLW Walleye Tour’s biggest money winner on the pro side is Appleton, Wisconsin’s Dean Arnoldussen, but all his riches couldn’t buy him an Oahe limit today. After weighing in two keepers, he said: “Everyone knows on this Oahe chain – the fish move everywhere. Tomorrow we could go back to those same points and catch 20 pounds, so you just never know.”

In the long run … Despite tough fishing on an otherwise beautiful opening day of championship action, about 40 percent of the field did manage five-walleye limits. The common thread tying together both sides of the spectrum of success was the long haul. Team after team reported making long runs today, a move likely to become more difficult if winds pick up as predicted Thursday. Many pros said they traveled 40, 50, even 60 miles up the reservoir in search of fish. But the marathon-man award may go to pro Shannon Kehl of Menoken, N.D., who said he and his partner traveled 90 miles one way to land a couple keepers about 10 miles south of Mobridge, S.D. The real rub, however, came via some area anglers fishing outside the tourney. “There were some locals there who really put on a clinic for the pros,” he said.

Oahe cuisine … Pro Ted Merdan of Champlin, Minn., fished with co-angler Kristin Sczcech of St. Paul, Minn., the first woman to win an FLW Walleye Tour event earlier this year on the Mississippi River near Red Wing, Minn. Though the pair couldn’t recapture that walleye-landing magic, they did manage to catch one of Lake Oahe’s other sought-after game fish. “I tell you what, we hooked into a big salmon today, and Kristine had a tough time letting that go,” Merdan said. “She’s a chef, so she said, `That would eat so good.'”

Quick numbers

2-5: Weight, in pounds and ounces, that both pro leader Kjelden and co-angler leader Swank will take into the second day of championship competition.

1: Number of FLW Walleye Tour events won by Kjelden so far in his FLW Outdoors career (at Devils Lake in North Dakota last season).

20: Number of five-walleye limits weighed in by pro/co-angler teams on day one of the 2006 Walleye Tour Championship.

369-5: Weight, in pounds and ounces, of the 147 walleyes to cross the scale Wednesday.

Sound bites

“Anyone who catches them today, my hat’s off to them.”

– Walleye Tour Angler of the Year Tom Keenan of Hatley, Wis., who only caught two keepers today.

“It’s always better than a day at work.”

– Co-angler Jason Shull of Wonder Lake, Ill., offering an angler’s credo.

“Do I have to tell you what I think about it?”

– Olson, when asked what he thought about Kjelden’s 19-3 day-one sack, which topped Olson’s one-fish weight by nearly 18 pounds.

“I’m the only co-angler here who hasn’t won a nickel this year.”

– Dick Wherry of Milbank, S.D., expressing his excitement over getting a championship paycheck regardless of how he finishes the event.

“I just saw Flo Swank and what she did today. Way to go sister!”

– Sczcech on Swank, who could be positioning herself to become the second woman to win a Walleye Tour event.