The big chill
Cold, windy weather complicates day two of Walleye League Finals
MOLINE, Ill. – Covering one’s face and hands ranked as highly as covering the water. Indeed, hats, hoods and gloves were the requisite accessories as competitors launched into nippy conditions for day two of the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League Finals on the Mississippi River.
A cold snap that passed through the Quad Cities area overnight dropped morning temperatures into the lower 50s, but that’s hardly enough to deter die-hard walleye fishermen from sniffing out the action – especially with a couple of new boats and a whole bunch of bragging rights on the line.
Boater Bill Shimota of Lonsdale, Minn., and co-angler Mike Eiden of New Haven, Ind., lead the field with 9 pounds, 4 ounces. The leaders carry a 1-pound, 6-ounce margin into day two in their respective divisions, but Sonny Reynolds, director of FLW Walleye operations, said it’s still anyone’s game, as the second day’s weigh-in could see significant leaderboard shifting. Many anglers will likely find ways of building on their day-one results by eliminating unproductive areas or squeezing more productivity out of what they found on Thursday.
“Fifty percent of the field caught fish yesterday, but we could see more and bigger fish today,” Reynolds said. “Some of the guys who didn’t catch fish yesterday will catch fish today, and some of the ones who caught fish yesterday may not catch any today. The difference will be the ones who catch fish both days.”
Reynolds said that time management will play an important role in today’s conditions. “I think (the anglers) are going to try to find some fish close. They know the wind’s coming up, and it may get a little rough, so they’ll want to spend as much time fishing as they can instead of running.”
Shimota and Eiden achieved their leading weight on the strength of a five-fish limit that included four nice saugers. Given the more liberal size limit for saugers – 15-inch minimum as opposed to the 15- to 20-inch slot for walleyes – day two could see more anglers targeting saugers.
G3 pro Jonathan Shoemaker of Elyria, Ohio, finished second on day one with four fish weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces. He plans to integrate hand-lining with traditional rod and reel tactics by trolling a heavily weighted rig with floating Rapalas in orange-gold and firetiger colors. He’ll target breaks over wing dams that drop from 13 to 16 feet.
“Both saugers and walleyes are staging on top of that break, so if I catch a 20-inch sauger, I’ll get to keep it as opposed to catching a 20-inch walleye and having to throw it back,” Shoemaker said.
Making the most of each opportunity, he said, will prove especially critical in the colder weather. “Most of my bites have come after 11:30 in the morning. I think the fish are waiting for it to warm up. These cold nights we’ve had lately are shutting them down first thing in the morning.
“Sometimes, you’ll get two bites a day and then they’re shorter – maybe half an hour. Lately, it’s been one bite a day and it’s about an hour long, so (an angler) really needs to capitalize and catch all the fish he possibly can in that one hour.”
Tournament rules
The Walleye League event, which runs Sept. 13-15, gathers the top finishers from three divisions – Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Pro anglers are competing for a top award of a $47,500 Ranger 621 boat powered by either an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard. Co-anglers are fishing for a $27,000 G3 V185F powered by Yamaha.
Action continues at today’s weigh-in, scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. Central time at Sunset Park Marina, located at Highway 92 and 31st Avenue in Rock Island, Ill.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:41 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 54 degrees
Expected high temperature: 64 degrees
Water temperature: 72-75 degrees
Wind: NW at 15-20 mph
Humidity: 42 percent
Day’s outlook: sunny and windy