Participants of the first Wal-Mart RCL tournament of the 2001 season are gearing up for a big four days starting Wednesday on Lake Erie. Many pros and co-anglers were anticipating suspenseful, exciting weigh-ins during the $390,750 tournament in Port Clinton, Ohio, which runs through Saturday.
According to Sonny Reynolds, tournament director for the RCL, “The pre-fishing has been great, and both pro and co-anglers alike are finding large numbers of big walleye throughout the entire Lake Erie water system. Everyone here is talking about the big fish, as well as the numbers of them. It is going to be a close race.”
Bets are on that daily weigh-ins will be quite a show, with a large number of the tournament field bringing in big sacks of walleye. A record-breaking 50-pound, five-fish limit could become a reality from these trophy walleye waters.
Favorable conditions keep anglers on fish
The warming spring air, coupled with the cool Lake Erie seas had created extreme fog conditions, which created havoc for the first few days of pre-fishing. RCL anglers who neglected to utilize GPS systems had trouble pinpointing and returning to their newly found hotspots. But for now, the air temperature has cooled to 48 degrees, and the heavy fogs have lifted.
“The weather looks as if it should be in our favor for the tournament,” added Reynolds. “Maybe a rain shower or two, but it looks as if the winds will stay down and, if this is true, everyone will have some great walleyes to weigh in.”
The walleye are now either in a pre-spawn, spawn or post-spawn mode, and this has made it difficult for anglers to key in on one specific area.
“These schools of walleye are on the move,” said RCL pro Duane Ten Cate of Sioux Falls, S.D., “so they may not be in the same areas you found them in during early pre-fishing. These schools of walleye haven’t been in the same place from day to day.”
What will it take to win?
Ten Cate plans to focus on trolling planner boards and cranks. “This is a big body of water,” he said. “To win, it will take a combination of covering lots of water by trolling cranks and finding the right school of walleye with big fish in it.”
With large walleyes in the water and big money on the line for the first RCL event of the 2001 season, an air of anticipation consumed tournament proceedings Wednesday. The winning pro takes home $50,000 and a new Ranger, Crestliner or Lund boat while the top co-angler wins $15,000.
“It’s shaping up to be a great tournament,” said an excited Reynolds. “The big fish are cooperating for everyone, and the weigh-in facilities we have here are going to be top notch.”
As a bonus, the tournament director is also pleased with the exposure the new tournament series has received. “The media coverage has been better than we expected, as well. The newspaper and TV media from Cleveland all the way to Chicago have been interested.”