SPIRIT LAKE, N.D. – Pro Rick Walter of Casper, Wyo., landed $90,000 in cash and prizes, including a Crestliner boat powered by Evinrude, Saturday on Devils Lake after catching five walleyes weighing 24 pounds, 8 ounces with his final-round teammate, co-angler Reed Ohman of Lovell, Wyo., who reeled in $15,000 cash for the win.
“We didn’t get a lot of bites, but we got the right bites,” said Walter, who captured the tournament lead Thursday and never looked back. “We caught six fish and lost one right at the boat. Our biggest walleye weighed about 7 pounds.”
Walter and Ohman caught their fish casting No. 5 Shad Rap crankbaits along a well defined weed bed stretching a quarter mile atop a ridge that drops from approximately 4 feet where the weeds are growing down to 8 feet at the base. One particular 100-yard stretch of the weed edge paid off in spades for Walter, as he pulled more than 23 pounds of fish from the area each day of the four-day event.
“It was a spot that I found on the last day of practice,” he said. “It was the kind of place that attracts new fish overnight, so it replenished every day. The bigger walleyes were in the weeds ambushing little white bass and little walleyes.”
Walter qualified for the final round of 10 pros and 10 co-anglers in first place after landing five walleyes weighing 23 pounds, 3 ounces Friday with co-angler Joseph Conley of Inver Grove Heights, Minn., while Ohman advanced in seventh place after landing five walleyes weighing 14 pounds, 6 ounces with pro Aaron McQuoid of Isle, Minn.
“It’s just an awesome feeling,” said Ohman, who was fishing his first RCL Tour event. “It couldn’t be any better than this.”
Pro Kevin Reinhart of Glenrock, Wyo., ($25,000) and co-angler Keith Strauss of Syracuse, Ind., ($7,500) placed second with five walleyes weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces. Pro Mark Christianson of Walker, Minn., ($20,000) and co-angler Tim Date of Burnsville, Minn., ($6,000) placed third with five walleyes weighing 13 pounds, 11 ounces. McQuoid ($15,000) and Conley ($5,000) placed fourth with five walleyes weighing 12 pounds, 6 ounces. Pro John Campbell of Marco Island, Fla., ($12,500) and co-angler Jon Tennessen of Monticello, Minn., ($4,000) placed fifth with four walleyes weighing 11 pounds, 6 ounces.
The $432,085 tournament, which was the fourth and final regular season event on the $3.07 million 2003 Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour, began Wednesday with 392 anglers representing 19 states and Canada taking off from Spirit Lake Casino and Resort. The field was cut to the top 20 anglers in each division after Thursday’s weigh-in and trimmed to the top 10 anglers in each division after Friday’s weigh-in. Pros and co-angler were randomly paired each day, and weights were cleared for the semifinal and final rounds.
The top 35 pros and co-anglers from each regular season tournament earn a berth in the $1.4 million Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Championship, which will be held Oct. 1-4 at Treasure Island Casino and Resort on the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minn.
Named after boat manufacturers Ranger, Crestliner and Lund, the RCL Tour is the world’s most lucrative walleye-tournament series and is administered by FLW Outdoors, the world’s leading marketer of competitive fishing. FLW Outdoors is named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood.