Reigning Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner Nick Johnson of Elmwood, Wis., and co-angler Jim Schleicher of Maxwell, Neb., caught four walleyes weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces on Bull Shoals Lake to lead day one of the first event of the $2.6 million 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour. Pros are competing for a potential top award of $80,000, while co-anglers are competing for a potential top award of $16,000.
The morning started with a few light rain showers, but the rain subsided and left anglers with mostly overcast conditions on Wednesday. The bite, however, was tough for much of the field. In fact, no limits were weighed. Walleyes were reported to be in all three stages of the spawn, and anglers were using a variety of techniques to figure out the fickle fish.
While a significant storm blew through the area Tuesday night, and some anglers blamed that for the limited bites, Johnson didn’t share those feelings. “Normally a storm will mess up the fishing, but in this case I think it really helped our bite,” Johnson said. “It really seemed to turn on all the fish – not just the walleyes. We caught trout, bass, and walleyes throughout the day.”
Johnson caught his walleyes working crankbaits around shallow fish near deep water. He and Schleicher only caught four walleyes all day, but all measured 20 inches or better.
Rounding out the top five teams are pro Robert Crow of Paterson, Wash., and co-angler Kenneth Brenner of Moline, Ill. (three walleyes, 7 pounds, 6 ounces); pro Tommy Skarlis of Walker, Minn., and co-angler Dana Delp of Lansing, Mich. (two walleyes, 7 pounds, 2 ounces); pro Mark Courts of Harrison, Minn., and co-angler Chad Kiefer of Henderson, Col. (two walleyes, 6 pounds, 2 ounces); and pro Chris Gilman of Chisago City, Minn., and co-angler Jackie Perry of Milaca, Minn. (two walleyes, 5 pounds, 14 ounces).
A total of 32 walleyes weighing 96 pounds, 8 ounces were caught Wednesday.
“We were working as a team on the same type of presentations,” Schleicher said. “We had to fight through some trout before we got the walleyes, but that seemed to be the key. If we found trout, then we usually found walleyes with them.” Schleicher also agreed with Johnson that the overcast conditions helped their bite on Wednesday.
Pros and co-anglers fish for a combined boat weight and are randomly paired each day. The FLW Walleye Tour is the world’s most lucrative professional walleye-fishing series. At the $650,000 million Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship on the Mississippi River in Moline, Ill., Sept. 28 – Oct. 1, pros will fish for as much as $140,000 cash and co-anglers will chase as much as $22,000.
Daily takeoffs at Bull Shoals start at 7 a.m. at Bull Shoals Boat Dock. Thursday’s and Friday’s weigh-ins starts at 3 p.m. at the marina, and Saturday’s weigh-in start at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart store located at Highway 62/412 in Flippin. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins, which are free and open to the public.
Anglers from 18 states are fishing. The full field competes during the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots based on their three-day accumulated weight. Weights carry over to day four, with the winner is determined by the heaviest four-day weight.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour and seven other national tournament circuits offering a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League and Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse this Web site or call (270) 252-1000.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.