Reigning FLW Walleye Tour champion Nick Johnson of Elmwood, Wis., held on to his lead in the 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour season opener Saturday to become the first pro in the tour’s history to win back to back tournaments. Through four days of tough competition, and an even tougher bite, Johnson caught six walleyes weighing 20 pounds on Bull Shoals Lake to win by a 3-pound, 10-ounce margin over runner up Todd Riley of Amery, Wis. He earned $80,000 for the victory despite zeroing on the final day of competition – a day that will go down in walleye-tournament history as one of the stingiest ever.
After a foggy start to the day, skies cleared and temperatures soared into the upper 70s Saturday, making a difficult bite even worse. Just one walleye weighing 2 pounds, 3 ounces was brought to the scale by the 10 pro and co-angler finalists. That fish bumped pro Mark Courts of Harris, Minn., from ninth to seventh place and co-angler Douglas Ohler of Mineral Point, Pa., from ninth to fifth place. On opening day, anglers landed 32 walleyes followed by 29 walleyes on day two and 21 walleyes on day three, making this the toughest overall bite in the tour’s five-year history. The catch, however, is not representative of Bull Shoals’ quality walleye fishery. A late spawn and clear, calm conditions this week combined to make the fishing extremely difficult.
“The bite was really, really tough,” said Johnson, who earned the sport’s most prestigious title and $300,000 on the Mississippi River in Moline, Ill., last year at the FLW Walleye Tour Championship. “In practice I was beginning to wonder if there was even a walleye in the lake. Five nights before the tournament, I finally located some fish on a flat. But I couldn’t get them to bite until about 9 a.m. on opening day.”
As it turns out, the 10-foot deep flat located less than a quarter mile from the launch ramp at Bull Shoals Boat Dock held all the walleyes Johnson needed, yielding four fish weighing 12 pounds, 9 ounces on opening day then one keeper fish on day two and another on day three. The flat, which drops off to 20 feet of water, is also located adjacent to a shallow spawning area where Johnson located walleyes with a spotlight during practice. He fished the area on opening day with co-angler Jim Schleicher of Maxwell, Neb., and returned on day two with co-angler Johnny Hall of Littleton, Colo. His partner on day three was Lee Brown of Springfield, Mo., followed by William Brewer of Omaha, Neb., on day four. A Lucky Craft Pointer 78 DD was his only productive lure all week.
Johnson has earned two top-10 finishes each of the past two seasons and is well on his way to topping those marks this season.
“This is outstanding,” he said. “You don’t ever think you are going to win two in a row. It feels good knowing you have a win under your belt so you can concentrate on the rest of the season and qualifying for the championship.”
Rounding out the top-five pros are Riley (four walleyes, 16 pounds, 6 ounces, $37,000); Robert Crow of Paterson, Wash. (five walleyes, 12 pounds, 14 ounces, $14,500); Robert Lampman of De Soto, Wis. (two walleyes, 12 pounds, 1 ounce, $16,500); and Chris Gilman of Chisago City, Minn. (four walleyes, 12 pounds, $12,000).
Johnson’s final round partner, William Brewer of Omaha, Neb., won the Co-angler Division with five walleyes weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces. Brewer fished with pro John Kolinski of Greenville, Wis., on opening day, Riley on day two and Scott Steil of Richmond, Minn., on day three.
“I was a little worried,” said Brewer, whose previous best finish was 18th on Lake Erie in 2003. “By noon, we had nothing in the box. Then 2 o’clock, and nothing. You keep thinking that maybe the next cast will be the one, but nothing hit. There’s no shame in coming up empty though. The bite has been extremely tough. I highly recommend that anyone who wants to learn about walleye fishing sign up for the FLW Walleye Tour as a co-angler. The pros out here are fantastic.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Dave Crawford of Maybee, Mich. (three walleyes, 15 pounds, 13 ounces, $6,775); Schleicher (four walleyes, 12 pounds, 9 ounces, $2,750); Dana Delp of Lansing, Mich. (three walleyes, 9 pounds, 5 ounces, $2,000); and Ohler (three walleyes, 8 pounds, 12 ounces, $1,700).
Anglers maintained a 100 percent live-release rate throughout the tournament.
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 $125,000 cash and co-anglers will chase as much as $22,000.
Anglers from 18 states competed in the lucrative Bull Shoals tournament, which began Wednesday. The full field fished the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots awarded based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weights. Weights carried over to day four, with the winner determined by the heaviest four-day weight.
The next FLW Walleye Tour stop will be the April 27-30 tournament presented by Yamaha on Lake Erie in Port Clinton, Ohio. Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., will be the third tour stop May 18-21 followed by the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Open on Devils Lake in Spirit Lake, N.D., June 15-18.
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, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series.
For more information on FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, visit FLWOutdoors.com 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.