PORT CLINTON, Ohio – Former Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour champion Dean Arnoldussen of Appleton, Wis., held on to his lead at the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour stop presented by Yamaha on Lake Erie Saturday to win $88,000 cash. Arnoldussen and anglers from 21 states endured hail, sleet and 20 mph winds on opening day and the cancellation of day two before conditions improved Friday and Saturday, allowing Arnoldussen to amass a winning catch of 15 walleyes weighing 85 pounds, 9 ounces.
“This is awesome,” said Arnoldussen, who won the 2001 FLW Walleye Tour Championship in Green Bay, Wis., and pocketed a record $400,000. “We got on a couple of good runs then it slowed down awhile before picking up again in the afternoon. The top three finishers were all fishing within 200 yards of each other, and we watched the other guys catch some nice fish, so we knew it was going to come down to the very end.”
Arnoldussen finished opening day in sixth place with five walleyes weighing 25 pounds, 15 ounces that he caught with co-angler Charles Dahl of Burlington, Wis., while fishing the north side of Bass Island. He fished about a mile northwest of his opening day location on day three with co-angler Jackie Perry of Milaca, Minn., and landed five more walleyes weighing 30 pounds to take the lead. On day four he returned the productive area north of Bass Island with Joseph Fallaw of McHenry, Ill., and caught five walleyes weighing 29 pounds, 10 ounces for the win.
“Trolling speed was a key factor for us,” Arnoldussen said. “Minn Kota sent me a prototype electric motor to use in this event, and it worked perfectly. The motor mounts directly to the main outboard, and it allowed us to control our speed very precisely.”
Arnoldussen and his partners pulled crawler harnesses with holographic Northland blades.
Rounding out the top five pros are Russell McDonald of Dryden, Ontario (14 walleyes, 81 pounds, 4 ounces, $41,000); Patrick Neu of Forestville, Wis. (15 walleyes, 70 pounds, 9 ounces, $22,500); Richard LaCourse of Port Clinton (15 walleyes, 70 pounds, $17,700); and Mark Schuitema of Jenison, Mich. (11 walleyes, 67 pounds, 7 ounces, $10,800).
Fallaw won the Co-angler Division and $13,800 with 15 walleyes weighing 92 pounds, 15 ounces. Fallaw fished with LaCourse, on opening day, Steve Carlson of Clinton on day three and Arnoldussen on day four.
“I’m no longer a one-day wonder on Erie,” said Fallaw, who was making his first top 10 appearance in three FLW Walleye Tour events on the lake. “This feels absolutely great. I never thought I would be here on this stage.”
Fallaw landed a key 9 1/2-pounder Saturday, which helped seal the win for himself and Arnoldussen. “The fish hit once, and I set the hook and missed,” Fallaw said. “I dropped the board back, and it hit again. It made several runs, and when I final got it to the boat, it was barely hooked.”
Arnoldussen and Fallaw caught 16 walleyes and lost at least five fish Saturday en route to their winning limit.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Dale Todd of Janesville, Wis. (15 walleyes, 81 pounds, 5 ounces, $4,850); Daniel Maix of Oregon (15 walleyes, 70 pounds, 15 ounces, $3,350); Dan Coyer of Plymouth, Ind. (15 walleyes, 67 pounds, 10 ounces, $2,400); and Corey Rost of Madison, S.D. (15 walleyes, 66 pounds, 11 ounces, $2,100).
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 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.
The full field fished the shortened opening round on Lake Erie for one of 10 final-round slots awarded based on the heaviest accumulated weights. Weights carried over to day four, with the winner determined by the heaviest cumulative weight for the tournament.
The next FLW Walleye Tour stop will be the May 18-21 tournament on Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., 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.