Johnson victorious at Lake Sharpe

PIERRE, S.D. – Sunny skies shined upon hundreds of rabid walleye-fishing fans at today’s final weigh-in of the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit tournament held on Lake Sharpe. After nine of the top-10 boats had come to the scales, only Ranger pro Charlie Johnson of Merrifield, Minn., and co-angler Brant Danielson of Round Lake Beach, Ill., were left to weigh in. Their limit of walleye weighed 12 pounds, 8 ounces and was heavy enough to earn Johnson a check for $50,000 and a fully rigged Ranger boat with an Evinrude outboard. Danielson took home a check worth $15,000.

“I can finally breathe now,” said Johnson, “Waiting in the back area to weigh your fish is nerve-racking. I can’t really tell you how I feel right now. It is not about the money for me. I put in so much time and effort and you just hope it pays off. My goal when I started fishing as a pro was to make it to the championship, win a major and win Angler of the Year. I have now achieved two of my goals; I can die a happy man.”

Johnson used a very basic approach to bag walleye throughout the tournament.

“I stuck with a jig and minnow through the whole tournament,” said Johnson. “I fished the bluff areas and also by the Bad River. Color did not really seem to matter. Jig size varied depending on the current and how hard the wind was blowing. I tipped my jigs with 2 1/2-inch fathead minnows. I would simply pitch the bait and sort of quarter down with the current. It seemed like the walleye picked it up best at the tail end of the drift.”

Johnson needed almost the entire day to fill his limit.

“We had five fish at 1:30,” said Johnson. “I was expecting to get my limit earlier than that. At 1:30 I almost boxed a 17 1/2-inch fish. About 20 minutes later I caught a fish over 19 inches and decided to box that one. I had only caught one other fish over 18 inches today.”

Taking home a check worth $25,000 was Ranger pro Pete Harsh from Sauk Centre, Minn. Harsh abandoned his preferred live-bait techniques in favor of pulling plugs.

“Anyone who knows me knows I am a live-bait fisherman,” said Harsh. “In this tournament, I found that live bait was catching smaller fish. I tried trolling with Wally Divers, but they also caught smaller walleye. I switched to trolling with large smelt-colored floating Rapalas and Rattling Rogues. These longer baits hooked bigger fish. I didn’t catch a fish under 16 inches long with the bigger stick baits.”

Harsh isn’t too upset over taking second place.

“I’ll tell you what, a check for $25,000 is a pretty good crying towel,” said Harsh. “If I had it to do over again I would have done exactly the same things today. We just needed a little bigger fish to bite.”

Third place finisher on the pro side was Yamaha pro Shannon Kehl of Menoken, N.D. Kehl could not find the big fish today.

“We must have caught 50-60 walleye today, but not one big fish,” said Kehl. “In that 50-60 fish about two dozen of them were 17 ¾-inch walleye. It was tough today, but I had a good tournament.”

Kehl received a check for $20,000 for his third-place finish.

Rounding out the top five pros were Ryan Weekly (4th place, $15,000) of Pierre, S.D., and Robert Propst (5th, $12,500) of Fort Pierre, S.D.

Co-angler champion Danielson came out on top in only his second walleye tournament.

“We really went for it today,” said Danielson. “After the first day, I was in 41st, so ending up in first is very exciting, especially in only my second walleye tournament.”

Danielson is no newcomer to tournament action. He was an angler of the year on a bass-fishing circuit on the Chain O’ Lakes in Illinois.

Second place and a check for $7,500 went to co-angler Tom Jirik of Amery, Wis.

“This tournament was so hard on my nerves,” said Jirik. “The slot limit and no-cull rule are really tough to handle, but the same rules apply to the rest of the anglers. Fishing with Pete Harsh was a pleasure. That man is on top of his game. We fished every minute we were in the boat.”

Rounding out the top five on the co-angler side were Darin Newcomb (3rd place, $6,000) of Pierre, S.D., Jason Hanson (4th, $5,000) of Pierre, S.D., and John Henderson (5th, $4,000) of Pierre, S.D.

The next stop on the $2.9 million Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Circuit is Lake Winnebago in Oshkosh, Wis., May 29-June 1.

Saturday’s stats

Total number of anglers: 20
Total number of fish weighed in: 57
Total number of fish weighed in alive: 57
Limits caught: 7
Total weight: 102 pounds 5 ounces
Percent released alive: 100