Ally or enemy?
Wind plays major role in determining RCL Tour top 20 on Devils Lake
DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – With a return of prairie winds after a first day of flat calm, the competitors in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on Devils Lake either fell out of contention with the changing conditions or advanced in spite of them.
In a topsy-turvy day in the standings that seemed fitting for the chaos of gusts to 25 mph, Wednesday’s 10th-place finisher, Crestliner pro Rick Walter of Casper, Wyo., powered into first with a five-fish limit weighing 26 pounds, 12 ounces, for a two-day total of 51 pounds, 9 ounces. Walter did it with a crankbait-casting bite around weeds in 3 to 5 feet of water that scored with the wind and without.
“The wind came up and it was difficult to find the pockets to cast into,” Walter says. “With this much wind, it knocks the weeds down and makes the pockets more difficult to fish.”
Meanwhile, the angler who stood atop the standings after Wednesday, Lund pro Keith Seidlinger of Devils Lake, fell out of the top 20 when he managed to catch but four little fellas on his slip-bobber pattern – a victim of the steady winds.
“We had three key areas we were working, and the wind blew us out of all of them,” Seidlinger says.
Cranks and more
That the crankbait bite did the job on Thursday was less of a surprise than its effectiveness on day one for Walter, who has focused on the shallows in spite of 75-degree water temperatures.
“A lot of guys get turned off by that warm water, but the walleyes don’t mind if the food is there,” says Walter, who has not fished with another boat in sight over the past two days.
Another key to Walter’s success, in addition to the lack of competition in his spot, has been his focus on transitions in the weeds from spindly green stalks to more leafy fronds of cabbage weed.
One angler in the top 20 who is mixing it up with something of everything is Ranger pro John Campbell of Marco Island, Fla. But perhaps more important than his reliance on crankbaits, bobbers with bait and bottom bouncers with spinners, Campbell factored into his pre-fishing the need to adjust with the wind.
“I’ve got seven spots, and I’m making a milk route out of them,” says Campbell, who finished 16th with a two-day total of 43 pounds, 14 ounces. “Some of my spots are better when it’s calm and some are better when it’s windy. Depending on the direction of the wind, you have to have spots in different parts of the lake. This year I went hunting for spots where I could catch fish under different conditions.”
A two-horse race
With evermore disarray on day two, the RCL Angler of the Year race lost its leader by dint of an unexpected stumble by former leader and Ranger pro Scott Allar of Welch, Minn., who was positioned fifth for the tournament, with 26 pounds, 3 ounces, after day one. But when Allar brought a solitary walleye to the scales on day two, it opened the door for friends and teammates Joe Whitten of Toledo, Ohio, and Jason Przekurat of Stevens Point, Wis., to join the fray.
A sixth-place Przekurat currently leads for angler of the year, and the only way for Whitten, in second after day two, to overtake him is to come in 16 spots ahead of Przekurat. In other words, if Przekurat comes in 15th or above, he has the title sealed.
Not coincidentally, Whitten and Przekurat are working the same stand of flooded trees with slip bobbers and leeches.
If big fish run in the same circles, it seems no coincidence that both Whitten and Przekurat are on them.
Thursday’s forecast calls for even more powerful winds in excess of 30 mph. We’ll have to wait and see how the crankbait bite vs. the bobber bite unfolds.
Friday’s takeoff starts at 7 a.m. at Spirit Lake Casino and Resort.
Click here for a preview of day three.
Day-two links: