No need for speed

Local favorite Giachetto grabs semifinal lead at RCL tourney on Illinois River by going it slow

Spring Valley, Ill. – Creeping, easing, tap-dancing on the trolling motor’s foot pedal, local Tom Giachetto of Ladd, Ill., slid into stealth mode Friday to waylay a five-fish, 15-pound limit to take a 2-pound lead into the finals of the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on the Illinois River.

With co-angler Carolyn Brandon of Greenville, Ohio, a lucky charm to her pros over the last three days, Giachetto sifted through at least two dozen sauger on three-way rigs in depths of 10 feet of less near the town of Peru to amass five females that gave his team a slight but still respectable margin over second-place competitor, Aaron McQuoid of Isle, Minn.

Notwithstanding Brandon’s contribution of finned lucre – “I did a good job of netting,” said Brandon – Giachetto gave most of the credit for the day’s success to the team’s strategically ponderous pace.

“Speed is my key,” Giachetto says. “Most of the guys are going 1.5 mph, but I’m almost sitting still.”

The same trick in the same area also worked for McQuoid, who used a five-fish limit of 12 pounds, 15 ounces to grab second place overall. McQuoid’s stellar catch came amidst improving conditions compared to early tournament treachery, when more than 100 competitors zeroed on the first day in dingy, turbid water littered with the flotsam of neighboring woods and farmland.

“The river level stayed the same,” said McQuoid. “It didn’t drop. Therefore the current started to subside. You had to stay in 10 feet of water. If I got shallower or deeper, I didn’t catch any. I’m going as fast as a snail can crawl down the shoreline.”

Sharing the turf

At this point, with one day remaining in the tourney on the Illinois, the top two pros both reported that they are using three-way rigs – a setup rigged with an approximately 6-inch dropper off a three-way swivel and a leader up to 2 feet trailing behind it to a floating jighead or a plain hook with a minnow.

Meanwhile, sixth-place Lund pro Mark Courts, who recorded a limit weighing 12 pounds, 7 ounces in the semis, is fishing a similar area about 200 yards from Giachetto and McQuoid. Courts said he is pulling 1-ounce pink or orange jigs tipped with a truncated piece of pumpkin-colored Berkley Power Nightcrawler and a pink hook trailing off the three-way swivel with a minnow. The rig is then attached to the business end of a spinning rod on flame Berkley FireLine.

Also in contention for the winner’s circle on Saturday, with a limit of 12 pounds, 13 ounces, is Ranger pro Rick LaCourse of Port Clinton, Ohio, a handliner who is working a stretch downstream from the Route 39 bridge and adjacent railroad bridge. Seventh-place pro Jason Przekurat of Stevens Point, Wis., the 2002 RCL Angler of the Year, who scored a limit for 11 pounds, 12 ounces, is fishing a similar area.

On Saturday, Giachetto will have a slight advantage with 2 pounds over McQuoid and an almost insurmountable 5-pound, 1-ounce lead over the 10th-place qualifier, Jarrad Fluekiger of Alma, Wis. But Giachetto isn’t taking anything for granted.

“I’ve fished enough tournaments out here to know there’s no guarantee you’re going to catch fish tomorrow,” Giachetto says.

River history key for Giachetto

Despite the painful conditions of opening day on Wednesday, to say nothing of a beastly practice when few fish were caught in the few days ahead of the start of competition, Giachetto turned his knowledge of the river to his advantage.

“We fish all the time around here,” says Giachetto, who is fresh off a team tournament from last weekend. “In the last five weeks we’ve fished four tournaments.”

The 34-year-old poultry plant worker credited his experience fishing tournaments every spring with his current success. Giachetto said that every spring he fishes through all sorts of conditions, in high water and low, to figure out the spots where sauger go in and around the spawn. Right now, with the river quite temperamental, Giachetto is able to catch sauger that are on anything other than a suicide bite.

“I couldn’t have asked for better conditions this week,” Giachetto said. “It’s a jig bite. It keeps people from running down the middle of the river with leadcore line and crankbaits and catching a 3-pound average. If anything, my knowledge of the river is my advantage.”

Giachetto and the rest of the top 10 get going at 7 a.m. Saturday, departing from the Spring Valley Boat Club.