Quick Bites: RCL Championship, Day 3
2003 Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Championship
Mississippi River, Moline, Ill.
Friday, pro semifinals, co-angler finals
All about the timing … 2004 RCL Tour Championship co-angler winner Chris Froelich knows he’s a lucky guy. First, he’s a big fan of pro Russell McDonald, whose decent fishing pattern on a tough day led him to victory Friday. “This means a big steak dinner for my new best friend, Russell,” Froelich said. Second, the co-angler champion collected $150,000 – half of which was contingency money for owning a Lund boat and Yamaha motor. “I bought the boat a week ago,” he said. “My main excuse with my wife was, `Well, if I win the championship, I win an extra $75,000.'”
Short run, big lead … For all the talk about long runs and locking through to faraway pools on the Mississippi River this week, McDonald’s leading limit when it counted most came from close to home. He and Froelich caught their fish while jigging around bridge pylons underneath Interstate 280, which is within sight of the takeoff point at Sunset Park. With almost a 2-pound lead heading into Saturday, McDonald feels good about his prospects in the finals. “I feel pretty confident,” he said, “especially since I’ll have the spot to myself, more or less, the last two days.”
Together again … In a random twist, pro Tom Keenan and co-angler Stan Ryan fished two out of three days of this tournament together. Paired randomly on day one (when they both won their respective division’s big-walleye award for the 8-pounder they brought in Wednesday), they qualified in the same position and fished together again Friday. Asked about the prospect of fishing with the defending RCL champion, Ryan said, “It was riot. I didn’t sleep the night before the tournament started.”
Keenan! … Ryan wasn’t the only one losing sleep over Keenan. Scott Allar, runner-up to Keenan at the 2003 championship, came in Friday with one fish and one goal. “All I want to do is beat Tom Keenan,” he laughed. Not such a tall order, since Keenan’s sole walleye weighed just 1 pound, 10 ounces. But, for the second year in a row, Allar fell short by one place – and this time by just 2 ounces. Allar’s fish weighed 1-8 and he finished ninth. Keenan finished eighth.
Quick numbers
26 ¾, 25, 22: Respective lengths of three fish, in inches, that Allar had to release Friday due to the 20- to 27-inch slot limit. He also caught several under the 15-inch minimum. “That 26 ¾ was a heart-wrencher,” he said. “Oh yeah, that hurt.”
Sound bites
“I’m just glad it was raining because then you couldn’t see me crying.”
– Allar’s co-angler partner Friday Duane Haviland, on his reaction to the cameras when they had to release their big fish.
“I’m standing here and I’m wishing that I hadn’t drank so much water before I came up onstage.”
– Chris Froelich, the first to weigh in, when asked how he felt before the last co-angler brought his fish to the scale.