Weeds be gone?
Day three will decide whether debris hampers top 12 in RCL Championship on Mississippi River; top co-angler to be crowned
MOLINE, Ill. – Weeds, weeds everywhere. Weeds, indeed, have been troublemakers with little respite for the field competing in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Championship on the Mississippi River.
Take the highs and lows of last year’s champion, Ranger pro Tom Keenan of Hatley, Wis., who discovered the gone-today, here-tomorrow proclivity of debris over the first two qualifying days of the tournament. On Wednesday, Keenan tallies the heaviest weight of the tournament, 13 pound, 6 ounces, by trolling on Pool 16. The next he manages just one fish for 1 pound, 12 ounces. Still, Keenan qualified in sixth to head out in Friday’s semifinals.
“If I could drag a parachute around to get rid of them, I would,” Keenan says.
Day two’s leader, on the other hand, found the weeds notably absent on his pool of choice, 16, in a spot he trolled for sauger – a strategy that benefited Crestliner pro Plautz as he was able to keep two 22-inchers that would not have counted had they been walleyes. Because of a slot limit here, in the vicinity of the Quad Cities of Iowa and Illinois, walleyes between 22 inches and 27 inches must be released.
“I’ve got a clean, clear area, and it’s been good to me,” Plautz says.
Plautz qualified for the third day of angling with his second straight five-fish limit, one of three pros among the 219 who started the tournament here Wednesday to do so. The others: John Hertensteiner of Victoria, Minn, who qualified in fourth with 15 pounds, 11 ounces, and John Dalzot of Spring Valley, Ill., who qualified in 10th with 14 pounds, 11 ounces.
The difficult fishing has been a product of dirty water stemming from rains well upstream in the last two weeks – the same rains that unleashed the lure-fouling debris that has plagued the pros throughout the tournament. By all accounts, the weather is to blame as well.
If anything, the conditions have been too kind for both the practice period and the tournament, with sun and warm temperatures that have kept the water in the 70-degree range and hampered any cooling trend that might have inspired more bites.
More of the same is expected for Friday, when the top 12 pros and co-anglers head out for the semifinals. At the end of the day, the top six pros will continue to fish in the finals Saturday. The co-anglers final standings will be decided, however, on their last day of fishing Friday, when the winner is decided and awarded up to $150,000.
The top 12 pros and cos, who launched at 8 a.m. Central from Sunset Park in Rock Island, will return to the ramp at 4 p.m. Central. From there, they will travel to the semifinal weigh-in at Wal-Mart, 6902 27th St. in Moline.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 6:59 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 54 degrees
Expected high temperature: 75 degrees
Water temperature: 70-72 degrees
Wind: from the south at 5 mph
Relative humidity: 88 percent
Day’s outlook: occasional showers and thunderstorms in the afternoons; highs in the mid-70s