Lack of a limit doesn’t inhibit Dan Stier

Stier prevails on Leech Lake despite weighing fewer fish than any angler in top 10

WALKER, Minn. – Ask Dan Stier what his favorite way to fish is, and the answer comes quicker than his hookset on a hungry walleye. “Minnows, minnows, minnows,” says the 45-year-old Pierre, S.D., pro. “I love rigging with chubs. It’s by far my favorite way to catch fish.”

Put a classic rigger on a classic rigging lake, and what do you get? The winner of the Walmart FLW Walleye Tour tournament on Leech Lake. Stier piled 56 pounds, 5 ounces of walleyes on the scales over four days to win his first FLW event and a check for $62,000.

Remarkably, Stier won while weighing 17 of a possible 20 fish. Anglers were allowed to weigh five fish each day, but on day one Stier weighed just two, albeit two good ones that totaled 11 pounds, 2 ounces.

“I can’t believe I did that,” he said after Wednesday’s weigh-in, which ended with him in 16th place.

Deja vu. It’s 2002 at a Professional Walleye Trail event on Leech Lake. Stier weighs two fish on day one and is 143rd out of 150 anglers. But, on days two and three, he weighs the two heaviest sacks of the tournament and finishes seventh.

Back to 2009. Stier’s tough luck starts before the tournament. On Tuesday he has a tooth infection. His wife, Carmen, says to go see the doctor. Doc says it might be a good idea to skip fishing the next day.

“He wasn’t real happy,” Stier said, “when I told him I’d have to be dead before I wouldn’t fish.”

So let’s chalk up his day-one debacle to poor judgment brought on by a bad tooth. It was the last bad day Stier would have in the city by the bay.

He goes to work on day two, jumping to third place with a five-fish limit weighing 18 pounds, 8 ounces, the heaviest box of the day. He’s 5 pounds off Tom Keenan’s first-place weight. On day three he weighs 10 pounds, 14 ounces, yet falls to fourth.

Saturday the three anglers ahead of him, Chris Gilman, Tom Keenan and Brian Brosdahl, fail to catch a fish over 26 inches, and all weigh fewer than 10 pounds. Stier catches two over 26 inches – he upgrades once, no less – and comes to the scales with 15 pounds, 13 ounces, winning by a margin of 2 pounds, 3 ounces over Keenan.



“On this lake, if you get the big bites, you can make ground up fast,” Stier says later. “That was my philosophy from day one: to get my two big ones first and go from there. It paid off.”

Spurning conventional wisdom, which says light and slow is the way to go when live-bait rigging, Stier hangs 1/2-ounce weights on 7-foot snells and moves along with his bow-mount electric at speeds as fast as .9 mph.

“The key,” he says, “is to watch your electronics. When I mark fish, I stop on them. Until then, I pick up the speed. A lot of times we got bit while cruising from one school to the next.

“When fishing with big minnows,” he continues, “you can tell if a fish is looking at ’em, because your rod starts shaking. You know something’s down there that wants to eat your minnow. When that happens I put it in neutral and let them have it. It’s really a fun way to fish.”

Best of all, he used one-half tank of gas the entire tournament. Read that again: a tournament pro used one-half tank of gas for the entire tournament. That tells you where Stier was fishing.

“I caught all my overs except for two within site of the launch,” Stier says. “I left Walker Bay only for an hour on days two and three. Otherwise, I spent all my time within site of the launch.”

Fish came from depths ranging from 13 to 38 feet. Stier changed his bait according to what he saw on his sonar. Big fish, big bait. Small fish, small bait. He focused on what he calls “cups,” working these turns in the contours up and down instead of straight on at a specific depth.

“That’s when I caught a lot of fish,” he says. “Those cups are holding areas. They feel safe there.”

But in the end, is any walleye really safe with Dan Stier hovering overhead?

Keenan takes second again

For the second time in his FLW career, Tom Keenan placed second, this time with 54 pounds, 3 ounces. His other runner-up finish was at Bay de Noc last year.

Keenan led this tournament after days one and two before slipping to third on day three. His weights went down every day, from 19-15 on day one to 14-11 on day two to 11-14 on day three to 7-11 today.

But in typical Keenan fashion, he never stopped fishing until he had to make the run for the ramp.

“Today I was two minutes away from leaving, and I still had my rod in the water,” Keenan said. “I put my life jacket on, pulled up the trolling motor, reached over and set the hook on a good one. It turned out to be a 24-incher.”

Back in the water it went – and with it any chance of winning this tournament.

Keenan said he rigged and jigged all week, catching good fish using both methods. For his efforts, he cashed a check for $19,220.

All of Max couldn’t boost Bro’ to victory

Brian Brosdahl smiled when he walked onstage at the final weigh-in and looked out at the crowd.

“I think the entire town of Max is here,” he said, referring to his place of residence.

And indeed they were, cheering loudly as Brosdahl placed each of his fish in the weigh tank. But then the cheering ended with a whimper, as his day-four box checked in at 5 pounds, 4 ounces, dropping him to fourth place and to a check for $12,710 (he needed 9-13 to overtake Stier).

Brosdahl was on good fish all week and employed a different tactic than most pros.

“I followed up the riggers with a jig,” he said. “I didn’t matter if there were 10 pros on a spot; I’d go in behind them and get ’em. But I also had a rig down because some fish just won’t hit an active jig.”

Brosdahl took over the lead after day three, but couldn’t hold on for his first FLW victory. He has four top-10s in FLW Walleye League events and was seventh in the league tournament here last weekend.

No doubt, we haven’t heard the last from Bro’.

Larkins leaps to fourth

Kevin Larkins of Greenwood, Neb., finished his best tournament as a pro by taking fourth with 50 pounds, 1 ounce. He started the day in fifth place after being fourth on day two and 12th on day one.

Today he weighed 9 pounds, 15 ounces after another nail-biting experience on the water. For the second straight day, he had nothing over 26 inches in his livewell as the clock ticked down to closing time. Then, for the second straight day, he pulled a 26-plus-incher at the last second.

“I must have a lucky horseshoe,” said Larkins, who was seventh in a Walleye Tour event on Lake Sharpe last year. Today that lucky ‘shoe allowed him to cash a check for $9,920.

Bjorkman goes home with lesson learned

Brian Bjorkman finished fifth with 48 pounds, giving him two solid tournaments in a row. In May on the Mississippi River at Red Wing, Minn., he was fifth.

Bjorkman spent the tournament rigging in 9 to 20 feet on shoreline breaks, paying special attention to inside corners and points where fish were concentrated. He said he spent most of his time on just two spots.

After being in 78th place after day one and 19th place after day two, Bjorkman finished strong and took home a check for $8,060 and maybe something even more important.

“I made a bad decision on day one when I looked for little fish first,” said the Fargo, N.D., pro. “I should have went for the big ones. I learned my lesson.”

Best of the rest

6. Chris Gilman, Chisago City, Minn., 47-14

7. Toby Kvalevog, Brainerd, Minn., 45-2

8. Andy Renner, Spicer, Minn., 44-13

9. Rick Olson, Mina, S.D., 44-3

10. Scott Steil, Richmond, Minn., 39-12