Keenan wins Walleye Tour Eastern on Illinois River

Lead-core lessons lead Kaus to co-angler win

SPRING VALLEY, Ill. – At the end of day two, he had the look – “the look” of someone who thought he had found “the deal.” At the end of today’s final round of the FLW Walleye Tour Eastern Division event on the Illinois River, Tom Keenan had the look of someone who had just closed that deal. A first-place trophy will do that for you.

Keenan’s winning margin of 8 ounces belied the drama of his accomplishment. He finished day one in 17th place with four fish weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces. Day two didn’t exactly start with a bang, but after his jigging efforts turned up a whole lot of nothing, he dumped that plan, made a big run downstream of the tournament site at Spring Valley Boat Club and committed the second half of his day to trolling Rapala Shad Raps on lead-core line.

The move paid off, as Keenan brought in a limit of 7-3 and this bold announcement, “I’m gonna get `em tomorrow.”

Get, he did. At the final checkout, Keenan’s was the only boat that headed west of the Highway 89 Bridge. Fishing near the Hennipen area, he again towed the Raps on lead core and yanked five saugers that weighed 9-5 – the tournament’s largest bag. Added to his first two efforts, Keenan’s final-round fireworks gave him a total of 22-7 and a total prize of $27,884.

“We caught a lot of fish today,” the Hatley, Wis., angler said. “We fished the same 400-yard stretch all day and never moved – eight hours back and forth. We had a netting incident where we should have had one more, but we caught a 19 1/2-incher at the end.”

The final-round field of 10 teams fished in warm, mostly cloudy conditions. The fierce winds that cranked all throughout days one and two fell to little more than light breezes. Nevertheless, Keenan said that he found boat speed to be a key element of his success.

“Yesterday, I had trouble with my kicker motor and trolled with my (main outboard engine) the entire day,” he said. “I didn’t have a kicker motor the entire day, and I trolled a little faster. I think the faster I trolled, the better I caught them. I was trolling 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 mph.

“I believe saugers like the bait hitting off the bottom, especially if you can find some hard bottom. I found some clam beds, and the faster I trolled, the more my baits hit the clams.”

Balla improves to second

John Balla of Bartlett, Ill., placed 11th on day one with 6-9, climbed to third a day later with 8-8 and gained another spot today, as he finished second with a total of 21-15. Balla caught his limit on all three days.

Balla caught his fish on Lindy Fuzzy Grub jigs tipped with live minnows and fitted with stinger hooks. The morning hours found the fish preferring a chartreuse jig, but the afternoon action came mostly on pink and white.

Kolb moves up to third

David Kolb of Rockford, Mich., fished vertically with 1/2-ounce chartreuse Cabela’s jigs carrying stinger-rigged Finesse Minnow tails and caught a limit weighing 7-12 to finish third with 21-15. (The tie with Balla was broken by heaviest single day weight.)

His day-three catch was second only to Keenan’s. Kolb caught 6-12 on day one and 7-7 on day two.

“We didn’t catch many fish, but we were fortunate to catch some nice ones today,” Kolb said.

Skarlis slips to fourth

After two days in second place, Iowa pro Tommy Skarlis missed his final-round limit by one fish and settled for fourth with 20-5. Same as the previous two days, Skarlis fished 1/16- to 3/8-ounce Lindy X-Change Jigs tipped mostly with 2 1/2-inch Berkley Gulp minnows in smelt and a new prototype color.

Skarlis found the day-three action considerably slow. He believes two main factors contributed to that: First, the lack of barge traffic eliminated a major fish-positioning influence. Barges move through an area and the fish scoot to one side or the other. Also, mostly cloudy skies robbed anglers of the sunlight that always causes fish to set up in predictable positions.

Lapine fifth

Jacob Lapine of Fond du Lac, Wis., led the pro field going into the final round, but day three found him struggling to find legal fish. Fishing three-way rigs, Lapine caught three fish that weighed 3-12 and ended in fifth place with 19-10.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros on the Illinois River:

6th: Jason Przekurat of Stevens Point, Wis., five fish, 17-8

7th: Dan Stier of Mina, S.D., five walleyes, 16-13

8th: Chris Gillman of Chisago City, Minn., four walleyes, 16-9

9th: Pat Byle of Colgate, Wis., three fish, 14-8

10th: Ryan Jirik of Rhinelander, Wis., one fish, 14-2

Kaus captures co-angler win

Paired with Keenan in the final round, Thomas Kaus of Lake Zurich, Ill., also ascended to the top of his division with a total of 21-8. Kaus had 6-11 on day one and 5-8 on day two and collected a $2,440 prize.

Reflecting on his day with Keenan, Kaus said: “I talked to Tom last night, and he promised me three things: a big box of fish, a lot of action and schooling on how to run lead core. He delivered on all three.”

Kaus said he enjoyed three great days of fishing and, in each outing, his objective was simple: “Every time I fish with a pro, my goal is to contribute to the team. That might be catching fish, netting fish or just staying out of the way. But most of the time, I can contribute to the team.”

Rounding out the top five co-anglers on the Illinois River:

2nd: Jim Milewsky of Bondurant, Iowa, five fish, 20-11

3rd: Craig Cayemberg of Valders, Wis., five fish, 20-2

4th: Steve Beasley of Macomb, Mich., three fish, 19-14

5th: John Spiegel of Appleton, Wis., four fish, 19-5