RCL semifinal strategy
Local river rat Allar recognizes peaking fall patterns to outpace rest of top 12; Montana angler takes co-angler crown
RED WING, Minn. – With at least 50 days a year on the Mississippi and the sudden ascendance of fall fishing patterns, Ranger pro Scott Allar of Welch, Minn., on Friday parlayed his hard-won river wisdom into a 15-pound limit catch and first place in the semifinals of the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Championship.
In something of a departure from the first two days, when he exclusively trolled with leadcore line and shad baits, Allar started the day tossing jigs on Pool 4, nabbing two quick fish. After catching two more trolling and, later, two more jigging, Allar surpassed second-place Ranger pro Tom Keenan of Hatley, Wis., for the top spot in the semis.
“We hit a big-fish spot first where we pitched jigs to a point, and we caught a 6-pounder and one about 2 pounds,” Allar says. “And then we left to run our program.”
While Allar’s program had paid off over the two qualifying days with a second-place finish in the top-12 cut with 28 pounds, 1 ounce, he sensed the time was right to pursue bigger fish that were just starting to turn on after 10 days of cold weather had dropped the water temperature 13 degrees to 55 degrees.
“I think the fish are finally into their classic fall patterns,” Allar says. “In a tough bite, I know where the fish should be. I don’t have to fish as hard to figure out where they are.”
Fear and trolling
For Keenan’s part, he kept trolling on Pool 3 in a key stretch of hard bottom with current that had qualified him for the semis in ninth place. The key, Keenan says, is an outside bend in the river with hard bottom and clam beds as well as what little current is running downriver – enough to concentrate the walleyes in a short stretch and deliver a limit of 10 pounds, 4 ounces.
Keenan also credits his success to a trick he says no one else knows – nor do we yet – and to the extra time he has at his disposal by staying in the upper pool.
“I didn’t want to lock through, and I wanted to stay in the upper pool,” Keenan says. “That area has the most current, rocks and clam beds.”
With a tricky pattern that third-place Lund pro Jerry Hein of Stillwater, Minn., fears he might not be able to repeat Saturday, when the final six pros fish without the aid of a co-angler to retie, the leadcore troller is burning through the No. 5 Rapala Shad Raps knocked off the gnarly, lure-gobbling rocks next to a railroad bed on Pool 3.
“It’s a jagged edge, straight up and down,” Hein says. “Basically I’m fishing 15 feet off shore in 10 feet of water. My rods are 7 feet long, so the lures are 8 feet from shore.
“You’ve got to have the lures pounding off bottom to get the walleyes to bite. I think you get a reaction strike because they hear the bait coming.”
In the last few days, Hein estimates, he has donated more than 500 Shad Raps to snags. Pounding bottom with the lures, Hein has been trolling upstream at speeds up to 3.5 mph with his Yamaha outboard, not a kicker motor, for its turning capabilities and power in wind.
Rounding out the rest of the top six are Ranger pro Jim Schulta of Hazelhurst, Wis., who is fishing a wing dam in Pool 3; Lund pro Steve Lamb of Nashville, Tenn., who is trolling with leadcore in Pool 3; and Lund pro Douglas Vandersteen of Lundar, Manitoba, who, though he qualified with 22 pounds, 6 ounces far downstream on a wing dam near Alma on day one, was spotted live-bait rigging in a cut off of Buffalo Slough. Schulta placed fourth with five fish four 9 pounds; Lamb with four fish for 4 pounds, 11 ounces; Vandersteen with three fish for 4 pounds, 3 ounces.
Crowning the co
Powered by Allar’s momentum, co-angler and Lund owner Darrell Archey of Great Falls, Mont., took the co crown and $120,000. Archey, a 46-year-old UPS driver, had fished two qualifying tournaments earlier in the year before Friday’s big payday.
And what’s he going to do with it? “I’m going to have to buy a new boat,” says Archey, who owns a Lund 1900 IFS. “I’ve got a good excuse now.”
Archey parlayed his own fishing abilities from home waters on Fort Peck Reservoir to contribute to Allar’s big third-day catch.
“I caught the big fish, [which was] the first fish, and it got the monkey out of the boat right off the bat,” Archey says.
In addition to six figures, Archey has also gained considerable knowledge that, in the end, he says will cut down on tackle expenditures and the frustration of learning more about fishing on his own.
“The pros can save you a lot of money,” Archey says. “A guy can go out and buy and try stuff, and pretty soon it’s all sitting at home in a box because it didn’t work. I’m going to fine-tune what I’m buying. Now I don’t have to buy 15 things to find out if it’s going to work.”
If Archey won more than money, so will the pros on Saturday – in particular, the pro who could win up to $400,000 and the notoriety of a championship win.
For the final day, the last six men standing can catch six fish and weigh five of them after they depart at 7 a.m. Central time from Treasure Island Resort & Casino.