Great expectations

The sooner – and higher – the better for semis in RCL Tour event on Erie

PORT CLINTON, Ohio – Proffering warmer temperatures, lighter winds and all-around kinder, gentler conditions compared to days past, nature’s nascent benevolence should benefit the teammates in the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour event on Lake Erie with improved catches in the semifinals before afternoon winds zip at 20 mph and isolated thunderstorms pepper the Bass Islands area.

“I think they’re going to be biting better with the warmer weather,” says leader and Lund pro Mark Christianson of Walker, Minn., who tallied 36 pounds, 1 ounce to take a one-day fish-off before a second-day cancellation due to high winds.

Even so, it’s not known for sure how the schools will respond when competition resumes. The pods of walleyes are not likely to be in exactly the same spots as when the anglers left them two days ago, though they are expecting better results after a blow day with 80-degree temperatures that should boost the activity level three days after overnight temps dipped to the 30s.

“I’ll spend he first half hour marking fish with my electronics, and they should be biting higher today,” says ninth-place pro Carl Grunwaldt of Green Bay, Wis. “I was getting them just below the surface in pre-fish, but all the boat pressure pushed them down.”

All that remains now are the 20 boats that made the cut after a one-day qualifying round prompted by high winds Thursday.

As it stands, most of the best weights have come with spinner rigs dressed with night crawlers. Another key ingredient has been clip-on weights, a method that not only gets the spinners down to depth but also, with placement often midway in 100 feet of line behind planer boards, absorbs a lot of the counterproductive surge that comes with wind and waves. It also allows tentative biters – a common occurrence for the competitors on day one – to take the bait for better hookups.

And while Erie in the past has offered expansive schools stretching up to a couple of miles, an inland sea undergoing a transition with fewer, smaller and more tightly congregated groups of fish makes it a must to work a school longer and more thoroughly than ever instead of trolling out of them.

“On Wednesday I found a tight pod not even half a mile long, but they were stacked,” Grunwaldt says.

Now, if the competitors find them before the conditions deteriorate come afternoon, they could undoubtedly hoist the biggest bags of the tournament. Forty-pound limits could very well cross the stage when the top 20 weigh in at 3 p.m. Eastern at Wal-Mart, 4070 E. Arbor Road in Port Clinton.

Friday’s conditions

Sunrise: 6:29 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 62 degrees

Expected high temperature: mid-70s

Water temperature: 52 degrees

Wind: south at 7 mph

Relative humidity: 65 percent

Day’s outlook: showers or thunderstorms likely; south winds 10-15 mph in the morning increasing to 10-20 mph in the afternoon