Catching Crow
RCL Tour finalists chase leader on Oahe in conditions that portend well for trolling
PIERRE, S.D. – It’s overcast, there’s a puff of wind, and both bode well for a shootout in the finals of the Wal-Mart RCL Walleye Tour competition on Lake Oahe.
Such have been the conditions for the best weights, most of them caught trolling, on the first and third days of the tourney. It’s a matter of conjecture whether overnight cold could hamper the action as the top 10 depart for the final day, when morning temperatures hit a low of 39 degrees.
“I don’t think this cold front will change it all that much,” says Lund pro and semifinals leader Bobby Crow of Paterson, Wash., who leads with a third-day weight of 16 pounds, 4 ounces, a quarter pound ahead of local Scott Pitlick of Pierre. “If it does, it will wind up affecting everyone.”
Another source of concern is how long the walleyes will keep biting where they’ve been, or whether they’ve spirited off with their highly volatile reservoir movements.
“My fish are burning out,” says ninth-place Bill Leonard of Estherville, Iowa, a little more than 3 pounds behind Crow, with 13 pounds, 1 ounce. “I’m scared to go. I have one other spot. But the fish are moving farther south.”
On Friday, Leonard’s best crankbaits, trolled on leadcore line, were new Berkley Frenzy Firestick minnows, a change from the heretofore productive Rapala Husky Jerks.
Banking as well on a leadcore cranking bite, at least for starters, is Evinrude pro Chris Gilman of Chisago City, Minn., currently in eighth with 13 pounds, 7 ounces.
“I’m going to troll up a limit and then fish the points for some bigger fish,” Gilman says.
Speaking of limits, in Friday’s semifinals all but one of the top 20 weighed a five-fish limit. The exception was Lund pro Bill Hall of Algona, Iowa, the leader after the first two days’ qualifying round. Hall dropped to 19th with 8 pounds, 2 ounces.
Now, entering Saturday’s finals, not any old limit will do if you want to move up in the standings. All 10 finalists entered the fourth day of competition with weights in the teens, par for the course after the qualifying round, when it took 26 pounds, 5 ounces to make the cut in 20th.
The remaining competitors are playing catch-up to Crow’s semifinals weight, which he caught trolling crankbaits on Berkley FireLine, running the lures up to 200 feet behind the boat, his two outside rods with planer boards to spread the lures away from the boat and, in the case of the outside line, over deeper water for some of the larger suspended fish chasing smelt.
The top 10 return at 3 p.m. Central to Spring Creek Resort, about 10 miles north of the Oahe Dam, and then travel to the weigh-in at Wal-Mart, 1600 N. Harrison Ave., in Pierre. We’ll find out then how they all did catching Crow.
Saturday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 5:55 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 47 degrees
Expected high temperature: 69 degrees
Water temperature: 62-68 degrees
Wind: calm
Relative humidity: 74 percent
Day’s outlook: partly cloudy, then mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers; light winds becoming southeast at 10-15 mph in the late morning and early afternoon