GREEN BAY, Wis. – Pro Dean Arnoldussen of Appleton, Wis., along with his partner, Keith Strauss of Syracuse, Ind., caught five walleyes weighing 37 pounds, 14 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour event presented by Evinrude on Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., the fourth and final regular-season event of the 2006 FLW Walleye Tour. With a $2.69 million total purse, including the no-entry-fee $675,000 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship on Lake Oahe near Pierre, S.D., Oct. 4-7, and television coverage on FSN (Fox Sports Net), the FLW Walleye Tour is bigger and better than ever.
With a full field of 150 pros and 150 co-anglers, anglers are competing for their share of a $503,300 purse, including as much as $100,000 for the winning pro and $18,000 for the winning co-angler.
Anglers launched with partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 70s that quickly warmed into the upper 80s later in the day. The vast majority of the field fished the same massive school of walleyes over a reef some 12 miles offshore from the launch site. There, anglers were targeting walleyes holding on the reef in 18 to 23 feet of water. Nearly all anglers in the field have found the bite for this event on spinners and crawler harnesses pulled behind planer boards.
Arnoldussen and Strauss were no exception. The key to getting bit by the largest walleyes is fine-tuning the actual spinner/crawler presentation by modifying things such as spinner blade type, weight type and trolling speed.
“We kept marking fish right on the bottom,” Arnoldussen said. “With 100 boats going over them in the area, they weren’t going to come up as high in the water column to feed, so we pulled our spinners right along the bottom. You have to know where your spinner is if you want to catch them.
“If I can catch 30 more pounds tomorrow, I think I’ll be sitting pretty going into the final two days. But I don’t think that area will hold up for the whole event.”
Arnoldussen revealed that he does have backup areas in mind in case the bite in the crowd goes sour. “I always go for the win when I fish these events,” Arnoldussen said. “That’s my drive.”
Arnoldussen has an impressive track record with two wins, including a $400,000 win during the 2001 FLW Walleye Tour Championship in Green Bay.
Even with a no-culling rule in effect, anglers brought 629 walleyes weighing 2,319 pounds, 6 ounces to the scale on day one, including 48 limits of walleyes breaking the 20-pound mark.
Rounding out the top five pros are Paul DeVoss of Dodgeville, Wis. (five walleyes, 36 pounds, 3 ounces); Ted Takasaki of East Gull Lake, Minn. (five walleyes, 33 pounds, 8 ounces); Jeff Ryan of Lake View, Iowa (five walleyes, 31 pounds, 10 ounces); and Richard Boggs of Nisswa, Minn. (five walleyes, 31 pounds, 8 ounces).
Strauss leads the co-angler division. “It’s awesome when I get to fish with Dean,” said Strauss, who was paired with Arnoldussen during an event on Devils Lake a few seasons ago. “My wife called me and asked me who I was paired with, and I just told her to look at the guy on the cover of the last issue of FLW Outdoors Magazine. She said it looked like I had a good partner for the first day.”
Strauss reported that he and Arnoldussen caught seven total walleyes during the day, but they were done fishing with their limit in the livewell before noon. “Those fish are down there,” Strauss said. “It’s just a matter of getting them to bite.”
Pros and co-anglers fish for a combined boat weight. Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Chad Wertepny of Green Bay, Randy Ludwig of Neenah, Wis., Todd Mueller of Appleton, and Randy Reek of Minocqua, Wis.
The Packer Country Visitor and Convention Bureau is hosting the event. Anglers launch daily at 7 a.m. from Green Bay Metro Boat Launch. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 2440 West Mason Street in Green Bay beginning at 4 p.m. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins, which are free and open to the public.
Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day and fish for a combined boat weight. Pros compete against other pros, and co-anglers compete against other co-anglers. The full field competes during the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots based on their three-day accumulated weight.
Weights carry over to day four, with the winner determined by the heaviest four-day weight.
Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 150 points awarded to the winner, 149 to second, 148 for third, and so on. These points determine angler standings. The top 50 pros and 50 co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the 2006 FLW Walleye Tour Championship.
The FLW Walleye Tour Championship is the most lucrative event in professional walleye angling, with guaranteed cash awards for the entire field. A guaranteed cash award of $100,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $50,000 will go to the FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner for a total pro award of $150,000. The champion co-angler will win a guaranteed cash award of $11,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $11,000 for a total co-angler award of $22,000.
Coverage of the FLW Walleye Tour event on Green Bay will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on Sept. 10 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $37.9 million through 249 events in 2006.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.
Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.