GREEN BAY, Wis. – Pro Wayne Butz of Oneida, Wis., caught a four-day total of 20 walleyes weighing 109 pounds, 1 ounce to win the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour event presented by Evinrude on Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., and earned a check for $85,000.
In a tournament where more than 90 percent of the field was catching walleyes solely on crawler harnesses, Butz has been bucking the norm and catching many of his walleyes while jigging shallow water and supplementing his limits by pulling crawler harnesses.
“I thought Ted had it when he put his bag on the scale,” Butz said, referring to second-place pro Ted Takasaki of E. Gull Lake, Minn., who had a substantial lead coming into day three. As it turned out, however, Butz and co-angler winner Chad Wertepny of Green Bay were able to iron out a limit on the final day weighing 28 pounds to seal the win.
“We were using 1/8-ounce yellow and orange jigs tipped with a crawler when the wind was calm,” Butz said. “We’d switch to a 1/4-ounce jig when it would blow. I think having local knowledge of the area really helped. Even when I was fishing near Geano’s Reef, near most of the field, I still had a lot of water to myself. The nearest boat was probably a half-mile away.”
Butz did begin the final day by pulling crawlers and landed a 7-pounder early in the day. However, thick, floating weeds made the trolling bite difficult, causing the anglers to switch to their jigging tactics in 7 to 8 feet of water to finish out their limit.
Takasaki took home a check for $32,000 with a four-day total weight of 107 pounds, 12 ounces. With his family in the crowd, the veteran pro and president of Lindy Tackle commented on the life of a tournament angler.
“My family has been supportive,” Takasaki said. “It’s a great life, but there’s lots of travel, hard work and time away from home. If someone had told me before this tournament that I would get second place, I would’ve taken it in a heartbeat.”
Takasaki has been pulling crawler harnesses all week in the Geano’s Reef area to catch his walleyes. He credited a proper trolling speed combined with the right depth presentation to getting his bites.
Rounding out the top five pros are Ken Schoenecker of West Bend, Wis. (19 walleyes, 100 pounds, 12 ounces, $25,000); Jeff Ryan of Lake View, Iowa (20 walleyes, 99 pounds, 12 ounces, $18,000); and Dean Arnoldussen of Appleton, Wis. (20 walleyes, 96 pounds, 6 ounces, $13,000).
Wertepny, a Green Bay native, won the Co-angler Division in his first-ever FLW Outdoors walleye event and earned $15,000. “We were just flipping those jigs out and twitching them along the bottom in rocky areas,” Wertepny said. “We got a lot of perch and gobies on them, but every now and then, you’d hook a nice walleye.”
The primary areas the two anglers were jigging were near islands and lighthouses a short distance from the Green Bay Metro Boat Launch, the site of the daily takeoffs.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Flo Swank of Pierre, S.D. (19 walleyes, 101 pounds, 9 ounces, $5,000); Randy Ludwig of Neenah, Wis. (20 walleyes, 99 pounds, 1 ounce, $3,500); Todd Mueller of Appleton (20 walleyes, 98 pounds, 10 ounces, $2,500) and Joshua Northagen of Grand Forks, N.D. (20 walleyes, 94 pounds, 14 ounces, $2,200).
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.