Opening round resumes under clear skies

Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour anglers adjust to shortened fishing time

DEVILS LAKE, N.D. – Mother Nature threw FLW Walleye Tour anglers a mean curveball Thursday by shortening the three-day opening round to just two days. But it would have been even crueler to send the field out in 40 mph winds and blitzing horizontal rain.

With one less day on the water, most anglers spent their day off scrambling to adjust their strategies. Most near the top of the leaderboard were content with the blow day while the anglers near the bottom have one less day to climb back into contention.

Castrol pro Nick Johnson recognizes that the complexity of the tournament has changed. The storms were so bad that key elements in walleye fishing, such as water temperature and clarity, are complete unknowns.

“To be honest, we’ve all lost touch with what’s going on,” said the 2004 FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner. “It’s almost like prefishing again. If I had to guess, I’d say the north wind we had yesterday dirtied up the water and cooled it up to 5 degrees. I think it could have a severely negative impact on the bite. There wasn’t anything that didn’t get blown on.”

Johnson is currently in 11th place with 20 pounds, 3 ounces. Although the blow day meant he would be near the top of the leaderboard for at least another day, he wasn’t entirely happy with it.

“I had the fish to win the tournament, but it was a different strategy when the opening round was three full days.”

Today, the 2005 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year says any walleye that is over 20 inches will go in the livewell. Once he has five, then anything that is over 23 inches goes in the box. Rules for this particular event prohibit culling, but do allow each boat to keep eight fish and weigh their best five.

“I’m afraid the cork bite might be the only thing that will do it today.”

The conditions at takeoff Friday morning were markedly different than Thursday. The winds have died considerably and the clouds have passed, leaving blue-bird skies and cool temperatures.

The top-10 cut will be decided at today’s weigh-in and will be based on two-day accumulated weight from Wednesday and Friday, since competition was cancelled Thursday. The remaining 10 pros and 10 co-anglers will fish a final day Saturday to determine the winners in their respective divisions, with top honors going to the anglers with the most cumulative weight over three days of competition instead of the usual four.

Anglers begin the critical day-three weigh-in at 3 p.m. Central time, when the field of 150 boats is trimmed to 10. Friday’s weigh-in takes place at Spirit Lake Casino and Resort.

Friday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 5:37 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 47 degrees

Expected high temperature: 71 degrees

Water temperature: 54-62 degrees

Wind: WSW at 18 mph

Maximum humidity: 52 percent

Day’s outlook: mostly sunny