TRENTON, Mich. – Pro Richard Fike of Farmington, Pa., and co-angler Richard Dobbs of Woodridge, Ill., brought in five walleyes weighing 36 pounds, 6 ounces Thursday to lead day one of the FLW Walleye Tour Eastern Division tournament on the Detroit River. The pair now holds a very narrow 2-ounce lead over their closest rivals in an event featuring 55 pros and 55 co-anglers fishing for top awards of up to $35,000 in the Pro Division and up to $7,500 in the Co-angler Division.
“The weather changed big time today,” said Fike. “I had an excellent pre-fish but then this cold front rolled in and I had to make some major adjustments. The fishing was great early, we started catching as soon as we dropped our lines, but by noon the bite had pretty much died down.
“I was mostly using spinnerbaits in about 15 feet of water. Tomorrow I will probably go back to using crankbaits. It will be anybody’s guess as to if whether or not we can make it back to the lake. I will just have to be diverse and hope for a lot of luck.”
Cold, windy conditions are expected to hamper tomorrow’s bite and determine logistics of anglers being able to make the long trip to the lake where fish are expected to be larger than on the river.
Rounding out the remainder of the top-10 pros and co-anglers after day one at the Detroit River are:
2nd: Troy Newman, River Rouge, Mich., Joseph Bruno, Strongsville, Ohio, five walleyes, 36-4
3rd: Ed Stachowski, Canton, Mich., Tom Nevans, Strongsville, Ohio, five walleyes, 35-2
4th: John Campbell, Marco Island, Fla., Mirko Canji, Belle River, Ontario, five walleyes, 35-1
5th: Mark Meravy, Shorewood, Ill., Todd Macker, Columbus, Mich., five walleyes, 33-6
6th: Dean Arnoldussen, Appleton, Wis., Barry Gropp, Walled Lake, Mich., five walleyes, 33
7th: David Kolb, Rockford, Mich., Tim McClaran, Mansfield, Ohio, five walleyes, 32-8
8th: John Gilman, Freeland, Mich., Randal Sterr, Oconomowoc, Wis., five walleyes, 31-13
9th: Jon Bondy, Windsor, Ontario, Michael Anstead, Mt. Washington, Ky., five walleyes, 31-7
10th: Pat Byle, Colgate, Wis., William Brewer, Omaha, Neb., five walleyes, 30-13
In FLW Walleye Tour competition, pros and cos are also competing for valuable points in the hope of qualifying for a shot at the 2010 FLW Walleye Tour Championship held on Leech Lake in Walker, Minn., Sept. 23-25.
Anglers will take off from Elizabeth Park Marina located at 200 Grosse Ile Parkway in Trenton at 7 each morning. Weigh-in will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday there will be a Family Fishing Clinic beginning at 1:30 prior to the final weigh-in.
About FLW Outdoors
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. FLW Outdoors has also taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing awarding the largest prizes in the history of fantasy sports. FLW Outdoors memberships are available featuring numerous benefits including Player’s Advantage. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FantasyFishing.com.