Keeping busy on bountiful Illinois River

Courts leads a wildly productive day one of FLW Walleye Tour action

TRENTON, Mich. – It was mostly a big day for Walleye Tour Eastern Division anglers on the Illinois River – big winds, big numbers of fish. Unfortunately, “big” applied to none of the many fish competitors caught today.

National Guard pro Mark Courts of Harris, Minn., leads the field with five fish weighing 8 pounds. Twenty-four boats sacked up their limits, and many anglers told of catching 50 to 100 fish. A couple of good year classes of juvenile walleyes have the river teeming with undersized fish. Though frustrating for tournament anglers, most agreed that this bodes well for the future of this fishery.

Paired with co-angler Steve Beasley of Macomb, Mich., Courts caught his fish while lead-lining Berkley Flicker Shad and Rapala Shad Rap crankbaits. Brighter colors in both baits worked well and yielded a busy day on the boat.

“We caught 60 to 75 fish today,” Courts said. “You lose count after a while. That’s the sure game – going through that number of fish to get the 12 legals we caught.”

Knowing the day-long culling effort ahead of him, Courts said he figured that dragging crankbaits would offer the best time-management option. There are a lot of guys live-baiting and jigging, but we just didn’t think we could go through enough fish (to find legals) – there’s too much down time.”

The top team stayed within three miles of the launch site. They worked channel edges, sand humps and clam beds, but the key element was their rate of travel. Day one brought relentless high winds that reached 30 to 40 mph at times. That affects river current, and Court said that this required diligence.

“Speed is a huge, critical concept – making sure those baits are working,” he said. “That’s what changed today, and I think a lot of guys didn’t make that adjustment. You had to pick up your speed or slow down your speed, depending on what the wind was doing. I was on my Evinrude 15 HO all day long. I was constantly keeping in contact with my speed, watching my Lowrance (electronics) and making sure that speed stayed right.”

Skarlis close at second

Finishing just 9 ounces off the lead with 7-7, Waukon, Iowa’s Tommy Skarlis picked his way into a limit catch. He fished Lindy X-Change Jigs tipped mostly with 2 1/2-inch Berkley Gulp minnows. He fished a range of sizes from 1/16- to 3/8-ounce sizes. Rainbow and smelt colors worked best.

“I used 8-pound Fireline and 10-pound Spiderwire Stealth – both in high-vis. colors so we could see the hits,” Skarlis said. “With that wind honking at 30 mph, gusting to well over 30, you need to pay attention and watch that line. If it just moves funny or stops short, you have to set the hook on everything.”

Skarlis mixed up his presentations to include a “Piggyback” rig (a live minnow on top of a Gulp minnow) and a “Double Decker” rig (two 3-inch Gulp minnows). “My best fish came on just Gulp. I went up to some bigger shapes, and I think that’s what produced the bigger bites.

“I have a little better idea of what’s going on now, so hopefully I can get another 7-7 tomorrow,” Skarlis said. “If a guy gets 7 pounds both days, he’ll make the (final-round) cut.”

Jirik jigs his way to third

Wisconsin pro Ryan Jirik put his faith in jigs today, found a limit weighing 7-5 and placed third. An orange Northland jig with a silver-and-black body caught the majority of his fish, but a firetiger head with a black-and-gold body produced a few larger fish. Drifting was his daylong strategy.

“The fish are moving a little upstream or downstream, and when we’d hit a school of them, we’d pick up and go back through there again,” Jirik said.

Estimating the day’s tally at 150 fish, Jirik said his co-angler, Mark Grahn Sr., wasted no time getting the show started: “My co-angler was on fire this morning – he had probably four fish in the boat before I knew what was going on. His first fish was a 17-incher, and it was nonstop from there.”

Rest of the best

Finishing in fourth place with 7-3 was Jacob Lapine of Fond du Lac, Wis. In fifth place, pro Richard Zachowski said he worked through approximately 60 fish to get his limit of keepers, which weighed 7-2.

Rounding out the top 10 pros on day one on the Illinois River:

6th: Pat Byle of Colgate, Wis., five walleyes, 7-0

6th: David Kleszyk of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., five walleyes, 7-0

8th: Tom Giachetto of Ladd, Ill., five walleyes, 6-12

8th: David Kolb of Rockford, Mich., five walleyes, 6-12

10th: Dan Stier of Mina, S.D., five walleyes, 6-11

Rounding out the top five co-anglers on day one on the Illinois River:

2nd: John Janosko or Ottawa, Ill., five walleyes, 7-7

3rd: Mark Grahn Sr. of Wautoma, Wis., five walleyes, 7-5

4th: Bruce Frevert of Centerville, Iowa, five walleyes, 7-3

5th: Ralph Janzer, Jr. of Cambellsport, Wis., five walleyes, 7-2

Day two of FLW Walleye Tour competition on the Illinois River begins as the field takes off from Spring Valley Boat Club at 7 a.m. Central time Friday for the final day of the opening round.