Olson in the zone

Red Wing, Minn., pro strings together two good days to lead opening round of FLW Walleye Tour Western event on Lake Oahe

PIERRE, S.D. – Longtime Walleye Tour pro Eric Olson has experienced a bit of a dry spell over the last few years, but Friday’s thunderstorms didn’t rain on his parade a bit. The pro from Red Wing, Minn., sacked the walleyes again today on Lake Oahe to take over the lead with a two-day total of 29 pounds, 15 ounces.

“Yesterday everything seemed to be falling into a groove,” Olson said. “It’s like hitters in baseball that get in the zone … everything just feels right.”

Olson has been fishing two spots in an area he will only describe as “midlake,” and one of them is on fire. He said he’ll return there Saturday on the final day of the tournament, and he has some backup spots in reserve that he said could be equally as good.

“It put out fish all day long – right up until the end,” he said of his honeyhole. “And I’m able to fish it in any conditions: deep, shallow or transition.”

Some of Olson and his day-one co-angler’s comments yesterday point toward him using live-bait rigs, which he’s fishing with light bottom bouncers – sometimes with spinners or propeller blades. But of such trimmings for a live-bait rig, Olson said it’s not the key to his successful pattern.



“I find that water conditions will change that pattern,” he said. “If it’s cloudy or there’s a mud line, I’ll go with something more bold like propeller blades.”

With a five-walleye limit weighing 15-2 today added to his day-one limit of 14-13, Olson qualified for his first top-10 Walleye Tour appearance since 2007. If his pattern and location hold up for one more day, he’ll be in great position to pick up his first Walleye Tour win.

Local pro climbs into second

Pierre, S.D., walleye pro Paul Steffen added a 14-4 limit to his day-one weight of 13-15 for a total of 28-3 and second place. He trails Olson by 1 pound, 12 ounces.

“The day was a lot better than yesterday,” Steffen said. “We caught most of our fish by noon and had one upgrade in the afternoon.”

Steffen made the trip to his area north of the Cheyenne River this morning, which takes about a half-hour in calm conditions.

“We bounced around – the fish were going on the points today,” he said. “I’m primarily concentrating on one area, but about 10 points in that area.”

He said he’s live-baiting with leeches and night crawlers in 10 to 20 feet of water, varying his speed from slow to fast.

“We’re using some small propeller blades and some small spinners,” he added.



Another local right behind

Despite a slow day one and 1 1/2 pounds’ worth of dead-fish penalties, Fort Pierre, S.D., walleye ace Gerrick McComsey landed the heaviest limit of the tournament to date at 17 pounds – and the biggest single walleye weighed – elevating him to third place on the pro side and his co-angler, David Hosek, into first in his division. McComsey’s two-day total now stands at 27-10.

“(The big walleye) came at 8:45 this morning. I said, `I’m going to stay on the lower end until 10,’ and that’s what we did,” McComsey said, adding that he then moved up the reservoir to the Cheyenne River area. “We lost a couple fish (that died) coming back from the Cheyenne, but that happens.”

McComsey said he caught the big one in the lower end by “rigging a creek chub on a Lindy rig” and caught most of the others upstream “rigging a minnow or dragging a night crawler.” He said he’s using basic methods of live-bait rigging in 18 to 22 feet of water, moving .8 to 1 mph in three main spots on the lower end and in about a half-dozen spots near Cheyenne.

Przekurat moves into fourth

Two-time Walleye Tour Angler of the Year Jason Przekurat of Stevens Point, Wis., shifted into high gear Friday, moving from 10th place to fourth with a 14-5 limit, anchored by a 22 1/2-inch kicker fish, and a two-day total weight of 27-9.

This morning Przekurat said he “started jumping points,” catching a limit “on a main-lake point where I caught them all yesterday.” He’s fishing from the lower end of Oahe up to Little Bend, and he said it was an area he refers to as “the pumphouse” where he spotted three fish with his electronics in the morning that wouldn’t take his bait, a night crawler fished on a Slow Death hook. But when he pulled up just after noon, a monster walleye was hungry.

Local pro Terry Nelson said he saw Przekurat catch the 22 1/2-incher near the Cheyenne River. Nelson was fishing the area in hopes of landing overs (the two walleyes over 20 inches that a pair of anglers is allowed to weigh), but couldn’t quite find the big ones. He said Przekurat cruised in during the afternoon and almost immediately hooked his hog.

Przekurat later explained the scenario as a result of his method of fishing: “I’m fishing everything, everywhere. I basically drive around until I see fish on my graph and I mark them as a waypoint. If they don’t bite then, I come back later.”

Walker fifth

Third-year Walleye Tour pro Barry Walker of Big Springs, Neb., picked up his second FLW top-10 finish today with a two-day weight of 27-7. He caught a five-walleye limit today weighing 14-1 while fishing with third-place co-angler Todd Dankert.

“It was kind of scary this morning,” Walker said of the stormy start to the day. “But we caught one over. Then it was nothin’, nothin’, nothin’. Finally – boom – we caught another over and got our limit.”

Dankert said they fished night crawlers on a Slow Death hook with bottom bouncers in a few different spots near Bush’s Landing. They were back-trolling at about 1 to 1.2 mph.

Shimota retains AOY lead

With his 12th-place finish on Lake Oahe, pro Bill Shimota of Lonsdale, Minn., who won the divisional opener on the Mississippi River last month, holds the AOY lead for the Walleye Tour Western Division with 150 points.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros who will fish the final day of the FLW Walleye Tour Western event Saturday on Lake Oahe:

6th: Gary Maher of Menoken, N.D., two-day total of 27 pounds, 7 ounces

7th: Dusty Minke of Forest Lake, Minn., 27-6

8th: Brian Brosdahl of Max, Minn., 27-1

9th: Nick Schertz of Tomahawk, Wis., 26-7

10th: Byron Peterson of Blair, Neb., 26-6

Hosek takes over co-angler lead

Fishing with local pro Gerrick “Mac” McComsey, David Hosek of White Bear Lake, Minn., took over the Co-angler Division lead Friday with a two-day total weight of 29 pounds, 13 ounces, bolstered by the 17-pound limit the two caught today. His day with McComsey gave him a 17-place rocket ride up the leaderboard.

In addition to having a great day on the water, Hosek came away with a good fishing story as well: “I don’t usually like to give up my pro’s fishing secrets, but I’ve got to tell you how he gets a bite here. We were struggling to get our fifth fish, and we had a side bet on who would catch it. Mac tossed a quarter and it went in the water. It bit right after that.”

McComsey won the bet, landing the fifth fish that rounded out their 17-pound limit, but it appears his payday went into the lake. But McComsey and Hosek are clearly on their way to much larger rewards after tomorrow’s finale.



Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers who will fish the final day of the FLW Walleye Tour Western event Saturday on Lake Oahe:

2nd: Robert Dube of Williston, N.D., two-day total of 29 pounds, 2 ounces

3rd: Todd Dankert of Anoka, Minn., 29-2

4th: Don Karlgaard of East Gull Lake, Minn., 27-8

5th: Ryan Kelly of Ortonville, Minn., 27-3

6th: Ron Lowry of Lakewood, Colo., 26-7

7th: Mike Pellerzi of Pierre, S.D., 26-2

8th: Darrell Martin of Forest Lake, Minn., 26-1

9th: Lt. Col. Kit Cline of Rapid City, S.D., 25-7

10th: Mike Tchida of Sisseton, S.D., 25-5

Walleye Tour action resumes Saturday when the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers take off for a final day of fishing at 7 a.m. from Spring Creek at the Resort and Deep Water Marina located at 28229 Spring Creek Place in Pierre, S.D.