Good Morning,
On Sunday the 28th of October the Illinois Walleye Trail hosted the 1st points Qualifier of the 2012-13 season on the Illinois River in Spring Valley, Il.. The field of twenty eight teams were greeted with some cool temps and strong winds that made a for a challenging day on the water in already tough bite.
Despite the cool air temperatures the water temps are still hovering in the upper 50’s which has delayed the saugers and walleyes from moving to their normal locations. It seems as though this past weekend may have been the start of the fish making their fall transition to putting on the feed bag.
Most of the anglers concentrated their time from the Henry bridge to the upper end of Lake Senachwine fishing both sides of the river. Productive depths seemed to be in the 10′-14′ range and either pulling live bait on 3-ways or jigging at these depths was key.
The father and son team of Tom Giachetto Sr. and Tom Giachetto Jr. pulled live bait on three ways using the Dubuque rig to secure their second consecutive win in our first qualifier in as many seasons. The Giachetto’s were just upstream a mile of the Henry bridge focusing on a break line in 10-12′ working their presentation up and down the break line. Their six fish limit weighed 9.78 pounds earning them $1650. In addition to their first place check the duo also won $500 for the Lund Boats Contingency for bonus for being the highest finishing team fishng from a Lund Boat.
2nd-Mike Hanson and Matt Wohead 6-8.60 $1,000/$100 Hennepin Marine Gift Card
3rd-Steve Sandor and Paul Durdan 6-8.33 $800
4th-Dave Zurawski and Ed Michniewicz 6-8.07 $500
5th-Jim Melton and Rick Funcannon 6-7.85 $330
6th-John Dalzot and Joe Perez 6-6.76 $200
7th-Bob Hausler and Chris Clemmons 5-6.14 Doc’s Custom Jigs Bonus Box of JIgs
8th-Ken Dage and Dawn Dage 4-5.27
9th-Joe Miller and Kenny Lookingbill 4-5.17
10th-Ryan Feldott & Brandon Samolitis 4-4.92
11th-Barney and Lindsay Barnhart 3-4.89
12th-Gary and Bruce Merkel 2-3.80 Big Fish 2.68 $280
13th-Randy Carroll and Scott Pugsley 2-3.40
14th-Mike Varman and Jim Lukancic 3-3.11
15th-Robert Apple and Brad Linton 2-3.03
16th-Brian Mazur and Mark Mazur 2-2.88
17th-Jerry and Lanae Reyburn 3-2.85
18th-Mike Stuckert and Max Actis 2-2.83
19th-Steve and Jeremy Skupien 1-2.02
20th-Chris and Mike Payne 1-1.59
21st-Don and Tony Pape 1-1.57
22nd-John Smith and Dave Hall 1-1.35
23rd-Steve and Steven Jones 1-1.23
24th-Jim and Alex Coonan 1-1.09
25th-Scott Anzulas and Bob Jones 0
25th-Dave Puetz and Jason Thies 0
25th-Ryan Vecchia and Bill Elliott 0
25th-Jeff Edwards and Bill Hetzler 0
The total fish brought to the scales for the event was 78 for a total weight of 106.53, an average of 1.36 pounds per fish.
I would like to thank all of our sponsors for helping make our trail a success!
HENNEPIN MARINE, LUND BOATS, MERCURY MARINE, WORLDWIDE MARINE INSURANCE, DOC’S CUSTOM JIGS, STABIL MOUNT, BARB’S TACKLE AND WOODSTOCK LINE!!!
Next event is 11/11/2012 is Albany, Il. on the Mississipi River. This should be a great event and we look forward to seeing some really nice fish out there!!
For more info please contact: Adam Sandor @ [email protected] or visit our
website at: http://www.ilwalleyetrail.com/
