Kondel, Freese Take Title at Houghton Lake
By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director
Despite the blustery, cold weather at Houghton Lake on Sunday, May 15,
the teams on the Michigan Region of the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC)
still found ways to trigger a good walleye bite.
First place honors and a check for $1600 went to the team of Cy Kondel
from Byron, MI and Jon Freese from Swartz Creek, MI with a six-fish limit
weight of 12.02 pounds.
Cal Stier, Sr. and Cal Stier, Jr. from Bath, MI cashed the $800 second
place check with a six-fish limit weight of 11.73 pounds.
Mitch Johnson from Montasue, Mi and Terry Kunnen from Muskegon, MI took
third place and a check for $550 with a six-fish limit weight of 10.65
pounds.
“These teams really impressed me today,” said GNWC Executive Director
Bernie Barringer. “Even though the weather conditions were nasty, 14 teams
brought limits to the scales. Winds were pushing 15-20 mph out of the
northwest, and there isn’t any place to hide from that kind of wind on this
lake. They really toughed it out and made the most of the situation.”
The Cabela’s Big Fish Award of a $200 Cabela’s shopping spree went to
the team of James A. Robinson from Marion, MI and James S. Robinson from
Fairborn, OH with a 2.87-pound walleye. The $400 optional Big Fish pot went
to Raymond Shankel from Wheeler, MI and Greg Johnston from Vestaburg, MI
with a 2.71-pound walleye.
The presentations varied with the top teams.
Kondel and Freese worked slip bobbers and leeches in 10-11 feet of water
off the edge of the weeds in the Middle Ground area. “A lot of people say
you need to fish the weeds, but ironically we found our fish off the edge of
the weeds,” noted Kondel.
However with the strong wind, they needed to use a windsock, but
according to Kondel and Freese, that constituted a major problem. “We only
had one windsock, and we knew we should have had two in order to slow us
down,” said Kondel. Depth was critical, because the walleyes were suspended
off the bottom. So, the winners improvised and kept adding splitshot,
eventually as many as five, above their bait to help keep their bait down.
They also felt that using 1/16-ounce Lindy jig heads with a red hook made a
significant difference as they ended up catching 12 fish during the course
of the day. “We tried going to an 1/8-ounce jig, but we couldn’t catch a
fish,” added Kondel.
Meanwhile, the Stier duo pitched chartreuse jigs into the weeds and
found the better spots were wherever there was green cabbage.
Johnson and Kunnen opted to cover more ground, so they trolled stick
baits at the west end of the lake. They found that gold was the best color.
The Yo So Close Award, provided by AMFYOYO, manufacturer of the
innovative stowable folding landing net, went to the three teams just
finishing out of the money. They include Lance Valentine and David DuFresne
from Flint, MI in 13th place; David VanDriessche from Bay city, MI and Scott
Schabnel from DeWitt, MI in 14th place; and James A. Robinson from Marion,
MI and James S. Robinson from Fairborn, OH in 15th place.
With Michigan Region now at the halfway point in the season, the team of
Jereme and Robert Watkins from New Carlisle, IN have taken the lead in the
race for the Michigan Region “Yamaha Team of the Year honors” with 17
points. James Ballor, III from Lanse, MI John Thekan from Florence, WI hold
down second place with 26 points.
Next up on the Michigan Region is Hubbard Lake on Sunday, June 26. For
those interested in entering this or any of the remaining qualifiers, call
1-800-890-FISH (3474), or email the GNWC at [email protected].
Barringer added, ” I encourage people to check out our website at
http://www.walleyecup.com. I think people will find it extremely interesting to see
how the races are stacking up in each of the seven regions.”
Major national sponsors for the GNWC include Skeeter Boats, Yamaha
Outboards, Lowrance Electronics, YoNet Folding Nets by AMFYOYO, Aqua-VU,
Aqua Innovations, Cabela’s and UpNorthOutdoors.com. National championship
sponsors are Towtector Shield and the VIB”E” Lure Company.