Submerged Roadbeds Take Meyer, Brewer to the Great Plains Championship of
Walleye Fishing Title
By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director
Two submerged roadbeds were the key that propelled the team of Steven
Meyer from Eudora, KS and Corry Brewer from Olathe, KS to the top, earning
them a $3000 payday and the Grand National Walleye Cup’s 2005 Great Plains
Championship of Walleye Fishing title. In addition, the winners received the
Lowrance “YOU WIN!” award of two Lowrance LMS-332C color sonar/GPS units
valued at $1400, making the total first place purse worth $4400.
The two-day tournament, which was held at El Dorado Reservoir in Kansas
on Saturday and Sunday, found Meyer and Brewer also taking the Cabelas Big
Fish Award of a $200 shopping spree and the optional Big Fish Pot of $320
for their 6.32-pound walleye. That kicker fish brought their two-day weight
to 22.82 pounds, over eight pounds ahead of their nearest competitor.
Second place and a check for $1000 went to the team of Chad Richardson
from Milford, KS and Britt Hazen from Mulvane, KS with a five-fish weight of
14.65 pounds.
Third place and a check for $700 went to the team of Jerry Howard and
his seven-year-old granddaughter Ashley Eustice from El Dorado, KS with a
five-fish weight of 10.77 pounds. They also took the top Family Angler Award
presented by the FoodSource Lure Company of $200 in FoodSource Lures and the
Skeeter Boats award of a $1000 for the top-finishing Skeeter owner.
The Great Plains Championship of Walleye Fishing is the first of seven
such tournaments on the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC) circuit and
according to GNWC Executive Director Bernie Barringer, it kicked off what
promises to be an exciting post-season of walleye tournament action. “The
winners put together a solid game plan and stuck with it. Although there
were no limits of fish brought to the scales, the teams still caught lots of
fish. The 18-inch minimum length limit was a real challenge, and because El
Dorado has a strong year class of 15-16 inch walleyes, many teams reported
throwing back 30-40 sub-legal fish each day.”
Meyer and Brewer’s game plan included targeting two submerged roadbeds
located about two miles apart. Using a one-ounce chartreuse jig and a
stinger hook tipped with an entire nightcrawler, the winners found their
fish to be in 19-25 feet of water.
Meyer noted, “On Saturday, we stayed with our first spot, because we had
trolling motor problems. We caught 40 short fish and lost a real good one
right at the boat.” Still, after Day I, Meyer and Brewer led with 14.23
pounds.
According to Meyer and Brewer, Sunday was a tougher day. “We found that
our first spot had died. So, we headed to the second roadbed. We began
drifting the roadbed and on the second pass, we picked up the 6.32 pounder.
Even though we knew at that point it would take about 10 pounds to catch us,
we were still sweating a little because we could see the other two teams in
the distance, and they were staying on their spots.”
The second place team also targeted submerged roadbeds, but chose to
pull crankbaits, instead. Richardson said, “Our biggest challenge was
actually caused by the Zebra Mussels. We lost over 20 crankbaits, because
when you bumped them along the bottom for very long, you would get cut off.
Every 20 minutes or so we were pulling in and retying.”
Richardson and Hazon varied their speed from 1.8 to 3.0 mph. “Our
biggest fish came at 3.0 mph, but most of our bites came at 1.8-2.2 mph,”
added Richardson. When they were in 18-20 feet of water, they would run
Fireline, but when they worked deeper, they went to lead core.
The sentimental favorites of the tournament had to be the third place
team of Jerry Howard and Ashley Eustice. Howard said, “Ashley is a fantastic
partner. She began fishing when she was about a year old. She is a good
fisherman and a great helper. All day long-even in the rain-she kept saying,
‘I know we can win.'”
Howard, whose nine-year-old granddaughter Lauren has also fished
tournaments with him, felt the key to their success was fishing over deep
structure. “We fished the top of a railroad track in 22-23 feet of water on
Saturday and then went to a ridge close to the dam today.”
They pulled Bill Norman crankbaits at 3.8 mph and found the green color
worked better on Saturday and the blue/yellow on Sunday. They also battled
the Zebra Mussels. “We used wire line to get us down, ran a length of
Fireline in case we would get snagged and then tied a stainless steel leader
to the Fireline so the crankbait wouldn’t get cut off.”
The Skeeter Bonus award of $1000 was special to Howard. “I have a ZX
1790-T with a 75 hp Yamaha. I think it is the perfect walleye boat, and that
tiller kept us right on top of railroad track yesterday and on that narrow
ridge today.”
Several other special awards were presented at Sunday’s weigh-in.
The “Yo So Close” award of a Yo Net folding net valued at $80 went to
the teams that placed just out of the money. They include the team of Doug
Duncan and Tim Brockman from Wichita, KS in 6th place; Wayne Hyman and Kecia
Shellito from Athol, KS in 7th place; and Mark Joslyn from Hoxie, KS and
Blake Arnberger from Colby, KS in 8th place.
The Towtector Comeback Award of a Towtector boat protector valued at
over $269 went to the team advancing the most places from the first day to
the second day. This award went to Duncan and Brockman, who failed to weigh
a fish on Saturday and ended up in 6th place on Sunday with 6.76 pounds.
Those interested in checking out the standings, reading the releases
about any of the seven regions or simply learning more about the circuit can
access the GNWC website at http://www.walleyecup.com.
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 FoodSource Lure Corporation.