Green, Templeton Weigh Limit Each Day to Win Iowa State Championship of
Walleye Fishing Title
By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director
The Iowa State Championship of Walleye Fishing held on East and West
Okoboji this past weekend was definitely a “tale of two lakes”. It was
either go for broke and the big fish on West Lake or for the numbers of
smaller fish on East Lake.
For the team of Terry Green from Mason City, IA and Steve Templeton from
Clear Lake, IA, the decision to fish East Okoboji was worth a $6400 payday
as they weighed in a limit each day to take the two-day tournament with a
10-fish weight of 10.96 pounds.
They won $5000 in cash and the Lowrance “YOU WIN!” award of two Lowrance
LMS-332C color sonar/GPS units valued at $1400.
It wasn’t easy, though, as they held down third place after Day I with a
five-fish weight of 4.88 pounds. However, their consistency panned out, and
they ended up edging the team of Jon Coolican from Mason City, IA and Jim
Coolican from Commerce Township, MI, who weighed a nine-fish weight of 9.04
pounds. They collected $2000 for their efforts and also took the Top Family
Angler Award of $200 in FoodSource Lures.
Third place and a check for $1000 went to the father-son team of Carl
Griese and Dan Griese from Dolliver, IA, who ended up with a four-fish
weight of 7.54 pounds and a check for $1000. The Griese team had held the
Day I lead with a three-fish weight of 6.53 pounds, but they were able to
catch only one keeper walleye on Sunday.
The Cabela’s Big Fish Award of a $200 shopping spree and the optional
Big Fish Pot of $540 went to the father-son team of Mike Peterson and Scott
Peterson from Ogden, IA with their 5.31-pound walleye taken on West Okoboji.
The Iowa State Championship of Walleye Fishing, which is the seventh of
seven such tournaments on the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC) circuit, was
definitely a tournament filled with drama. The suspense built as the lead
changed hands several times at the scale until Green and Templeton’s weight
of 10.96 pounds flashed on the viewing screen.
“This tournament was like a big chess match,” said GNWC Executive
Director Bernie Barringer. “Everybody knew the big fish were out there on
West Lake, but they also knew that going after those fish was a big gamble.
So, what do you do? Gamble and go for broke, or stay on East Lake and sort
through all kinds of short fish in the hopes of catching a limit of 14-15
inch fish? Mike and Scott Peterson were the only ones who could catch one of
those big fish, and that got them the Cabela’s Big Fish Award and the
Towtector Comeback Award.”
Barringer added, “I especially want to thank all of the volunteers who
helped with the weigh-in each day. Most of them were former GNWC anglers,
and they did a super job of making everything go like clockwork.”
The key tactic for the winning team was persistence and fine-tuning the
presentation once they had it established. Templeton said, “We thought about
West Lake, but we knew what we had going on East Lake.”
Green added, “We pulled crankbaits in 17-18 feet of water on both days,
and by today we had refined the presentation to pulling #5 shad Raps with
lead core – no planer boards at all.”
Their key was to be right on the bottom. “We needed to be within an inch
or two of the bottom. Once we figured that out,” said Green, “things went
crazy. We had several times where we had three fish on at once. It got so
that we would watch the bow in the rod to decide which fish to reel in
first.”
The bite was seemingly non-stop for the winners. Templeton added, “I’ll
bet we caught close to a hundred walleyes today, but I knew it was going to
be really close. I don’t know if I have ever been so nervous.”
The Coolican brothers gave it a great run, but the lack of a fifth fish
on Saturday made the big difference. Jon noted, “We trolled crankbaits in
15-17 feet of water on East Okoboji. My favorite was the chartreuse Rip
Shad, but we caught them on #5 Shad Raps, too.” They also had a spinner and
live bait bite going, but they felt they could cover more ground with the
crankbaits, so never tried spinners during the tournament. Jim, who traveled
the long distance from Michigan to fish with his brother, said the bite was
not fast. “It turned out to be one about every hour, and the last one came
10 minutes before the weigh-in.”
For Carl and Dan Griese, it was “oh so close,” after leading Day I. Carl
said, “We just couldn’t get the keepers to bite today, but we’re really
happy to take third place.”
Dan echoed his father’s sentiments. “We caught lots of fish-maybe 70
each day. We tried to keep our crankbaits right on the bottom.” Their best
crankbaits were the clown colored Reef Runners.
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 Joe Kirk and Kathy
Kirk from Urbandale, IA in 11th place; Joe Kalvig from Nora Springs, IA and
Don O’Tool from Clear Lake, IA in 12th place; and Al Wittmus from Fort
Dodge, IA and James Nell from Ankeny, IA in 13th 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 Mike and Scott Peterson from Ogden, IA
for advancing from a tie for 20th place on Day I to 9th place on Day II.
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. Iowa
Region sponsors include Carlson-Sanderson Real Estate, Motor Inn, Inc., and
Triggs Bay Resort.