I.O.W.A. Team Walleye Circuit Escapes Another Weather Disaster at Rathbun Lake
By Steve Weisman
I.O.W.A. Publicity Director
After last year’s Memorial Day stormy weather caused the cancellation of the I.O.W.A Team Walleye Circuit’s qualifier, it looked as if this year might be the same. However, after a stormy Sunday night, Monday turned out to be just what the teams ordered!
Capitalizing on the weather was the team of Tim Floden from Bussey and Terry Carr from Otley with a six-fish limit weight of 22.48 pounds good for $1750. In addition, they also took the Smooth Move Seat Mounts Award of two $75 certificates, the ABU Garcia Line Counter Lunker Award of a 5500LC reel for their 7.72-pound kicker fish and the $350 optional Big Fish Pot.
Second place and a check for $1050 went to the team of Lee Kiewiet from Buffalo Center and Tony Holland from Eden Prairie, MN with a 6-fish weight of 16.15 pounds, while the team of Bryan Paul from Buffalo Center and Kevan Paul from Clear Lake captured the third place check of $790 with a 6-fish weight of 14.89 pounds. They also took home the Cabela’s Family Team award for the highest placing family team.
“It was a challenging bite today,” said I.O.W.A. Tournament Director Dean Higgins. “The water level on Rathbun is really high, and with all the recent wind and rain, the water was like chocolate milk!”
Higgins continued, “After last year’s cancellation because of storms and then all the storms and wind coming through late in the week, we were sure worried that it might happen again today.”
Several other special awards were also awarded at the tournament.
The $500 Lund Bonus for the highest placing team fishing out of a Lund boat went to the team of Floden and Carr. The Algona Marine and Sport Matching Bonus went to two teams fishing out of Lund boats purchased at Algona Marine and Sport: Bryan Paul and Kevan Paul and David Lampe and Brad Connor from Britt.
For the third tournament in a row, the $500 Wright County Motors Contingency Award went to the team of Troy Loeckle from Floyd and Wes Loeckle from Mason City.
The Mack’s Lure Award went to the team of Creighton Whitehill and Kim Grube from Mason City.
The team of Bruce and Terry Sparks of Des Moines won both the Line X Award of two $100 certificates and the drawing for the King’s Pointe Resort Award of two $400 vacation packages.
The team of Mark Michael from Princeton, IL and Les Roemig from Amana won the $100 EZEE Step Contingency Award.
The key to success at Lake Rathbun turned out to be suspended fish. Instead of fishing bottom bouncers and live bait, several of the top teams moved out into 30-40 feet of water, where they found suspended baitfish, white bass and walleyes. So it became a matter of pulling crankbaits into those suspended schools to trigger the walleyes.
“Floden and Carr are always a threat to win the title. They know this lake well and won the Lake Rathbun Tournament two years ago, too,” noted Higgins.
Floden and Carr used their 7.72 pounder and a second kicker fish pushing 7 pounds to win the competition by over six pounds. According to Carr, they pulled crankbaits, but tried to target 18 feet of water. “We trolled #9 Shad Raps and medium sized Wally Divers.” Their two best colors were chartreuse and firetiger.
Kiewiet and Holland started shallow early in the day with no success. “We started off at Island View, but there were so many teams around that we moved out into deeper water and found schools of baitfish and arcs below them on our electronics,” said Kiewiet. “We pulled bubble gum colored Rip Shads at 1.8 to 2.2 mph.” They targeted 14′ to 18′ of water.
The third place team found the same presentation worked the best. According to Bryan Paul, “We found the suspended walleyes mixed in with white bass. So, to avoid catching so many white bass, we tried to pull our crankbaits just below the white bass.”
Their two best crankbaits were the Rip Shad and Wally Diver. Their speed ranged from 2.4 to 2.7 mph.
The I.O.W.A. teams take a break for over three months. Next up will be the FCIS “Anglers Choice” Insurance Clear Lake Tournament on Sunday, September 14.
All of the latest news on the I.O.W.A. circuit can be found at the I.O.W.A. website (www.walleyepromotions.com).
Anglers interested in learning more about the I.O.W.A circuit can call (515) 571-1085 or they can email the I.O.W.A. staff at [email protected].
Corporate sponsors for the 2008 season include Lund, Mercury Outboards, ShoreLand’r Trailers, Algona Marine and Sport, MinnKota, Humminbird, ABU Garcia, Cabela’s, Mack’s Lure, Smooth Move Seat Mounts, EZEE Step Inc., FCIS Anglers Choice Insurance of Forest City, Line X of Mason City, King’s Pointe Resort of Storm Lake and Wright County Motors of Clarion.