By Steve Weisman
Outdoor Editor
Remember the song “Oh, What a Night” performed by the Four Seasons? That’s exactly what the 44th annual Walleye Opener was like when the season opened at 12:01 last Saturday morning! The wind was not a factor, especially the opening night, when it was almost flat calm. However, lots of cold weather clothes were on display!
The walleye anglers were out on Big Spirit and West Okoboji trolling crankbaits in the shallows, while dock fishermen cast out their lighted bobbers/live bait rigs and jigs/plastics and stick baits!
Wow! Was it ever hot. Limits of walleyes were caught with a mixture of slot fish (19-25”), some over the slot and lots and lots of 13-18” walleyes! Boat after boat and dock after dock: limits of walleyes were taken.
One group of three that I know of averaged boating 35 walleyes per hour and catching over a hundred walleyes all together. The baitshops were buzzing with talk about how great this year’s opening night was. That didn’t end though because the night bite continued throughout the weekend.
Biggest Walleye Contest
Then, of course, there was the Biggest Walleye Tournament using the Fish Donkey app. and presented by Okoboji Lodge and Set the Hook Fishing Company. Each of the past two years, I have purchased the Fish Donkey app just so I could follow the updates once they were verified.
Two anglers (Blake Mulder and Hunter Gill) tied with the longest walleyes, at 26.75 inches. The winner was chosen based on time of submission and verification. Mulder took the first place check of $510, while Gill captured the $408 second place check. The next size measured was a pair of 26.25” fish with Brandon Swagel taking third place and Kyle Thompson taking fourth place. A total of 16 walleyes over 22 inches were entered and verified. That is pretty darned incredible!
Oh, so close
With $44,000 on the line, part of the excitement of the contest is the hope of catching one of the tagged walleyes. This year was really crazy with two tagged walleyes caught…but neither counted. Unfortunately, the first one was caught, and the anglers in the party did not notice the tag until later. Plus, they really didn’t know who had caught it. Worst of all, it was dead and rules state the fish must be alive. The second tagged walleye turned out to be a walleye that was tagged a year ago, so it wasn’t eligible for this year’s contest. Oh, what a night; oh, so close!
On and on
Top three angler awards were given out in several categories.
The heaviest stringer of (3) walleyes under 19”:
- First place, Lance Christensen of Spencer, 7.24 pounds;
- Second place, Lori Christensen of Spencer, 7.10 pounds;
- Third place, Bradley Watson of Rolla, MN, 6.5 pounds.
The northern pike category:
- First place, Jay Nelson of Spencer, 8.53 pounds;
- Second place, Heather Ericksen of Jackson, MN, 8.44 pounds;
- Third place, Brennen Carpenter of Sioux City, 7.08 pounds.
The heaviest stringer of 5 panfish:
- First place, Chris Daisy of Spirit Lake, 6.3 pounds;
- Second place, Barry Andersen of Milford, 6.07 pounds;
- Third place, Josh Divan of Scoville, 4.39 pounds.
The heaviest stringer of (10) bullhead:
- First place, Chris Daisy of Spirit Lake,14.32 pounds;
- Second place, Grayson Waddell of Solon, 14.13 pounds;
- Brandon Rylend of Fort Dodge, 13.83 pounds.
Incredible number of people again entered the 44th annual Walleye Weekend with over 2,300 entered coming from 22 different states.
All in the Family
My son-in-law John Walz has been a nighttime troller on the Walleye Opener for over 40 years and actually began after dark fishing with his dad fishing off docks at Sand Bar Beach Resort when he was 7 years old.
For the past 12 years, his longtime fishing buddy, Mark Patterson has come up for the opener. This year Mark brought up his newly purchased Skeeter, so that meant that my grandson, Wes (a senior) and his two friends, Kyson Jalas and Brock Nissen could take out his dad’s Alumacraft. Both boats kept their limits and released several others. But the real story was with Wes. He was pulling cranks, when all of a sudden, both back rods went at the same time.
What now? Wes needed to keep the run going the same so things didn’t get all tangled up, so he handed one rod to Brock and the other rod to Kyson.
The result? Brock’s was a 25” walleye, while Kyson’s was the larger at 25.8”! The resulting photos show two happy anglers! I’m thinking that Wes definitely out fished dad this time!
In the books
Best part of the weekend for so many of us has to do with the memories of not only this year but years past. I did catch a really 22.5” walleye drifting during the day, while three of us caught six keeper walleyes, two crappies, a bluegill and smallmouth bass off the dock on Saturday night! Certainly not the incredible numbers that so many other anglers had, but still a good opener for us. After all: Oh, What a Night!
(photo by John Walz) – A big crowd attended the awards ceremony on Sunday at the Dickinson County Expo Building.
(photo by Denny Harms) Author with a 22.5” walleye taken drifting a bottom bouncer rig
(photo by Denny Harms) Author with a night-bite crappie
(photo by Wes Walz) Kyson Jalas with the second fish, a 25.8” walleye
(photo by West Walz) Brock Nissen with the first, a 25” walleye.
(photo Fish Donkey app) Blake with his 26.75” walleye that won the Big Walleye Contest.
(photo by Steve Weisman) Heading toward night time
