Renner/Ingebretson Leave Field Behind
in the Fog
As Sunday morning dawned a few anglers may
have had a change in game plans as they arrived at the landing on Big
Stone Lake for the start of the MWTs second Qualifier of the season.
Fog greeted the seventy five-team fields as they launched their boats.
Not the pea soup heavy fog that we sometimes experience, buy thick
enough fog so that running a lengthy distance could be a little mentally
taxing. Tournament fishermen seem to have enough on their mind already
without any more distractions. As always it seems as though the fish
are always biting on the other side of the lake and in this case the
other side of the lake happened to be 26 fog shrouded miles away.
Any of the teams who had their number 1
fishing locations any distance up the lake had a tough decision to make
as we waited for the 7:00 a.m. start to the tournament. Do we waste
valuable fishing time navigating through the fog at a slower pace to
reach our preferred spot until the visibility improves?
The top 3 finishing teams number one spots
were all at least 20 miles up the lake. All 3 teams had made the
decision to make the run to the upper end and they discovered the fog
disappeared once you reached the upper end of the islands area. They
also discovered their pot of walleye gold was hungry and waiting.
Tony Renner of Hutchinson and partner Mike
Ingebretson of Brownton motored 20 miles up the lake to a spot that they
found pre-fishing on Friday. That location put 2 nice fish in the boat
in short order so they left to look for another hot spot. They returned
on Saturday and caught another 20 inch'r right away and immediately left
again with the knowledge that this could be a key tournament location
for them. Renner & Ingebretson, the current defending MWT State
Championships, made the 20 mile run again on Sunday morning to their hot
location and began casting shallow running Shad Raps, Husky Jerks, and
various other crank-baits into the 2 4 deep mixture of rock and
emerging weeds. The pair put one of their larger fish in their basket
in the box right away. With their confidence high they continued to
cast various crank baits to the area. With not another tournament boat
in the area they had the spot to themselves. By about 10:30 a.m. the
pair had put 8 keepers in the icebox. They also landed 10 short fish
along with various other non-tournament fish.
The fog had lifted by 11:00 a.m. and after a
few brief showers in the early afternoon the clouds were beginning to
give way to the sun. By the time the 3:00 p.m. weigh-in began it was
apparent that the bite had been good. The line to weigh fish extended
nearly back to the docks and a good number of 9 to 14 pound baskets were
being weighed making the tournaments top positions close. Then along
came one of 11 that were registered. Their basket weighed in at 25.26
lbs. easily thrusting them into 1st place. Included in their
catch was a 27 ½, 7.69 lber, which as it turned out they didnt even
need as they left the field behind in the fog by over a 10 lb. margin.
Renner & Ingebretson, the current career leading money winners on the
Trail, collected the 1st place check worth $2,000.
Finishing in the second place was the team of
Bryan Winterfeldt and Rene Marelic, both of Dassel, with 14.30 lbs.
They also had found a good location about 22 miles up from the
tournament headquarters. The pair began the morning pulling hammered
silver and pink spinners adorned with night crawlers on planer boards
through 2 6 of water and had put 3 nice fish in the box. By
afternoon Winterfeldt and Marelic had switched over to casting
lime/white colored Reef Runner Little Rippers to weed beds located in
the same 2 6 depth and put 3 more of their eventual 6 fish
tournament limit into the icebox. The pair sorted through about 30
walleyes and lots of sheep head to find their second place fish earning
them a check for $1,250.
Third place belongs to the father/son team of
Tom & Sam Bofferding of Marshall with a six fish limit weighing 13.47
lbs. Team Bofferding also ran all the way to the other end of the lake
to fish a 4 5 deep sand point by the Elk Farm. The pair pulled
spinners and crawlers 10 behind planer boards and also on long lines
straight out behind the boat. Tom and Sams bite lasted all day as they
boated approximately 50 walleyes of which 11 were of the legal size.
The pair earned a $1,000 check for their efforts.
Big Fish of the Big Stone Qualifier went to
Renner & Ingebretson with their 27 ½, 7.69 lber. Tony & Mike each
received a Drift Control Sea Anchor and were entered in the Big Fish Pot
for additional $500 cash. They also set a new MWT Big Fish record
breaking the previous record of 7.25 lbs set by Travis Jacob and Paul
Fehr at Lake Benton back in May of 2001.
Second largest walleye for the event went to Mark Wasbotten/ Scott Berg
with a 7.02 lber for $220 in the Big Fish Pot. |
