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Corey
& George Bjorgaard Claim 2003 Trail Opener
The 2003 MWT season
opener on lakes Tetonka and Sakatah, located at Waterville, started out
under almost ideal fishing conditions.
The same cannot be said for the top three placing teams who both
had to overcome a little adversity during the day.
Corey and George Bjorgaard from Inver Grove Heights
faced their problem early in the day as the pair found a shallow rock on
Sakatah with their lower unit which disabled the shifting mechanism. The pair discovered that they could still shift the motor by
using a screwdriver and went about the next task at hand – putting
walleyes in the boat. With
very clear water conditions, 10+ feet of visibility on Sakatah and 19 ½
feet on Tetonka, Corey and
George headed for the shallow north shore of Sakatah where they knew
they could find waters muddied by the 18 – 25 mph SSE wind.
That reduced visibility water held the walleyes they were looking
for. The pair had
discovered during pre-fishing that the larger “tournament legal” fish
were taking nightcrawlers while the smaller sub-legal walleyes were
hitting minnows. The 2 foot deep water they were targeting called for planer
boards. Hooking a
nightcrawler through the nose on a Phelps's floating jig head the pair
began to troll the shallow shoreline.
Few fish bit in the first two hours but about 10:00am the white
bass started to bite and Corey figured the walleyes would not be far
behind. Between 10:30am and
1:00pm they managed to land 4 tournament legal walleyes.
Those 4 walleyes weighed 6.49lbs. and would prove to be enough to
win the 2003 MWT season
opener. Corey and George
collected $2,021.00 for their efforts and of course led the
MWT
“Team of the Year” race with 1 point after the first event.
Second place team Todd Chadderdon of LeCenter and
partner Dave Domonoske of Waterville also ran into a problem of their
own, although not quite so costly as motor trouble.
The pair lost their landing net over the side of the boat after
their 2nd fish. When
few legal sized walleyes are being caught in a tournament every fish
tends to be very important and fishing without a landing net is not a
good idea. The team
overcame the mishap and landed 1 more 15”+ walleye which gave them
enough weight to squeak out second place by 4/100ths of a pound and net
them $1,271.00. That should
be enough to purchase a fine replacement net.
Their 3 walleyes tipped the scales at 4.67 lbs.
Like the Bjorgaard’s, Todd & Dave fished the wind blown
east end of Sakatah where they also used the mud line in the water to
their advantage. Pulling
hammered chrome spinners through the shallow mud stained water behind
planer boards provided a few walleyes as did tossing ringworms to the
shoreline. It seems as
though there was a midday feeding period as Chadderdon and Domonoske
also landed their fish between 10:30am and 2:00pm.
Dennis Stover of Waterville knew about his challenge
before he even started fishing Sunday morning.
His partner, Sonny Arndt of Ortonville, was not going to be able
to make it for tournament so Denny would have to fish alone. With only one line in the water Denny would have to make
every bite count. With the
unprecedented water clarity, Denny did like the other two top placing
teams and headed for Sakatah. Stover
also worked the shallow mud line all day using several different baits.
Between casting jigs tipped with minnows, #7 floating Rapalas,
and ringworms, he was able to boat 3 legal walleyes. He also found that same midday bite as he collected his fish
around 11:30am. Those 3
walleyes weighed 4.63 lbs., good enough for third place and a $1,021.00
check.
Largest walleye of the tournament went to Quentin
McCarthy of Janesville and partner Mike Walerak of Rose Creek. They were fishing about 50 yards up the Cannon River from
it’s mouth into Tetonka when the fish hit a pink & white twister
tail. The 21” walleye
earned them 4th place for $821, a pair of Drift Control Sea
Anchors, plus an additional $500 in the Big Fish Pot.
New this year, the second largest walleye of the tournament earns
the balance in the Big Fish Pot over the first $500.
Brady & Robert Bjorgaard caught a 2.48 lber which netted them
5th place for $721 plus the balance of the Big Fish Pot for
an additional $210.
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