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Elke
/ Bollman Breeze to Win at Pelican Lake Qualifier
Our third Qualifier found us at Breezy Point and for the third
consecutive Qualifier, Mother Nature was meddling with the bite at our
tournament location. A good
bite with quality fish being taken was reported the weekend before,
raising hopes that a normally tough July bite would not be the case at
Pelican. But as we all know
Mother Nature holds several trump cards in her hand.
Mayflies are one of her cards.
A major mayfly hatch had got underway the week of the tournament
and the walleyes took advantage of the situation by gorging themselves
on the delicate aquatic tidbits. With
such easy pickin’s available, walleyes usually ignore other harder to
catch meals.
The weather of course, has to plan a role in every tournament and
Pelican Lake was no exception. A
severe thunderstorm in the early morning hours on Sunday would greet
anglers as they arose for the day to prepare.
A few flashes of lightning still visible and a steady rain came
down as the boat check-in period began at 5:00am.
By 5:30am the rain had subsided for the most part and a brisk
north breeze would build showing a little promise for the day’s bite.
Wind on Pelican Lake, with it’s 16 feet of water clarity,
usually improves the walleye bite.
But hopes of a nice chop would fade as did the wind around
7:00am.
Nightcrawlers are oftentimes the only bait that will turn fish
under tough bite conditions and veteran anglers Mitch Elke of Dassel,
and partner Dave Bollman of Granite Falls, relied on them to bring in
the only six fish tournament limit of the event and claimed the win by
just under 2 pounds.
Elke and Bollman’s catch weighed in
at 9.60 lbs and would earn them the $2,500.00 first place check and
plaques. Netting 2nd
place were Jeff White and Steve Resch, Jr from New Brighton and Blaine. Their catch of 4 walleyes weighed 7.67 lbs which captured
them a $1,500.00 check along with the 2nd place plaques.
Landing in 3rd place were Mark “Sully” Sullivan
and Paul Jenc, both of Long Prairie. Sullivan and Jenc, who also had 4 walleyes, weighed in 7.42
lbs, good for $1,250.00.
Big Fish honors for the tournament went to Darryl Metzler and Dan
Lemke from Eagle Lake with a 4.48 lb walleye for which the pair received
$500.00 cash and a pair of Beckman landing nets.
Metzler and Lemke also finished in 9th place in the 75
team tournament for an additional $550.00.
Elke and Bollman caught fish in several locations around the
lake, but concentrated their efforts along the 13’ to 21’ deep
weedlines. While cruising
across the lake to their first fishing location, Dave realized he had
forgotten his GPS coordinates from pre-fishing back in the truck.
Reaching the far south end of the lake the pair would have to
fish off memory and began working a rock bar in 20’ of water with
lindy rigs and nightcrawlers. It didn’t take long to put the first fish in the boat, but
that is the only one this spot would give up.
Their next stop would be northeast of Breezy Point Resort just
off of Weaver Point. Cabbage
would be the main fish attraction here and the guys would change over to
bottom bouncers with firetiger spinners adorned with nightcrawlers.
Working over the cabbage bed area in 13’ would bring three more
walleyes into the boat. Their
third spot would be back towards the south end of the lake on the south
side of Lincoln’s Point. Two
more walleyes would come to the boat with lindy rigs tipped with
crawlers in 20’ – 21’ around 1:00pm.
The pair now had their six fish limit but could not come up with
any more to possibly upgrade their catch.
That would be all that they would need though, as no one else
would even be able to catch five.
Jeff White and Steve Resch, Jr, our 2003 Team of the Year, began
the day bobber fishing a rock reef
on the east side of Pelican in 22’ with leeches on plain hooks.
After using up a ½ pound of leeches and sorting through three
dozen bluegills and bass, they would have two walleyes in the box.
The afternoon would find them rigging with small plain hooks and
leeches around and over a 16’ – 17’ weed bed.
Walleye # 3 would come to the boat about 2:30pm and # 4 about 10
minutes later, just in time for weigh-in.
Live bait presentations were the prescription of the day and
third place finishers Sullivan and Jenc, would be using needles.
Needles to put just a pump of air into a nightcawler so that it
would float enticingly off bottom on a 6’ snell behind lindy rigs.
Slowly working a 16’ weedline in an area referred to as the
“hourglass”, Sully and Paul were able to put one walleye in the box
for each of the first three hours.
They added a 4th walleye around 2:15pm and would
finish just a ¼ pound behind White and Resch with the only other 4 fish
basket.
Darryl Metzler and Dan Lemke captured the Big Fish of the event
early in the day, before the clouds would break up, by working a 24’
deep weedline off of Lincoln Point.
The 4.48 lb walleye fell for a 4” redtail presented on a live
bait rig.
Second largest walleye, a 3.60 lber, would be caught by Larry
Hogan and Matt Yach, of North Mankato and Janesville, respectively, and
earn the pair $230.00 cash. Hogan
and Yach would also finish in 13th place for an additional
$350.00. |
