Elke / Bollman Claim Osakis Qualifier
 

   In an unusual turn of events the weather held up all throughout the pre-fishing period and right on through tournament day.  And, oddly enough, it even seemed as though the bite actually improved on the day of the event.  Talking to Jed Fiskness at The General Store on Friday he had said there was plenty of action with 11” – 14” walleyes but the legal sized eyes’ were hard to come by.  Angler’s comments at The Judge Rules meeting on Saturday night echoed the same sentiments.

  

   The warm lazy days of summer are made for hopping and skipping and boating and fishing.  Mitch Elke of Dassel and teammate Dave Bollman of Granite Falls put the two together to come up with an impressive win at the Lake Osakis Qualifier.  Mitch and Dave spent the day, hop skipping around on the main lake bars to put together the only six fish tournament limit for the event.  Maybe July is their month to shine as they put together the only six fish tournament limit back in 2004 at the Pelican Lake Qualifier and won that tournament too.

  

   Putting the trolling motor down and staying on the move all day hopping and skipping from one of at least six main lake bars to another proved to be an excellent plan as the pair would catch fish throughout the day and upgrade their six fish basket on three different occasions.

  

   Mitch and Dave trolled with spinner and crawler combos weighted with a worm weight to help sneak through the occasional weeds without getting fowled.  They used several different blade colors but thought hammered gold may have been the best option.  The pair also pulled Reef Runner’s Little Rippers and Deep Little Rippers in both a chartreuse and flame color to help put walleyes in the box.  In somewhat unusual fashion Mitch and Dave did not have a larger sized fish to anchor the winning catch.  Their six fish winning basket weighed 14.04 lbs for an average weight of less than 2 ½ lbs each.  But it would be more than enough as they would walk away from their closest competitor by 4 ½ lbs.  Walleyes weren’t the only species to fall for their presentation as they also landed two 10 lb northerns, three 14” perch and a 5 lb smallmouth, making for a great warm summer day on the water.  And to make things even better were the 1^st Place plaques and a check for $2,500.  Congratulations to Mitch & Dave!

  

   Capturing the second place spot were Eric Holm of Lake Crystal and Aaron Wells of Madison Lake.  Eric & Aaron cast #10 Tennessee Shad Husky Jerks over the top of dead weeds in 7’ of water in Town Bay just out in front of the Osakis City Park weigh-in location.  Holm & Wells would cash a check for $1,500 and collect the second place plaques.

  

   In third place would be Mark Daschner of Armstrong, IA and partner Troy Behsman of Cleveland.  Mark and Troy would pull perch colored #7 shallow shad raps over the tops of and through scattered patches of coontail – mainly off to the northeast end of 3 mile bar.  Third place was worth $1,250, plus each would score a plaque.

  

   The big fish of the day would go to 10^th place finishers Tim Servin and Dean Grochow of Dassel.  Tim and Dean said they needed to sort through “80,000 kabillion” little walleyes and perch to find their only legal fish of the day at 12:30pm.  The 6.58 lber would fall for a double hooked nightcrawler on a lindy rig in 6 ½’ of water on the north end of the lake in Manthey’s Bay.  Tim and Dean received $500 for their 10^th place finish, plus $500 in the Big Fish pot, and the Beckman landing net worth $90.