Klasen / Hyser Claim 2006 Season Opener

   The 2006 MWT season got off to a fabulous start on the St. Croix River with both the weather and walleyes cooperating at the same time. The weather in the Stillwater area had been less than favorable on most weekends since the border water season opened back in late April on the St. Croix making for some uncomfortable early pre-fishing opportunities.  The MWT season had previously always opened on inland water, giving anglers only one week of pre-fishing before the first Qualifier.  That was not the case this year, as teams would have three full weeks to get on this river – many for the first time ever. 

   Randy Klasen of Maple Grove and partner Joe Hyser of Minneapolis, despite being metro area residents, would fall into that category.  On Sunday though, you would not have thought that to be the case.  After struggling to find a consistent bite while pre-fishing with crankbaits and jigs, they would finally find a couple good locations with 3-way rigs.

   Klasen and Hyser began tournament day just 400 yards downstream from Lakeside Park – tournament headquarters for the event.  Sorting through lots of sheephead as they worked the 20’ – 23’ zone off a sharp break from 13’, Randy and Joe were able to put a tournament limit of six fish measuring between 15” and 17” into the livewell during the first two hours.

   Deciding that they were plenty of fish in the area, but not the ones needed to win a tournament, Randy and Joe would head for the only other spot that they knew of which would hold a consistent bite for them.  The Stillwater Lift Bridge would be the destination and that turned out to be a good decision.  Their first pass under the bridge in 18’-19’ with a float and crawler on a 3-way would yield a 27 ¼”er at about 10:15am.  They would continue to work the area around the bridge for the rest of the day.  At 1:30pm Joe would hook up with another 27 ¼”er about 100 yards downstream from the bridge.  With about ½ an hour left in the event they would catch a 17”er that allowed them to upgrade from a previous 15” walleye.

   Klasen and Hyser’s six fish tournament limit would weigh 21.01 lbs – enough to claim 1^st place and the $2,500 check and plaques.  They would also claim both the largest and second largest walleyes of the event for a total of $740 in the Big Fish pot plus a Beckman Net.  A feat, which they also accomplished last season at the Lake Pepin Qualifier!

   Second place honors would go to Dave Fernholz and Joe Bungarden from Madison.  Dave and Joe would have a six fish basket pushing the scale to 17.90 lbs including a respectable 5.73 lb specimen.  They found a decent bite with #7 shallow ShadRaps in a crawdad pattern.  Pulled along with leadcore line in 18’-24’ of water out in front on the Xcel Energy power generating plant.  Fernholz and Bungarden would land a $1,500 check and the second place plaques for their efforts.

   The team of Chad Bleeker and Carl Stayberg made the short run down to the south side of the I-94 Bridge.  They knew of a 18’-20’ deep sand flat there with sides dropping into 30+ feet that was holding nice fish.  Chad and Carl would spend the day there presenting crawlers and leeches on live bait rigs.  They found the walleyes to be somewhat scattered but managed 12 to 14 fish of which 8 were tournament legal sized.

   Bleeker and Stayberg’s 6 fish limit would weigh in at 15.74lbs including a 5.92lb kicker.  Their catch would net them $1,250 and the third place plaques.