MINNESOTA WALLEYE TRAIL OFF TO TREMENDOUS START AT LAC QUI PARLE

 

   The first Qualifier of the Minnesota Walleye Trail (MWT) 2007 season was held on Lac qui Parle Lake

near Montevideo on Sunday, May 20^th.  The event was won by the team of Dave Andersen and Jeff Solum, from Amery, WI and Alexandria, MN.  The pair came to the scale with a tournament limit of 6 walleyes weighing 22.17 lbs. which was anchored by a 7 ½ lber, and took home the $2,500.00 first place check.

 

   Landing in 2^nd place were Matt Yach of Menomonie, WI and partner Larry Hogan of North Mankato with 6 walleyes tipping the scale at 20.88 lbs..  Their catch earned them a $1,500.00 check.

 

   Netting 3^rd place and a $1,200.00 check were Randy Viessman and Dean Skogrand, both of Cottonwood. They would also weigh a tournament limit of 6 walleyes, which weighed 20.74lbs.  Largest fish honors went to Steve Boraas of Appleton and Troy Matz of Waseca with a dandy 9.28lb walleye winning them $500.00 cash.

  

   Andersen and Solum pitched 1/8oz pink and white jigs adorned with a half night crawler into slack water areas upstream from the Twin Bridges.  Working the area throughout the morning, the pair would catch six walleyes by noon and catch a seventh shortly thereafter.  Sounds good but there was a problem – they were all between 21”- 24” long.  State law allows only 2 over 20” in the boat.  There apparently were no slot fish – those between the tournament minimum 15” and 20” in this area.  Andersen and Solum decided to slide out in front of the Twin Bridges in the afternoon to look for their slot fish by pulling #5 Shad Raps in a clown pattern.  Sorting through plenty of sheephead they would eventually get the slot fish they were looking for plus a bonus.  Their 7.56lber came to the boat while looking for their slots!

 

   Yach and Hogen trolled the Hanthos Point area with the new Berkley Flicker Shads in clown and ghost patterns throughout the course of the day and never left this rocky area.  These smaller sized baits would run through the 5’-8’ deep water and get picked off by numerous sheephead along with the walleyes.  Matt and Larry noted that the walleyes were closely related to the rocks.  They caught a total of nine walleyes on the day with only one under 19” long.

 

   Viessman and Skogrand also had a 20+ pound basket of walleyes that came from the upstream side of the Twin Bridges.  They motored up the narrow river portion to within about a mile from the Marsh Lake dam and worked heavy current areas with #7 Shad Raps in a crawdad pattern trolled on Fireline.  They would boat four eyes before 9:30am, but their fifth would not come until 11:00am.  Viessman and Skogrand would fish the next two hours without landing a walleye.  Realizing that their bite had died they moved to the rocky Hanthos Point area to pick up their sixth fish for a limit.

 

   Big Fish of the event went to Steve Boraas of Appleton and partner Troy Matz of Waseca who brought a 28” - 9.28lb beauty into their Warrior to pocket the $500 cash award.  Second place Big Fish would go to Bill Bednar and partner Shane Gilbertson of Montevideo for a 28 ¼”- 8.36lber, good enough for $160 cash.