Wambach / Johnson Claim Whitefish Qualifier

 

   Jason Wambach and Todd Johnson, from Waubun and Mahnomen, claimed the win at the Minnesota Walleye Trail’s Whitefish Chain Qualifier near Pine River on Sunday, July 8^th.  A full tournament field of 75 boats with anglers from eight states eased off at 7:00am into the 14,000 acre chain of lakes.  Just five minutes after arriving at their first spot – a hump on the east side of Big Island in Upper Whitefish – Waubach and Johnson would hook up with a 22” walleye to start their day off quickly.  After fishing for another hour without another walleye, the pair decided to make a move into Lower Hay Lake and fish a small hump there.  Using the same live bait rigs, the guys would extract their other 4 walleyes before 1:00pm.  Wambach and Johnson would weigh one fish short of a 6 walleye tournament limit, but as it turned out they wouldn’t need it, as their 5 fish basket would weigh-in at 13.47lbs and be enough to claim them their first MWT win!  They took home a $2,500 check, two First Place plaques and a Oxygenator™ Livewell Keeper to install in their boat.

   Less than 3/4 of a pound back, in 2^nd place, were the team of Tim Schwartz and Bill Longley, both of Big Lake.  One more small “eater” is all it would have taken for the win.  Schwartz and Longley were also one fish short of a limit and what a difference it would have made.  They were working the same hump that Wambach and Johnson had with basically the same live bait rig.  They had 23” and a 24” walleyes in the box in the first five minutes and had all five weigh fish before 9:00am.  Schwartz and Longley would claim the Second Place plaques and a $1,500 check with their five fish tipping the scales at 12.75lbs.

   Third Place finishers, Chuck Bokinskie and Randy Moeser, from Alexandria and Brainerd, would fish the same hump in Lower Hay but with a slightly different approach.  Chuck and Randy used bottom bouncers with rainbow colored spinners adorned with night crawlers.  Pulling those spinners at 1.5 mph would also produce fish early as they had 3 fish in the livewell before 9:00am and would add 2 more between 11:00am and noon.  One more 15 incher could have done it for them too, as their 5 fish basket weighed in at 12.34 – just a little over a pound out of first.  Bokinskie and Moeser collected $1,250 and the Third Place wood.