Iowa Walleye Tournament Trail

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Anglers fare well at Big Spirit
Gray and Dakin Take Top Honors at Spirit Lake Qualifier 

By Steve Weisman 

May 09,1999 

Ardell Gray of Forest City and Don Dakin of Garner outdistanced the 60 teamfield in the third Iowa Walleye Tournament Trail (IWTT) at Spirit Lake on Sunday, May 9.Their six fish weighed 14.55 pounds and earned them a check for $1000. Inaddition, Gray and Dakin captured the Off-Shore Big Fish Award with a 6.47pounder.
Second place and a $750 check went to Doug Burns of Woodward and Tony Rydstrom of Marathon for their six fish weighing 12.38 pounds. The husband and wife team of Bob and Angie Heaford of Mason City took third with a six fish limit weighing 12.31 pounds. They also won the Abu Garcia Family Anglers Award. Bait Rig Bucks went to the following teams: Wes Rose and Todd Hough of Graettinger; Bob Burgess and Chad Thede of Ogden; and Greg Lowenburg and
Joel Shaw of Fairfield. Although the weather changed from heavy clouds and the strong northwest wind of Saturdays pre-fishing to bright sun and a 15-25 mph southeast wind, the
teams found the walleyes were still on a bite.The winning team found their fish in 22 feet of water and worked the outside break using leeches and bottom bouncers. They had their big 6.47 pounder by 8:30 a.m. and were sorting fish by 2 that afternoon. Burns noted that he and his partner also worked a breakline in about 19 feet of water. However, they used a spinner and bottom bouncer combination tipped with crawlers in the morning. They then switched to leeches in the afternoon. The Heaford duo used a different presentation enroute to their third place
finish. They trolled crankbaits on inside turns in the morning and then worked the main basin of the lake by mid-day as they upgraded their fish. IWTT Director Bernie Barringer was elated with the outcome of the Spirit Lake Qualifier. To have 16 teams bring in their six-fish limit is
outstanding. In all, we weighed in 200 legal walleyes. There is no doubt that Spirit Lake is one of the top fisheries in the state of Iowa.
Listed below are the results from Spirit Lake:
Team # Fish Wt. $ Won 

1-Ardell Gray, Forest City 6 14.55 $1000
Don Dakin, Garner
2-Doug Burns, Woodward 6 12.38 $ 750
Tony Rydstrom, Marathon
3-Bob Heaford, Mason City 6 12.31 $ 600
Angie Heaford, Mason City
4-Kevin Peterson, Sheldon 4 11.71 $ 500
Larry Brown, Hull
5-Jeff Hoven, Matlock 6 10.73 $ 400
Trafton Beckman, Sheldon 4
6-Randy Mitchell, New Hampton 6 9.57 $ 350
Jay Thompson, Ames
7-Cory Batterson, Des Moines 6 9.54 $ 300
Rick Harney, Des Moines
8-Bob Grems, Estherville 6 9.10 $ 200
John Walz, Estherville
9-Rob Roush, West Des Moines 6 8.82 $ 150
Mike Heller, Clive
10-Curt Linneman, Garner 6 8.64 $ 110
Darrell Neubereger, Garner
11-Tim Harms, West Des Moines 6 8.60 $ 100
Chad Kruse, Alison
12-Gary Taylor, Forest City 6 8.14 $ 100
Ken Borrill, Clear Lake
13-Wes Rose, Graettinger 6 8.06 BRB
Todd Hough, Graettinger
14-Bob Burgess, Ogden 3 7.31 BRB
Chad Thede, Ogden
15-Greg Lowenburg, Fairfield 6 7.09 BRB
Joel Shaw, Fairfield
The fourth stop on the Trail will be the Mighty Mississippi River at
Clinton. This qualifier will be held on Sunday, May 23. 

Sponsors for the 1999 IWTT include:
 
 

U. S Cellular	Pepsi	Mountain Dew

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