JOHNSON WINS WAL-MART FLW WALLEYE TOUR OPENER ON BULL SHOALS LAKE
BULL SHOALS, Ark. (April 9, 2005) –
Reigning FLW Walleye Tour champion Nick Johnson of Elmwood, Wis.,
held on to his lead in the 2005 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour season opener
Saturday to become the first pro in the tour’s history to win back
to back tournaments. Through four days of tough competition, and an
even tougher bite, Johnson caught six walleyes weighing 20 pounds
on Bull Shoals Lake to win by a 3-pound, 10-ounce margin over runner
up Todd Riley of Amery, Wis. He earned $80,000 for the victory despite
zeroing on the final day of competition – a day that will go down
in walleye-tournament history as one of the stingiest ever. After
a foggy start to the day, skies cleared and temperatures soared into
the upper 70s Saturday, making a difficult bite even worse. Just one
walleye weighing 2 pounds, 3 ounces was brought to the scale by the
10 pro and co-angler finalists. That fish bumped pro Mark Courts of
Harris, Minn., from ninth to seventh place and co-angler Douglas Ohler
of Mineral Point, Pa., from ninth to fifth place. On opening day,
anglers landed 32 walleyes followed by 29 walleyes on day two and
21 walleyes on day three, making this the toughest overall bite in
the tour’s five-year history. The catch, however, is not representative
of Bull Shoals’ quality walleye fishery. A late spawn and clear, calm
conditions this week combined to make the fishing extremely difficult.
“The bite was really, really tough,” said Johnson, who earned the
sport’s most prestigious title and $300,000 on the Mississippi River
in Moline, Ill., last year at the FLW Walleye Tour Championship. “In
practice I was beginning to wonder if there was even a walleye in
the lake. Five nights before the tournament, I finally located some
fish on a flat. But I couldn’t get them to bite until about 9 a.m.
on opening day.” As it turns out, the 10-foot deep flat located less
than a quarter mile from the launch ramp at Bull Shoals Boat Dock
held all the walleyes Johnson needed, yielding four fish weighing
12 pounds, 9 ounces on opening day then one keeper fish on day two
and another on day three. The flat, which drops off to 20 feet of
water, is also located adjacent to a shallow spawning area where Johnson
located walleyes with a spotlight during practice. He fished the area
on opening day with co-angler Jim Schleicher of Maxwell, Neb., and
returned on day two with co-angler Johnny Hall of Littleton, Colo.
His partner on day three was Lee Brown of Springfield, Mo., followed
by William Brewer of Omaha, Neb., on day four. A Lucky Craft Pointer
78 DD was his only productive lure all week. Johnson has earned two
top-10 finishes each of the past two seasons and is well on his way
to topping those marks this season. “This is outstanding,” he said.
“You don’t ever think you are going to win two in a row. It feels
good knowing you have a win under your belt so you can concentrate
on the rest of the season and qualifying for the championship.” Rounding
out the top-five pros are Riley (four walleyes, 16 pounds, 6 ounces,
$37,000); Robert Crow of Paterson, Wash. (five walleyes, 12 pounds,
14 ounces, $14,500); Robert Lampman of De Soto, Wis. (two walleyes,
12 pounds, 1 ounce, $16,500); and Chris Gilman of Chisago City, Minn.
(four walleyes, 12 pounds, $12,000). Johnson’s final round partner,
William Brewer of Omaha, Neb., won the Co-angler Division with five
walleyes weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces. Brewer fished with pro John
Kolinski of Greenville, Wis., on opening day, Riley on day two and
Scott Steil of Richmond, Minn., on day three. “I was a little worried,”
said Brewer, whose previous best finish was 18th on Lake Erie in 2003.
“By noon, we had nothing in the box. Then 2 o’clock, and nothing.
You keep thinking that maybe the next cast will be the one, but nothing
hit. There’s no shame in coming up empty though. The bite has been
extremely tough. I highly recommend that anyone who wants to learn
about walleye fishing sign up for the FLW Walleye Tour as a co-angler.
The pros out here are fantastic.” Rounding out the top five co-anglers
are Dave Crawford of Maybee, Mich. (three walleyes, 15 pounds, 13
ounces, $6,775); Schleicher (four walleyes, 12 pounds, 9 ounces, $2,750);
Dana Delp of Lansing, Mich. (three walleyes, 9 pounds, 5 ounces, $2,000);
and Ohler (three walleyes, 8 pounds, 12 ounces, $1,700). Anglers maintained
a 100 percent live-release rate throughout the tournament. Pros and
co-anglers fish for a combined boat weight and are randomly paired
each day. The FLW Walleye Tour is the world’s most lucrative professional
walleye-fishing series. At the $650,000 million Wal-Mart FLW Walleye
Tour Championship on the Mississippi River in Moline, Ill., Sept.
28 – Oct. 1, pros will fish for as much as $125,000 cash and co-anglers
will chase as much as $22,000. Anglers from 18 states competed in
the lucrative Bull Shoals tournament, which began Wednesday. The full
field fished the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round
slots awarded based on the heaviest three-day accumulated weights.
Weights carried over to day four, with the winner determined by the
heaviest four-day weight. The next FLW Walleye Tour stop will be the
April 27-30 tournament presented by Yamaha on Lake Erie in Port Clinton,
Ohio. Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis., will be the third tour stop May
18-21 followed by the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Open on Devils Lake
in Spirit Lake, N.D., June 15-18. Named after the legendary founder
of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart
FLW Walleye Tour and seven other national tournament circuits offering
a combined $30 million in awards through 214 events in 2005. The 27-year-old
organization is the purveyor of America’s largest and most prestigious
fishing tournaments, including the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, EverStart Series,
Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart
FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish
Tour and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. For more information on FLW
Outdoors and its tournament programs, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call
(270) 252-1000. Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected
companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart
signed on as title sponsor of the FLW Tour in 1997 and today is the
title sponsor of all FLW Outdoors events. For more information on
Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com
