Ness, Schelhaas Take Lake Oahe Tournament at Spring Creek
By Steve Weisman GNWC Publicity Director
With 25 teams catching six-fish limits, the teams fishing the
South Dakota Region of the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC)
put on quite a show at the Lake Oahe Tournament held on Sunday,
July 10 at Spring Creek. Cashing the first place check was the
team of Richard Ness and Phil Schelhaas from Ruthton, MN with
a six-fish limit weight of 18.17 pounds. The team of Matt Lyon
and Sabrina Lyon from Pierre, SD took the $700 second place
check with a six-fish limit weight of 16.4 pounds. The third
place check of $520 went to the team of Scott Berry from Rockford,
IL and Gerrick McComsey from Ft. Pierre, SD with a six-fish
weight of 15.87 pounds. "The combination of 100+ degree temperatures
and 25 mph winds made fishing tough. However, we still had well
over half the field bring six-fish limits to the scales," said
GNWC Tournament Director Greg Liebel. The Cabela's Big Fish
Award of a $200 Cabela's shopping spree and $350 in cash from
the optional Big Fish Pot went to the team of Dennis Foster
from Mellette, SD and Rick Smith from Britton, SD with an 8.36-pound
walleye. Ness and Schelhaas fought off a tough week of pre-fishing
to take the title. "We caught one fish each day on Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, we ran farther north and only
caught small fish. Then on the way back, we stopped to fish
two points on the east side of the river and right away we caught
two fish. We knew that was where we would fish today," said
Ness. Ness and Schelhaas pulled Deep Thunderstick Juniors in
28-32 feet of water. They varied their depths by using Fireline
on one rod and a Fireline and snap weights a second rod, but
the other two rods with lead core caught more fish. "We worked
between the two points and did catch some fish that were suspended
in 28-32 feet out off the end of the points in 40 feet of water."
The Lyon duo trolled a flat in 16-25 feet of water with bottom
bouncers, plain hooks and a nightcrawler. McComsey and Berry
took third place with bottom bouncers and nightcrawlers working
points in 18-30 feet of water. The Yo So Close Award, provided
by AMFYOYO, manufacturer of the innovative stowable folding
landing net, went to the three teams just finishing out of the
money. They include Brian Tordsen and Cal DeJong from Sioux
Falls, SD in 11th place; Bob Stalley from Pierre, SD and Austin
Earley from Brookings, SD in 12th place; and Jerry Cleveland,
SR, from Pierre, SD and Devin Harris from Ft. Pierre, SD in
13th place. In the race for the South Dakota Region's Yamaha
Outboards Team of the Year award, the team of Doug Iverson from
Pierre, SD and Rolfe Behrend from Brookings, SD used a 10th
place finish at Spring Creek to capture that honor with 24 points.
They were followed by Bob Stalley from Pierre, SD and Austin
Earley from Brookings, SD with 38 points. With the regular season
now over, GNWC Executive Director Barringer talked about what
is coming next for the South Dakota Region. "The top 30 teams
will now be preparing for the South Dakota Regional Championship
at Lake Angostura on August 27-28. I encourage people to check
out our website at www.walleyecup.com to check out the standings
and see how the races have gone in each of the seven regions."
Major national sponsors for the GNWC include Skeeter Boats,
Yamaha Outboards, Lowrance Electronics, YoNet Folding Nets by
AMFYOYO, Aqua-VU, Aqua Innovations, Cabela's and UpNorthOutdoors.com.
National championship sponsors are Towtector Shield and the
FoodSource Lure Corporation.
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