| |  Rick Olson and Tom Wiehoff take Huron MWC
Rick Olson from Mina, SD and partner Tom Wiehoff from Pierre, SD brought 42.29 pounds to the scale on day two to win the Huron MWC event. Their two day total of 85.74 pounds put them more than 3 pounds ahead of second place team Alan Szoke and David Leach.
Beautiful fishing weather for two days in a row is not common for Lake Erie but that's exactly what the MWC ordered, and received, for this weekend. The calm water in the mornings allowed the teams to run wherever they wanted and when the winds did pick up, they were still light and didn't cause any big wave action. Some teams reported traveling many miles in search of fish while others ran less than 10 miles all day. When teams didn't find cooperative fish at one spot, they would pick up and run to another. Some teams mentioned they hit 4-5 spots before they found the right fish.
There were teams in the top ten that fished east of the Huron River and teams in the top ten that fished west of the river. One spot that did get a lot of mention though was the northeast side of Kelly's Island. Successful teams were again looking for structure that was holding bait. Generally where there was bait, there were walleye.
While it seemed that most teams were pulling harnesses a couple of big baskets were taken pulling Reef Runners. Colors that were mentioned most were either purple or brown/copper. These colors were used by both meat rig and stickbait fishermen. Harnesses were run with 1 to 2 ounce inline or snap weights anywhere from 20' to 40' behind inline boards.
Rounding out the top ten teams were
3rd place: Darik Warnke and Ben Miller
4th place: Mark Lemke and John O'Reilly
5th place: Mark Campeau and Greg Whitson
6th place: Dan Stier and Doug Wunder
7th place: Doug Yohe and Charlie Brant
8th place: Mark Brumbaugh and Mike Robertson
9th place: Matt Davis and Dan Gies
10th place: David VanDriessche and Jon Chapin
Big fish 1st place was Mark Bretz and Richard Bretz with a 12.89 pound whopper. Second place was Gary and Nicholas Zart with 10.93 pounds and third was Darik Warnke and Ben Miller with a 10.91 pound Lake Erie walleye.
This entire tournament could not have been run as smoothly without all the volunteers. The Fish Huron group was amazing and all their help was greatly appreciated. |
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