It's showdown time on the Mississippi River at Albany on Sunday, June 8 for the top teams competing in the Illinois Circuit of the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC).
At stake is the Mercury Team-of-the-Year honors for the top team on the Illinois Circuit. Currently Ron Brake and Jeff Fore from Petersburg lead with 21 points. Right behind in a tie for second place with 24 points are the teams of John Mannerino from Chicago and Greg Meyer from Elgin and Bob Schine from Crystal Lake and Jason Schine from Lake Villa.
GNWC Executive Director Bernie Barringer sees an exciting finish. "It all comes down to this last qualifier on the Mississippi River, and although the location is at Albany, these teams can work up and down the river which will make for a really exciting finish."
Barringer also noted that there are several opportunities out there for both Illinois and Iowa anglers. "We have had as high as 22 teams at an Illinois event, but in order to get our full field of 30 teams in the championship, we will be inviting every team that fishes an ILLINOIS tournament this year. This creates an opportunity for not only Illinois teams, but also Iowa teams who like to fish the Mississippi River around Clinton, so it's almost right at their back door."
Barringer continued, "In an effort to keep everything fair, we want to reward those teams that have fished the entire state division, so teams that fished all four will qualify for special cash bonuses at the championships.These bonuses will only be paid to those teams that fished all four events."
The Illinois Championships will be held July 12-13 at Evergreen Lake, which is one of the premiere saugeye fisheries in the Midwest, and the Illinois state record has been broken there twice in the last year.
Barringer added, "We think this is a great opportunity for teams that want to fish the Illinois State Championship, take a shot at a potential state record saugeye and go after the $6500-$7000 in the Illinois state championship pot."
Competing teams at the Albany qualifier should be at the Albany Boat Ramp between 6-6:30 Sunday morning to sign in and participate in mandatory boat inspections. The tournament hours are 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Weigh-in begins precisely at 3 p.m., with awards to follow. The general public is invited to watch the weigh-ins and find out what triggered the bite on the Mississippi River.
Anglers can call 1-800-890-3474, email the GNWC at [email protected] or check out the official GNWC website at walleyecup.com for all of the latest in GNWC information.
Major sponsoring partners for the GNWC include Ranger Boats, Mercury Outboards, Berkley, Abu-Garcia, The Sportsman Channel and UpNorthOutdoors.com.
Television viewers who do not have The Sportsman Channel and want to watch the GNWC's television series Walleye Wisdom, are encouraged to call their cable company or satellite television provider and ask them to include it in their package.
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