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| Egstad, Withey Take Final Qualifier on the Grand National Walleye Cup's Wisconsin Circuit |
A tip from a bass angler during pre-fishing, propelled the team of Ed Egstad from Prairie du Chien and Kevin Withey from Lacrosse to the top in the Grand National Walleye Cup's (GNWC) final qualifier at Castle Rock Flowage on Sunday, July 27.
That tip meant a six-fish limit weighing 9.08 pounds and a first place check for $1300. In talking to the bass fisherman, Egstad and Withey learned that he had been catching both bass and walleyes in the timber up in Yellow River. So, they went to the timber and found they had to get out and pull their boat over logs to get to that two-foot stump infested water! Once there, they found casting weedless jigs tipped with leeches around the stumps worked the best.
"Simply amazing," stated GNWC Executive Director Bernie Barringer. "Who would have thought that those walleyes would be up in the shallows around all that timber? Ed and Kevin followed a tip that turned out to be worth $1300. I'm sure that their success opened a lot of eyes."
Also at stake was the Mercury Team of the Year title. The team of John Bella from Stevens Point and Joseph Besieda from Wisconsin Rapids used a 7th place finish to overtake the team of Clifford Jakusz from Stevens Point and Brand Jakusz from Plover. The Jakusz team finished 11th at Castle Rock and ended up three points behind Bella and Besieda.
"Bella and Besieda were models of consistency throughout the year," said Barringer. "Although they never won a qualifier, they placed second two different times. It really came down to the wire between the top two teams."
Meanwhile, Ben Bull from Poynette and Michael VanWormer from Portage took second place and a check for $675 at Castle Rock with five walleyes weighing 7.95 pounds.
Third place with 6.93 pounds good for $400 was the team of Randy Wehler from Prairie du Sac and Craig Anding from Arena.
The Abu Garcia Big Fish Award of two Abu Garcia 6500 Linecounter reels went to the team of Clifford Guzman from Custer and Jeffrey Frolik from Schofield for their 2.52 pound walleye.
The Berkley Family Angler Award for the highest placing family team went to Scott Larsen from Kenosha and Brian Larsen from Onalaska for their 6th place finish. They earned $250 in Berkley product.
Aside from Egstad and Withey's shallow timber bite, the rest of the teams found no real consistent bite. "For most of the teams, it was tough going, and no real pattern surfaced. One might be taken on vertical jigging, another casting jigs, another on bottom bouncers. Plus, there was a lot of sorting of sub-legal fish. That's what makes that shallow timber bite so amazing," added Barringer.
Castle Rock Flowage ended the regular season for the GNWC Wisconsin teams. However, next up is the Wisconsin State Walleye Championships August 9-10 at Lake Wisconsin. Itinerary and teams qualifying for the State Championships will be released in the next few days.
Interested anglers can also call 1-800-890-3474 or email the GNWC at [email protected] for all 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.
For those television viewers who do not have The Sportsman Channel and wish to watch the GNWC's television series Walleye Wisdom, be sure to call your cable company or satellite television provider and ask them to include it in their package |
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