Mudline Triggers Bite at Milford Lake Tournament
Category: Tournament
Jul 20th, 2005 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jul 20th, 2005 at 12:00 AM
In the heat of the summer, go deep for walleyes, right? Not always! The team of Brian Heiland and Jeff Schulte from Spearville, KS proved that as they worked a shallow 8-12 foot mudline that brought them a six-fish limit weight of 19.39 pounds and the $1000 first place check at the Great Plains (Kansas-Nebraska) Region’s Milford Lake Tournament held on Sunday, July 17. This was the fourth and final regular season for the teams fishing the Great Plains Region of the Grand National Walleye Cup (GNWC). Second place and a check for $500 went to the team of Steven Meyer from Eudora, KS and Corry Brewer from Olathe, KS with a six-fish weight of 13.46 pounds. Meanwhile, the team of Greg Mekelburg from Yuma, Co and JD Baker from Hoxie, KS took third place and a check for $200 with five fish weighing 13.06 pounds. According to GNWC Tournament Director Greg Liebel, the positioning for the Yamaha Outboards Team of the Year standings really took a big swing with the team of Doug Duncan and Tim Brockman from Wichita, KS using their 7th place finish at Milford Lake to win the team honors with 24 points. Mekelburg and Baker ended up in second place with 26 points. The team of Erik Everhart from Gypsum KS and Shane Bartlet took the Cabela’s Big Fish Award of a $200 Cabela’s shopping spree and the $120 optional Big Fish Pot for their 8.04-pound walleye. Heiland and Schulte’s decision to go shallow was the opposite of what many thought would work. “Everybody talked about going deep and using crankbaits, but we’re jig fishermen. We didn’t have much luck yesterday in pre-fishing, but we thought we would start off the morning on this point, and we caught a fish right away.” A 1/4-ounce jig with a pink or orange head worked best. “We also used a three-inch curly tail group and a nightcrawler,” noted Heiland. “We just stayed on that point.” Meyer and Brewer also worked jigs but chose to fish in 28-32 feet of water on a flat scattered with rocks. “The fish were there right away, and we had our limit by 8 a.m.,” said Meyer. “We used our trolling motor until the wind began to pick up, then we drifted until the wind really got strong and then we anchored.” For Mekelburg and Baker, #4 and #5 jointed Shad Raps and lead core were the keys to their third place finish, but it did come with a price. “We lost 30 crankbaits today. We were working three humps and had to dig bottom to trigger the strike. As we came up on top, there was a lot of brush, and that’s where we lost the crankbaits.” Baker noted that their bites all came while trolling into the wind.”Usually, we get them going with the wind, but today it seemed that the snapping motion caused the fish to bite.” He jokingly added, “I think I might have broken even today!” 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 Wayne Hyman and Kecia Shellito from Athol, KS in 5th place; Robert Purcell from Missouri Valley, IA and Allen Meyers from LaVista, NE in 6th place; and Doug Duncan and Tim Brockman from Wichita, KS. For those interested in learning more about the GNWC, call 1-800-890-FISH (3474), or email the GNWC at [email protected]. With the regular season now over, GNWC Executive Director Barringer talked about what is coming next for the Great Plains Region. “The Great Plains Regional Championship brings the top teams together at El Dorado, Kansas on August 13-14 to decide the Regional Championship.” 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.