Duncan,
Brockman Win Wilson Lake Tournament
By
Steve Weisman 5/30/05
GNWC
Publicity Director
(L to R) The first place, second place and third
place teams at the Wilson Lake Tournament held on
Sunday, May 29.
Doug
Duncan and Tim Brockman from Wichita, KS found the
winning combination and weighed in a six-walleye
limit weight of 10.50 pounds to take the second
tournament on the Great Plains Region
(Kansas/Nebraska) of the Grand National Walleye Cup
(GNWC) on Sunday, May 29 at Wilson Lake in Kansas.
Duncan and Brockman won $1000 for their
efforts.
Second place and a check for $500 went to the
team of Chad Richardson from Milford, NE and Britt
Hazen from Mulvane, NE with a six-fish limit weight
of 9.78 pounds.
The team of Rich Farmer from Wichita, KS and
Cliff Doty from Lincoln, NE took the third place
check of $320 with a six-fish limit weight of 9.02
pounds.
Meanwhile, Dennis Vance and Shelby Vance from
Selden, KS took the Cabela's Big Fish Award of a
$200 Cabela's shopping spree and $120 in the Big
Fish Pot for their 3.71-pound walleye.
Duncan and Brockman found their fish at the
upper end of the lake, trolling jointed Shad Raps
and Hot 'n Tots over a 3/4-mile stretch of the river
channel. "We found these fish during
pre-fishing. We began the morning anchoring with a
jig and worm. However, we only caught short
fish," said Duncan. "About 10:30, we began
trolling."
They ran their lures 150 feet behind the boat
and found most of their hits came in 12-14 feet of
water. Duncan noted, "We trolled at 2.5
mph." However, it was not by choice. "We
had to use the big motor, and that's the slowest we
could go. The team that caught the big fish was able
to use their kicker." Firetiger and bright
orange were their best colors.
Richardson and Hazen went with bottom
bouncers and nightcrawlers, while fishing deep, main
lake points at the lower end of Wilson Lake. They
found success using both a spinner with a glow blade
and a plain hook with a glow bead. Richardson noted,
"We tried cranks, but we didn't have much
success. We caught our fish in 15-35 feet of
water."
The third place team chose to work points
near the dam with orange and yellow colored jigs
tipped with a nightcrawler. According to Farmer,
"We trolled back and forth over under water
points and found the fish laying close to the breaks
in 18-25 feet of water." Doty added, "It
helped to be fishing with somebody like Rich who
knows the lake so well."
GNWC Tournament Director Lyle Heidenwith
commended the efforts of the top teams. "The
weather had been up and down, but we had seven teams
bring in six-fish limits. Each of our top three
teams used a totally different presentation to catch
a limit of walleyes. I think that's what made this
tournament such an interesting one."
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 Austen Hamilton and Eric
Frederking from Sylvan Grove, KS in 5th place;
Robert Purcell from Missouri Valley, IA and Allen
Meyers from LaVista, NE in 6th place; and Monte Orth
from Hays, KS and Lonnie Orth from Wichita, KS in
7th place.
The next tournament for the Great Plains
teams will be Sunday, June 26 on Nebraska's Lake
McConaughy. For those interested in entering this or
any of the remaining qualifiers, call 1-800-890-FISH
(3474), or email the GNWC at info@walleyecup.com.
Heading into the June 26th tournament, the team of
Doug Duncan and Tim Brockman have taken the lead in
the race for the Great Plains Yamaha Team of the
Year honors. Their first place win at Wilson Lake
and a second place finish at Sherman Reservoir give
them a comfortable lead with three points. The teams
of Rich Farmer and Cliff Doty and Chad Richardson
and Britt Hazen are next in line with 11 points.
"We are at the midway point of the year,
and I encourage people to check out our website at
www.walleyecup.com. I think they will find it
extremely interesting to see how tournaments are
going in each of the seven regions," said GNWC
Executive Director Bernie Barringer.
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
VIB"E" Lure Company.
