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The Webcast will start just before weigh in which is scheduled for 5pm CST
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You can open two browser windows and watch the weigh in and have the Live Leaderboard open to watch the weights.

Amid scorching temperatures and nasty humidity Pro Jim Orcutt brought in 5 walleyes weighing an impressive 18.38 pounds to take the day 1 lead in the PWT Pro/Am on Bull Shoals Lake. 

“We had a blast today in the boat.  I bet we caught 30 to 40 fish today. I just want to do it again tomorrow” Exclaimed Orcutt.

“It’s crazy down here.  When I left home water temperatures were barely hitting the 60 degree mark and down here it’s 82!”  Said Orcutt

Sitting in second place in the Pro-Division is Bill St. Peter of Bay City, MI with a 5 walleye basket weighing 17.38 pounds.  “I would have been happy with 13,14 or 15 pounds today really. Fortunately, I caught a couple of my bigger fish later and it worked out well for me. It’s just day 1 I need to put this together for 3 straight days to get it done.” Stated St. Peter.

“Although I had 20 to 30 spots out there, it’s unrealistic to hit that many places in one day so I stuck to my first 7 or 8 and hit them hard” added St. Peter.

Jon Thelen of Crystal, MN is sitting in third place with his 5 walleye basket weighing 15.18 pounds.  “We had a good day just like some other guys, we caught 35 to 40 fish today.  I think we had our limit by 10 o’clock this morning.  We even caught a double for the camera today” said Thelen.

Rest of the best Pro Division

4. Scott Fairbairn-      5 fish – 14.42
5. Bill Ortiz –             5 fish – 14.38
6. Jim Muzynoski –    5 fish – 14.23
7. Dave Andersen –    5 fish – 13.79
8. Todd Riley –           5 fish – 13.63
9. Mark Brumbaugh – 5 fish – 12.98
10. Tom Backer -        5 fish – 12.89

Taking the top position on day 1 of the Co-Angler side is Bernie Kohl of Yellville, Arkansas with his 18.38 pound catch today.  “I had a great time with Jim [Orcutt] today.  Learned a lot and caught a lot of fish.” Said Kohl.

Rest of the Best Co-Angler Division

2. David Kinscherff- 5 fish 17.38
3. Tim Scanlan-         5 fish 15.18
4. Kirk Mitchell-       5 fish 14.42
5. Bill Prust-             5 fish 14.38

With the very high water levels most of the anglers have chosen to troll in, around and over the submerged trees.  Leaving a ton of empty tackle boxes by the end of the day.  “We would snag a crank in the trees…then we would take the crank out of the trees….then we would snag a crank in the trees… the we would would take the crank out of the trees… and every once in awhile a walleye would hit the crank and we would reel him in. that’s what we did all day! And that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow!” exclaimed PWT Pro Johnnie Candle. 

The banks of the reservoir are very steep, quickly dropping into 100 feet in places.  Most of the anglers I saw today were running two planner boards in fairly tight to the tree line and one out the back with the fourth line on a planer board out deep.  The rest were live bait rigging in fairly tight to the tree-line.

Nearly everyone that came to the stage today spoke of catching numerous fish but finding the “over” fish was the tough part. There is an 18” minimum length requirement here at Bull Shoals, which makes for an abundant population of 17 ½ inch fish. In all there were 14 limits brought in out of a field of 56 teams.  A total of 147 walleyes were caught that weighed a combined 402.59 pounds.

Weather temperatures once again soared above the 90-degree mark and was accompanied by high humidity making a very “sauna” like day.   Winds generally stayed calm with a slight breeze coming from the south early that dissipated quickly.  One nasty thunderstorm did go over the northeast part of the lake late in the day that had nearby fisherman taking cover on shore for 30 minutes or so because of the lightning and wind.  Forecast’s for tomorrow call for partly cloudy skies with a decent chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Contestants will take off at 8:00am CST each day from the Bull Shoals Marina and will return for weigh-in at 5:00pm CST at the Lions Park Lookout above the Marina.

As always stay tuned to www.liveleaderboard.com for live weights and daily photos.