Koester and Rhodes Lead MWC Championship on Lake Erie

The first day of competition at the Cabelas Masters Walleye Circuit in Dundee, MI turned out smaller weights than usual, due to some wacky weather this past week. The leaders still found the right fish in these less than favorable conditions, and when most of the lake on the Western end is looking like chocolate milk, long runs to the eastern side of the islands seems to be the ticket for clean water and biting fish.

2007 MWC World Champions, Jeff Koester of Brookville, IN and Scott Rhodes of Traverse City, MI found themselves in first place after they brought in a limit of 5 Walleye weighing in at 31.71 pounds. Only ten of the 33 teams that went out this morning brought in a 5 fish limit, so getting 5 fish in the boat was an accomplishment in and of itself.

Scott: Today was pretty rough and bouncy getting out there...after that big blow yesterday. We were committed and we were going to go. And, we didn't know what kind of conditions were going to find when we got there.

Jeff: There's only a few of us out there, which is nice, but when we got there, the water was...it was a little worse than what we kind of thought it would be, but then we decided we could still fish. So, we set up and we figured we had time for two passes. We fished for 5 bites today and we got 6 bites and 5 in the boat.

Scott: That big fish was the second fish of the day. As soon as we got it in the boat we just looked at each other and just said, "Sweet"! (laughs)

*Jeff and Scott took the big fish honors for the first day with a 10.29 pound Walleye.

*Jason Kopf and Mike Miller took the second place big fish for day one with a 9.10 pound brute.

*Ron and Vicki Goldapske took third place big fish honors today with a 7.62 pound fish.

**(Big Fish Pot payouts are dependant on the number of big fish entries. I do not have that information yet)

Winds out of the Southwest today brought choppy waters as it blew against waters that were moving back in from a seiche. "It's like a washing machine out there", said one of the anglers as he passed by my table. Waves were predicted to go from 1-3's to 3-5's as the day went on. The rain held off until the last 5 teams waited to weigh in, and then it came down with a chilly wind behind it, sending people who were not wearing rain gear, or using umbrellas, running for the warmth of their vehicles.

Jason Kopf of Avon Lake, OH and Mike Miller of Brunswick, OH are in second place with 29.44 pounds.

Jason: It was brutal out there! We got our last fish in like the last two minutes.(laughs)

Mike: It was pretty lumpy getting out there...once we got to our spot we were pretty surprised with the water clarity. It was borderline fishable...got the rods out and within the first 5 minutes....took our smallest fish. We really struggled the rest of the day. We lost one fish...we set the board out...hit the lure on the way out...just grabbed the rod and he came right off. We were literally packing our boat up to run in, and we heard the rod, the clicker, start going. We hooked up with our last fish, so...here we are. It was a tough day.

In third place is the Father and Son team of Dave and Willie Casper of Bloomingdale, MI and Grand Junction, MI, respectively. Their 5 fish limit weighed in at 28.91 pounds.

Willie: It was a long rough boat ride today. (he says with a slight grimmicing smile) There was nothing really to hold us back. We wanted to be able to go on the lake today. Coming back was worse than going out this morning. It took us over two hours to get back.

Note: Dave is recovering from a reattached severed arm surgery, but wanted to fish this event with his son.

Dave: We're definitely on the right quality of fish, that's for sure!

In fourth place is Bob Devine of Windsor, ON and Steve Velte of Belleville, MI with 27.32 pounds.

Bob Devine: We had a great day! What's funny about it is...we pulled onto our first spot, and before the second boat, which is buddies of ours, they showed up and we had our first 5 in the boat already. Right off the bat. Then, all of the sudden, the bite just shut off. So, we were feeling pretty fortunate. We made a move to our second spot...we went out with Jeff, the cameraman, and Dan met us out there...went there, and we pulled two more fish. So, it was good to have them on camera. (laughs) It was a lot of fun!

Rounding out the top five is the 2008 TOY, Wayne Butz of Mosinee, WI and Don Frederick of Appleton, WI with a 5 fish limit weighing in at 25.86 pounds.

For full results please see the Live Leader Board at www.liveleaderboard.com and click on the link for the Lake Erie-Detroit River in the MWC Championship event.

For more information on fishing a Cableas Masters Walleye Circuit event, please go to www.masterswalleyecircuit.com. They have their 2010 Division schedules posted already.

The live web stream of the day one weigh in failed due to a lost internet connection at the Cabelas Store. We are working on having it up and running again tomorrow. It worked perfectly last year, so there's got to be a reason why it's not this year. Maybe it's the trucks and trailers driving over the cat5 cable? Maybe it's  the ISP of the store itself. I don't know. All I know is that it didn't work, and all the people that showed up to view it on the LLB were disappointed. And, for that I apologize. All we can do is try again tomorrow.

The weather forecast for tonight and tomorrow is:

Tonight: Rain. Low around 49. South wind around 8mph becoming East Northeast. Winds could gust as high as 22mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%.

Friday: Showers, mainly after noon. High near 57. North Northeast wind between 8 -13mph, with gusts as high as 21mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

A call to the MWC Hotline in the morning will let you know which launch they plan on using or if they will hold teams to the river and close off the lake. The Hotline number is: 952-988-7247

The launch could be from Elizabeth Park in Trenton, MI or from the Bolle Harbor Marina, in Monroe, MI. Either way, the teams will blast off at 8am and return to the docks at 3:30PM. The weigh in will begin again approximately at 4PM Eastern Time tomorrow afternoon.

Hope to see you all there!