Cabela’s NTC Day One Results
Category: Tournament
Jun 9th, 2007 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Jun 9th, 2007 at 12:00 AM
Click here for Day One NTC ResultsGREEN BAY Wis. – What were the conditions like on Green Bay for the first day of Cabela’s National Team Championship (NTC) walleye tournament? That depends on who you asked.Answers ranged from “a good walleye chop” to “big rollers.” No matter how the anglers described the conditions, all agreed that the gusty winds had the bay rockin’ and rollin’ all day long.But experience with battling the big waves and punishing Wisconsin winds paid off for many of the local teams who qualified for the two-day competition. Only four teams in the 238-team field weighed totals of more than 30 lbs. The top three were from right here in Wisconsin.Partners Pat Schuette and his stepson, Ethan Van Laarhoven of Manitowoc, Wis., brought in a five-fish basket that tipped the scales at 35.91 lbs. to claim the day-one lead. In addition to staking an early claim to first place, the team also brought in a 9.02-lb. lunker that earned them a Stihl chainsaw awarded for catching the big fish of the day.Schuette and Van Laarhoven said they trolled spinners along the bay’s west shore, a strategy they had employed in the same windy conditions that persisted during the pre-fishing days leading up to the competition.While the tactic paid off with a big basket, they said the bites were actually few and far between.”We only caught seven walleye all day,” Schuette said. “We were actually done by noon, but we stalled a little bit to make sure our family could get here.”Just 18 weighed baskets totaling in the 20- to 29-lb. range, leaving 137 teams with totals in the range between 10 and 20 lbs.Ted Winkelman and Shawn McLaughlin, of Laona and Brillon, Wisc., brought in a day-one total of 28.47 lbs., that was enough to earn them a position in seventh place going into tomorrow’s final day of competition.Like Schuette and Van Laarhoven, Winkelman and McLaughlin committed themselves to the strategy that had been paying off for them during the days leading up to the competition.”We stuck with what we’d been doing, pulling spinners and hoping for the right fish,” Winkelman said.Another Wisconsin team made up of Jim Tiemann of Marinette and Jysen Freund of Winneconn, said they lost two fish that could have weighed in the 9- to 10-lb. range, but still managed to bring in 20.41 lbs. to put them at the bottom of the top 25 teams for the day.While many locals did well during day one, several others, including some from as far away as the West Coast, managed to secure positions that will put them in the running for the championship.What finished as a productive day for the team of Gary Day of East Wenatchee, Wash., and Ron Fear of Hermiston, Ore., started very slowly. The team weighed 22.72 lbs. to grab tenth place, but didn’t boat their first walleye until after 1 p.m.With so many teams in close competition for what could be a top-25 finish and a total payout of $155,100, day-two’s weigh-in should include some exciting moments to add to the already electric atmosphere at the weigh-in site along the banks of the Fox River.Tomorrow, in addition to the Cabela’s NTC, Green Bay is also hosting its annual International Bayfest celebration and a 10K run through the heart of downtown.The first flights are due back at Green Bay’s Leight Park at around 4 p.m. Saturday and the National Champions will be awarded a $25,000 check and a Ranger 618VS tomorrow evening.