Nascak Leads FLW on the Detroit River
Category: Tournament
Apr 5th, 2006 by OutdoorsFIRST
Modified Apr 5th, 2006 at 12:00 AM
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Rick Nascak weighs the day one leading basket
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TRENTON, Mich. (April 5, 2006) – Pro Rick Nascak of Winona, Minn., along with his partner, Charles Dahl of Burlington, Wis., caught five walleyes weighing 22 pounds, 5 ounces to lead day one of the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour event on the Detroit River near Trenton, Mich., the first event of the 2006 FLW Walleye Tour season. With a $2.69 million total purse, including the no-entry-fee $675,000 Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour Championship on Lake Oahe near Pierre, S.D., Oct. 4-7, and television coverage on FSN (Fox Sports Net), the FLW Walleye Tour is bigger and better than ever.With a full field of 150 pros and 150 co-anglers, anglers are competing for their share of a $503,300 purse, including as much as $100,000 for the winning pro and $18,000 for the winning co-angler.Cold air and low water temperatures have made for a somewhat tough bite during the practice days leading up to the event, although dock talk has circulated each day about the occasional 11-pound, 12-pound and even bigger walleyes that have latched on to anglers’ jigs and handline presentations. There has also been plenty of talk about a massive school of walleyes staging just out of the river in both lakes Erie and St. Clair, waiting to move into the river when the water warms just a little more.Day one saw several of those big walleyes hauled to the scale, including an 11-pound, 11-ounce giant caught by Kannon Kares of Eaton Rapids, Mich., and Toby Wyatt of Clarkston, Wash.Nascak and Dahl caught their walleyes while vertical jigging and slipping with the current. However, unlike many of the anglers fishing the event, Nascak was only tipping his jigs with a soft plastic lure, rather than a minnow, to get his bites. Understandably, he chose to keep the type of plastic lure to himself on day one. Their walleyes came from deeper water in the 17 to 26 foot range.Scott Allar of Welch, Minn., along with co-angler Joe Bencze of Bellriver, Ontario, caught three walleyes weighing 20 pounds, 2 ounces to finish day one in second place. “We were jigging both minnows and plastics,” Allar said. “We had one other bite, and the bites were spread out throughout the day. We caught the biggest fish first, which was about 8 pounds.”Allar fished downriver on day one, and said he plans to grind it out in the same area on day two.Rounding out the top five pros are Troy Morris of Bismarck, N.D. (three walleyes, 16 pounds, 2 ounces); Mark Sak of Imlay City, Mich. (three walleyes, 14 pounds, 14 ounces); and Darold Swank of Pierre, S.D. (five walleyes, 14 pounds, 14 ounces).Dahl leads the co-angler division. Pros and co-anglers fish for a combined boat weight. Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Joe Bencze of Bellriver, Ontario; Jimmy Cox of Bono, Ark.; Richard Ness of Ruthton, Minn.; and Jason Romano of Wonder Lake, Ill. Elizabeth Park Marina in Trenton will host daily takeoffs each morning at 7. Thursday and Friday’s weigh-ins will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday’s weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 23800 Allen Road in Woodhaven, Mich., beginning at 4 p.m. The community is invited to attend daily takeoffs and weigh-ins, which are free and open to the public. Pros and co-anglers are randomly paired each day and fish for a combined boat weight. Pros compete against other pros, and co-anglers compete against other co-anglers. The full field competes during the three-day opening round for one of 10 final-round slots based on their three-day accumulated weight. Weights carry over to day four, with the winner determined by the heaviest four-day weight.Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points, with 150 points awarded to the winner, 149 to second, 148 for third, and so on. These points determine angler standings. The top 50 pros and 50 co-anglers based on year-end points standings will advance to the 2006 FLW Walleye Tour Championship.The FLW Walleye Tour Championship is the most lucrative event in professional walleye angling, with guaranteed cash awards for the entire field. A guaranteed cash award of $100,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $50,000 will go to the FLW Walleye Tour Championship winner for a total pro award of $150,000. The champion co-angler will win a guaranteed cash award of $11,000 plus potential sponsor bonuses totaling $11,000 for a total co-angler award of $22,000.Coverage of the FLW Walleye Tour opener on the Detroit River will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on May 21 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 350 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world.Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.Following the Detroit River tournament, the FLW Walleye Tour will visit the Mississippi River in Red Wing, Minn., May 3-6 for an event presented by Yamaha. Devils Lake in Devils Lake, N.D., will host the third regular-season event June 7-10, and the regular season will come to a close with an event presented by Evinrude July 12-15 on Green Bay in Green Bay, Wis.Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006. FLW Outdoors also recently announced the addition of a striped bass circuit, which will debut in May.For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournament programs, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Wal-Mart.com.