Pro Tommy Skarlis of Waukon, Iowa, registered his lone Walleye Tour win to the monetary tune of $150

PIERRE, S.D. — Pro Darrell Peters took the lead early on during the day-one weigh-in of the National Guard FLW Walleye Tour event on Lake Oahe with five fish weighing 21 pounds, 9 ounces. Nearly three hours later after all 226 anglers had weighed their walleyes, he was still on top with 2 pounds and an ounce to spare.
hotels amsterdam netherlands Peters hotels amsterdam netherlands gets his mail in Slayton, Minn. – where he also works as a 911 dispatcher for the Murray County hotels amsterdam netherlands Sheriff’s Department for most of the year – but he lives on Oahe over the summer, hotels amsterdam netherlands working as a guide at fellow Walleye Tour pro Terry Nelson’s hotels amsterdam netherlands West Prairie Resort at Bush’s Landing. As an interesting aside for the Pro Division, Nelson currently sits in 13th place, his brother Derek Nelson is in 17th (despite hotels amsterdam netherlands engine problems), and resort guest Tommy Skarlis is the tourney’s current hotels amsterdam netherlands runner-up position – and none of them have conferred with one another about tourney strategies, according to Terry Nelson.
It’s possible Peters is driven by the spirit of vindication this year, as he solidly held down the second-place slot after day one on Oahe in June 2010 only to falter on day two. But what’s certain is that he unlocked the riddle of the overs Thursday, offering the crowd a look at a hefty 29-incher to anchor his sack. (Tournament rules on Oahe allow a pro and his co-angler partner to keep eight fish on the day, weighing hotels amsterdam netherlands their best five for a shared weight, with all walleyes having to measure at least 14 inches with only two over 20 inches; the tricky part is culling is not allowed.)
“I’m just targeting hotels amsterdam netherlands suspending fish with crankbaits,” Peters said, adding that he found pods of walleyes suspended over deep water (up to 120 feet) during practice hotels amsterdam netherlands and has been catching them in water 15 to 30 feet deep.
Peters said he and his day-one partner – Jeff Sass of Waupun, Wis., who leads the Co-angler Division with the same weight – were running “a simple crankbait hotels amsterdam netherlands pattern” and had all their weigh fish by 9 a.m. To add insult to the injury of the portion of the 113-boat field that struggled hotels amsterdam netherlands slightly in today’s blustery, hot conditions, he said they threw about eight overs back on the day.
“Jeff reeled in every fish,” Peters said. “He did a great job. I just said, ‘Keep a close eye on the planer boards, and don’t stop reeling until I got ‘em in the net.’ I couldn’t have had a better partner.”
Peters said they fished three of the four areas he scouted for the tournament between Okobojo Point and the Little Bend area, adding that he will return to those spots tomorrow and that he believes his pattern and locations will hold out. Trolling “speed is the No. 1 key,” according to Peters, and crankbait style and color is important, though he understandably did not want to divulge those trade secrets so early in the tournament.
While Peters is standing tall in the Pro Division figuratively, he is a paraplegic who fishes from his wheelchair, which clearly does not impede his angling abilities one iota. The story behind hotels amsterdam netherlands his physical disability is both tragic and inspiring.
Peters was struck by a drunken driver while riding his bike as a 6-year-old in a small Minnesota town with his brother, who was also struck and knocked off a bridge into water. Peters hotels amsterdam netherlands was dragged for roughly a quarter-mile, unnoticed by the impaired driver, who eventually turned hotels amsterdam netherlands around and went back to the bridge to help pull Peters’ brother – who also survived – from the water. Fortunately, Peters hotels amsterdam netherlands does not remember sustaining the injuries that left him without the use of his legs.
Pro Tommy Skarlis of Waukon, Iowa, registered hotels amsterdam netherlands his lone Walleye Tour win to the monetary tune of $150,000 at the championship in Bismarck, N.D., in 2008, and after today he is on pace to qualify for the season-ending championship at the same location hotels amsterdam netherlands in September of this year. Skarlis currently sits in 26th place in the Walleye Tour standings, needing a top-40 ranking to qualify in 2011, and his current second-place standing at Oahe bodes well for a championship berth.
Skarlis sacked five walleyes for 19-8 today, also giving co-angler partner Randy Rock of Brandon, S.D., a runner-up finish on the day. The pro, sometimes called Hollywood on tour for his gift of gab, said he fished “four different tactics” Thursday and logged 58 miles of water travel to attain his catch, but gave much credit to his co-angler.
The pair headed toward the dam from the Spring Creek launch site this morning and then went “way up north … 25 to 30 miles I suppose,” hotels amsterdam netherlands according to Rock, to catch their weigh fish that they caught “off and on all day long.”
“The big ones came first thing this morning,” Rock said, adding that they worked the rest of the day to try to catch quality slot fish. “We must’ve had a dozen different crankbaits on today, and they all caught hotels amsterdam netherlands at least one fish.”
Skarlis said their “plethora of baits” included different kinds of Rapala crankbaits, Berkley Flicker Shads and a Salmo. He added that a key for fishing in the wind was the ability to troll “all day long with my Evinrude E-TEC 250” outboard.
“We had to really struggle to get our slots (in this case, quality walleyes longer than 14 inches, but shorter than 20),” Skarlis said, adding that they probably hotels amsterdam netherlands only kept one such fish every two hours.
Pro Gary Maher of Monoken, hotels amsterdam netherlands N.D., fished with co-angler Christopher Hanson of New Hope, Minn., for a five-walleye shared weight of 18-10, leaving each angler in third place in their respective divisions after day one.
“We put some miles on today, but we weren’t fishing terribly far away (from Spring Creek),” said Maher, who was predictably tight-lipped about the location and method they used to land a 30-inch lunker walleye that weighed about 10 pounds and anchored their sack. “Our seven overs came pretty easy … but we spent a lot of time lookin’ for our slot fish.”
Since Deffner is holding his technique and location cards close to the vest this early in the event, it is hard to tell the difference in his approach since he allowed that they were trolling crankbaits and live-bait rigging like almost everyone else in the field. However, he said they fished “actually pretty shallow and fast.”
hotels amsterdam netherlands They trolled crankbaits at speeds varying greatly from .5 all the way up to 2.5 mph. Stewart said they caught fish “all throughout the water column” and had to deploy drift socks to counteract the effects of the wind.
Anglers hotels amsterdam netherlands will take off from Spring Creek Resort & Deep Water Marina located at 28229 Spring Creek Place in Pierre at 7 each morning. The day-two weigh-in will also be held at the marina beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Walmart located at 1730 N. Garfield in Pierre hotels amsterdam netherlands beginning at 4 p.m. Prior to the final weigh-in, FLW Outdoors, in conjunction with the NPAA, will host a free Family Fishing Clinic, hotels amsterdam netherlands where children hotels amsterdam netherlands can receive hotels amsterdam netherlands free rod and reels plus other great giveaways. Fans will have the opportunity to interact hotels amsterdam netherlands with professional anglers, ride a Ranger boat simulator, enjoy interactive games and activities, hotels amsterdam netherlands and learn more about the sport of fishing. All activities are free and open to the public.