A job well done to Doug Newhoff and Neil Hammargren!
Do-It Walleye Team Seventh at IWT/WAT Opener
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SPRING VALLEY, Ill. -- Mother Nature didn't bring her 'A' game, but a field of 61 teams did for the March 12 Walleye Anglers Trail season opener on the Illinois River at Spring Valley, Ill.
The tournament was a combined venture between the Illinois Walleye Trail and the Iowa-based W.A.T., the first of two this season as both circuits seek to grow participation and increase payouts.
Anglers dealt with unseasonably cold temperatures that started in the teens and topped out in the 30s, but stable conditions on the country's premier sauger fishery produced both quality and quantity at the scales. All of the 61 two-person teams weighed in at least three sauger (minimum size was 14 inches) while 54 teams put together six-fish limits.
Nobody did it better than Illinois Walleye Trail veterans Gary Merkel and John Smith of Spring Valley, who trolled up six sauger for 17.58 pounds.
Among the W.A.T. anglers, the Do-It Corporation team of Doug Newhoff and Neil Hammargren were seventh overall with 12.99 pounds, a catch anchored by a 3.66-pound walleye.
"A lot of guys were catching fish trolling Rapalas, but we thought we could catch a little bigger fish jigging and our prefishing wasn't great, but it kind of backed that up," said Newhoff.
Newhoff and Hammargren were bouncing 3/8th-ounce Do-It hair jigs on sharp breaklines.
"We really had to grind it out during the tournament," said Hammargren. "Our best spot didn't go and that was the only place where we caught more than one decent keeper during prefishing. We eventually found one good breakline where we ended up catching most of our fish. It wasn't fast and furious, but it was good enough."
The W.A.T. returns to its traditional format when it heads next to Genoa, Wis., for the second qualifier of the season April 2. For more information, visit the W.A.T. website at
www.walleyeanglerstrail. com.
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