We are three weeks into the Tuesday Night Walleye Fishing League, and it’s been a good start to the season! This week’s League Report will cover both Week Two and Week Three, as we didn’t post one for Week Two due to the upcoming National Walleye Tour and Sharpe Showdown tournaments that week.
Week Two
Week Two doubled as a pre-fish for the upcoming Sharpe Showdown, with Nick Harrington partnering up with Tom Sieburg of Tom Tom’s Guide Service to begin their pre-fish with a dress rehearsal of sorts in the form of league.
“The goal for Week Two was to take a pretty significant boat ride south and check a couple of our ideal tournament spots,” said Nick Harrington, Owner of Lip Ripper Fishing. “Our top spot produced four keepers, and our back up spot produced another two nicer ones.”
The weather was gorgeous to the point that when the wind stopped, the bite shut off as well and that’s when the adjustments to the backup spot were made.
“Our top spot started with a 17 1/2 incher right away,” detailed Harrington. “We kept covering water trolling crankbaits and got a couple 16 1/2s and another 17 as well. Quality was overall very good.”
Once the bite stopped, they made a run back and hit a spot closer to the boat ramp. This produced another two 17 inchers.
The consistent back of 16-17s was good enough for 7.2 pounds and another 5th place finish.
“Two Top 5s is a perfect start to the season and speaks to the consistent bite we’ve been able to stay on,” concluded Harrington.
The Top Five included:
- 1st Place: Frideres/Landorf 8.60 pounds
- 2nd Place: Sporrer/Hostler 8.20 pounds
- 3rd Place: Konda/Doerr 7.80 pounds
- 4th Place: Sieverding/Saathoff 7.40 pounds
- 5th Place: Harrington/Sieburg 7.20 pounds
Week Three
Week Three wrapped up the busy tournament week and was another strong finish. Nick was aided by the help of a ringer, who was making their tournament debut and it’s resulted in a possible super team!
The boys started by trolling crankbaits very close to the ramp, but that proved to be unproductive. After taking a long boat ride, they stumbled onto some fish, but the bite was still slow.
“The first fish of the night was a spawned out 18 1/2 incher, and we followed that up with a 15 1/2 inch sauger but the bite was overall slow,” said Nick Harrington, Owner of Lip Ripper Fishing. “We had about an hour left, and decided we needed to get to the backup spot.”
It was at this spot, the rods started going off and didn’t stop until it was time to head in.
“The bite was absolutely fantastic, we had a number of small saugers and some quality 16-17 inch walleyes as well,” detailed Harrington. “They were coming in non-stop, and we probably caught 15-20 fish in the span of about 40 minutes!”
After the madness had wrapped, the boys brought 6.80 pounds to the scale, which was good enough for a 3rd place finish.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how we fished all night,” concluded Harrington. “We stayed focused to the game plan, executed, and ultimately landed on the right pod of fish.”
The Top Five included:
- 1st Place: Keller/McComsey 9.40 pounds
- 2nd Place: Merrill/Hight 7.80 pounds
- 3rd Place: Harrington/Kirschenmann 6.80 pounds
- 4th Place: Englehart/Hinker 6.40 pounds (tie)
- 4th Place: Sporrer/Hostler 6.40 pounds (tie)
- 4th Place: Sieverding/Saathoff 6.40 pounds (tie)
- 4th Place: Kueter/Miles 6.40 pounds (tie)
- 5th Place: Young/Dillman 5.40 pounds
Find Complete Fishing Reports
The busy tournament month is over, and that means we’re back to normal fishing reports! As the weather warms be sure to stay up to date on all of the hottest bites along the Missouri River and across South Dakota on our Fishing Reports page!
