Walleyes plentiful at 25th Classic

The team of Nate Guerdet and Terry Mitchell put together two solid days of fishing and finished as winners of the 25th Clear Lake Walleye Classic on Clear Lake over the weekend.  The anglers weighed in 15.89 pounds of walleye on Saturday, including the big fish of the day at 6.26 pounds.  They followed that up with 12.44 pounds on Sunday for a total of 28.33 pounds. 

The winning amount was nearly seven pounds more than runner-up Eldon Olson and Scott Aydelotte, who finished with 21.45 pounds.

Third place went to Brian Schmidtke and Brian Crosser, who were close behind with 21.43, barely edging Judson and Cole Ollinger, who finished with 21.41 pounds.  

Ninety-six of the 100 teams in the tournament weighed in at least one walleye on the first day of the tournament and 60 teams caught their five-fish limit, reported Clear Lake Fishing Club members who organize the tourney.  Winners Guerdet and Mitchell told tourney officials they reached their five by 7:40 a.m. on the first day.

The remainder of the top 10 teams in the 80 percent payback event included: Kevan and Bryan Paul, (11.13-8.49) 19.62; Bruce and Terry Sparks (10.02-9.37) 19.39; Chris Scholl and Bill Miller, (9.46-9.7) 19.16; Moe Handsen and Ben Sanderson, (7.37-11.3) 18.67; Kevin Hulsing and Tim Brown, (7.56-10.63) 18.19; Wes Rose and Todd Hough (9.75-8.14) 17.89.

The team of Handsen and Sanderson brought in the “big fish” for day two, weighing 5.67 pounds.  

Four hundred and seven walleye were caught on day one, and 397 on day two for a total of 804 fish weighing a total of 1,229.85 pounds.

The Walleye Classic was sponsored by Iowa Falls Marine.