The 36th annual Walleye Weekend/ Mercury National Walleye Tournament is in the books with Tim and Dave Theder (Watertown WI) taking the top honors and $13,000 pulling 40.96 pounds for the weekend. Matt Jacobson and Jim Hughes took second with over 36 pounds of fish.
With nearly 300 teams in the field, the Theders said they were fishing shallow water (under 3 feet) pitching jigs and crawlers on Lake Winnebago.
Day one offered stable conditions, and anglers’ capitalized on the good conditions. Day two was brutal as a passing cold front brought a strong northeast wind and major waves blowing into the south shore. Sunday’s results were drastically reduced as only 546 walleyes were weighed on Sunday.
After final tallies, 1,691 fish were registered, slightly up from 2013 when 1,602 walleyes were registered. Biggest fish on Saturday went 6.88 pounds, and Sunday’s biggest Walleye was 7.32. Average weight was 2.6 pounds per fish.
