Swanstrom Wins $100,000 in FLW Walleye Tour at Lake Erie

April 19, 2008-Port Clinton, Ohio-In a nail biter finish FLW Pro John Swanstrom holds on to win $100,000 and take the season opening FLW Tour event on Lake Erie.  Last to the scales Swanstrom needed 20lbs 13oz to take over the lead from Larry Smith, and with the drama building by the second Swanstroms 5 fish basket finally settled in at 21lbs 7oz giving him a FLW record breaking 4 day total of 143lbs 7oz winning by a mere 8oz. 

“The scale I use in my boat said I had 21lbs 2oz, so I knew it was going to be very close.” said Swanstrom. Going into the last day Swanstrom had a strong 18lbs lead and it looked like he would run away with the title.  But on a fishery like Lake Erie anything can happen. 

“The first fish I caught today was the smallest fish I have ever caught on Lake Erie.  Things changed a little today though.  The water cleared up and there was a lot more boat traffic.  Both of which didn’t work in my favor.  I had 3 spots that were producing fish the last few days and I stuck to them and fortunately things worked out. I went to my 3rd spot and I upgraded a 3lb fish with a 5lb fish with an hour left and looking back, that’s what did it for me” said Swanstrom.

Fishing high in the water column Swanstrom was switching between Reef Runner crankbaits and gold spinners as the conditions changed.  “ I’ve been fishing in the top 20ft in 34 feet of water.  Earlier in the week the Reef Runners seemed to be the best but today I didn’t use anything but gold spinners” said Swanstrom.

Swantstrom will be taking a whopping $100,000 check home for his outstanding work this week. When asked what he was going to do with the money Swanstrom replied “guess I’m going on some more fishing trips”.

Coming in a close Second Place was Pro Larry Smith From Berlin, Wisconsin with his 4-day total of 15 walleyes weighing 142lbs 13oz. 

“Its been a fantastic week.  I have caught some the biggest fish I’ve ever caught and I had a ball doing it”said Smith.

Smith came in with a final day high 5 walleyes weighing 38lbs 15oz in his push to get to the top. “I’ve had a few top ten finishes but I really want a 1st.  2nd a great finish too but I really want that win” exclaimed Smith.

Unlike Swanstrom, Smith was using nothing but crankbaits to catch his fish.  “I was using nothing but Reef Runners this week.  The colors seemed to change by the day but I stuck with cranks the whole time.

Smiths efforts brought him a hefty $27,500 dollar pay check for the week and was quoted as saying “Well the money doesn’t go in my pocket anyway…it goes into my wives”.

Taking Third Place is Pro Erik Furseth with a 4 day total of 138lbs 15oz. 

“Pre-fishing was tough for me.  I kept marking the fish on the graph but I just couldn’t get them to go.  I was still prefishing on Wednesday when I finally fine tuned my technique enough and started catching fish’ said Furseth. 

“I lost 3 big fish on the 1st day and that turned out to make a big difference.  The big fish I did catch all came before 9am.

Furseth was also using spinners to entice the big bites.  “When the sun was out I would throw on a copper blade and when the cloud cover came in it seemed the glow blades were working better.

Furseth’s third place finish will fetch him a very nice check of $25,000.

Rounding out the top ten in the Pro Division

4th-Bob Henton with 137lbs 3oz-$15,000
5th-Rick Franklin with 136lbs 7oz-$8,000
6th-Dan Steir with 133lbs 15oz- $10,500
7th-Chad Schilling with 133lbs 14oz-$9,000
8th-David Frey with 131lbs 3oz-$5,000
9th-Kevin Michnicki 129lbs 4oz-$5,500
10th-Pete Harsh with 121lbs 12oz-$5,000

Winning the Co-Angler Title is John Kopcok of Bellriver, Ontario with a 4 day total of 145lbs even.  “I was 6lbs down going into today and knew if we could get 30lbs I would be right there.  At 11:30 we hit a nice 8 pounder that put us over the 30lb mark and I got real excited” said a comical Kopcok.  

Kopcok’s superb efforts this week will bring him a large $10,000 dollar check and big time bragging rights over his brother Michael Kopcok who fish’s in the Pro division.

Rounding out the top ten in the Co-Angler Division

2nd-Ike Rhodes with 139lbs 1oz-$5,000
3rd-Jason Copeland with 133lbs 2oz-$3,000
4th-Larry Behsman with 132lbs 10oz-$2,500
5th-Randy Seidl with 131lbs 7oz-$4,250 (boat and engine bonus)
6th-Bruce Frevert with 129lbs 13oz-$2,000
7th-Kenny Henexson with 129lbs 3oz-$1,750
8th-Nate Brunz with 126lbs 4oz-$1,500
9th-Jeff Sather with 123lbs 14oz-$1,250
10th-Marty Barski with 112lbs-14oz-$2,000

“This tournament broke just about every record there is to break” exclaimed tournament director Sonny Reynolds.  1,716 walleyes were caught this week that weighed nearly 10,000 pounds!! (9,611 to be exact). This was a very exciting and fun tournament to watch and/or be a part of.  The next stop for the FLW Tour will be Pierre, South Dakota on Lake Sharpe May 7-10.