Chris Burns and Roger Abel bring home the trophy!

What makes a good fishing story? How about catching the winning fish in a two day MWC event with less than five minutes to go before check-in time!! That’s how the story played our for Ranger/Evinrude Pro Chris Burns from Davenport, IA and his teammate Roger Abel from Cedar Rapids, IA on Saturday September 19th, 2015. The pair finished the tournament with a total of nine fish weighing 22 pounds. They beat the number two team by .92 pounds! “We fished Day 1 in mostly the Bellevue Pool (Pool 13) but locked back up to the Dubuque Pool around noon,” reported Chris. They caught their fish in side channel holes and deeper water close to the River bank. They also fished selected wing dams and day markers using mostly hair jigs to catch their Day 1 total of four fish for 8.05 pounds. “We were in ninth place but caught the second biggest walleye at 19 7/8 inches,” Chris added. The River has a slot limit of keeping fish in the 15-20 inch long range with one over 27 inches. The two anglers repeated their Day fishing by heading to Bellevue. “We used a timer to force us to move after 10-30 minutes on each spot,” Roger commented. By 2pm they had four keepers including a 27 incher Roger caught then headed back to lock through. They started working wing dams with Chris jigging and Roger casting cranks. “I caught our last keeper with about five minutes to spare to get back for the 4pm weigh-in!” Roger exclaimed. “You know Burnsy–he fished right up to the end!” Roger added. Their catch of five fish for Day 2 weighed 13.11 pounds and gave them the win. The two each received around $10,000 in cash and prizes plus gained a spot in next year’s NTC event! Congratulations to Chris and Roger and the walleyewisdom.com team members!! Report submitted by Gary Speicher, NPAA #128