The third and final NWT tournament for me was held on Lake Erie late June. Because of a family commitment, I’m unable to fish the Mobridge, SD event later this month and will not have enough “points” to make the Championship in late September. Back to Huron. I drove our Lance truck camper on our GMC Denali over to Huron on Monday, the 21st. I spent the week parked at a place called “Whispering Walleye” to be close to my new Pro friend, Bill Kutka, and his traveling co-angler partner, Dave Keller. Both men are from the Hayward, WI area. I was fortunate to be able to practice both Tuesday and Wednesday with Bill and Dave in Bill’s Ranger 621. We launched at Avon and went east to fish some spots Bill had marked lots of fish on an earlier day. On Wednesday, Ben Garrison from Indiana, joined us to experience a day on the big pond. Ben is a talented lure painter and helps sponsor Bill’s efforts this year. We caught lots of fish both days trolling Bandits and Berkley Flicker Minnows. We fished different depths to see where Bill might catch the 8 pounder plus everyone was looking for. After our rules/registration meeting Wednesday late afternoon, I was paired with rookie pro Eric Stull. Eric signed up for the event and had a few good days of practice fishing with his Dad in an area north of Lorraine. We went out in Eric’s Lund, found his fish, and brought home a limit weighing just over 21 pounds. No “kicker” fish. Day 2 saw me paired with Sammy Cappelli. Sammy is a well known angler from the area. However, he had made the long run east on Day 1 and finished 113 out of the 114 teams signed up for the event. He wanted to help me “get a check” so we went north out of Huron toward the NOAA weather buoy. We caught a few on the way up and only one at the weather buoy. We picked up and headed back south in the 4 footers. I was glad to have the Ranger 622 with the suspension seats to cushion the ride. We switched from cranks to spinners/crawlers and upgraded all three walleyes catching many fish before the rain came and pounded the waves down. Crazy weather day! Our bag was just over 20 pounds. Again, no “kicker” fish. I want to thank both pros for working hard to get us on fish and bring home a limit. Bill Sutton from Wisconsin won the event and $93k by running way east to find the bigger fish. Congratulations to Bill and all the top pros/cos! Please go to the National Walleye Tour website to look over the stories posted and complete results. You’ll find a lot of photos there to look through. By the way, the Ohio DNR says there are 130 million walleye in Lake Erie! Some people believe there are more than 140 million catchable walleyes there now! Consider grabbing some pals and heading that way to get your share: your limit is six fish each day times the number of days you are there. Take your big water boat or jump in a guide boat for a great catching experience! Hope you enjoy this story, the pictures, and the couple video interviews from my Pros. Thank you, Mike, for posting! Spike