Chris Gasser - 4/5/2003

* EARLY RELEASE * RED WING, MN- Despite 3 inches of new snow, temperatures in the 20 s and overall icy conditions, Greg Hayft and Bruce Grimm won the opening Tournament of the 2003 World Walleye Association season in convincing fashion by catching an awesome basket weighing 27.17 pounds! Paul Kennebeck and Steve Glemski took second place weighing a limit of walleyes weighing 19.60 pounds. Gene (Tre) Trowbridge and brother Britt placed a closed third with 19.40 pounds. Big fish of the tournament was weighed in by the team of Jeff and Jared Franta with a hefty 8.29-pound fish. Due to the top teams competing in the upcoming WWA tournament on Sunday, April 6th, the winning techniques did not want to be revealed but will be disclosed in a later press release. Tournament director Greg Clark did state that many of the teams headed up river after take-off. According to Greg all 48 teams caught fish. Greg said the tournament overall went very well in large part to the help of the Walleye Searchers Walleye Club. The help of the Walleye Searchers Walleye Club was unbelievable. Said Greg. It seemed whichever members of the club weren t fishing the tournament were at the weigh-in helping where ever they could and it made a huge difference. Sundays tournament will also be held out of Colville Park with launch time being at 7:00 AM. There are still some openings available and teams interested in fishing should be at the launch site to sign up between 5:30-6:30 A.M. As today s weights show, there is an excellent bite going on despite the frigid temperatures. For more information on Sunday s tournament visit the website at www.worldwalleye.com

WWA MN Qualifier - Mississippi River Results