Chris Gasser - 4/18/2005

	Paul Bruss and Lynn Niklasch with the big fish at Petenwell, an 8-plus pound walleye

Adams, WI - Almost every team that has ever won a tournament has had a little luck on their side to pull out the win. And most teams that just missed winning a tournament have had a little bad luck preventing them from winning.

At the opening World Walleye Association Wisconsin Team Challenge held on the Petenwell Flowage Sunday April 17th, the luck factor, both good and bad played a roll in the outcome of the event.

The Petenwell Flowage has a restrictive slot size on walleyes in which anglers can only keep fish between 15-20 inches with one over 28 inches. So for the tournament teams could weigh five fish in which two of the five could be over 28 inches.

Even though for pre-fishing on Saturday, anglers had to deal with rain showers all day, almost all the teams stated that undersize fish were in great abundance just about everywhere in the system but hitting the 15-20 inch slot size, though not impossible, wasn¹t easy and finding one over 28 inches was virtually out of the question.

For the winners, Randy Harwood and Jim Hughes, their luck came into play on Sunday.

	The top three at Petenwell: Harwood and Hughes(kneeling), Bruss and Nicklash (left rear), and Needles and Bartels

Under mostly sunny skies and warm temperatures, Harwood and Hughes were able to pull three way rigs with minnows along the breakline of the main river channel up in the river portion of the flowage to nab four walleyes in that 15-20 inch range for a weight of 5.18-pounds.

In talking with Jim, he stated that to get those four fish they must have caught 70 fish that were under the 15-inch size limit. "I was happy getting what we got after catching all those small fish." Hughes stated. "We easily caught 70 if not more" Added Harwood.

Happy for the moment with their good luck in getting their four legal fish, Hughes and Harwood were greeted at the weigh-in with the rumors that a team was coming in with a fish over the 28inch limit along with a couple of other legal fish, meaning their good luck might of come to an end.

This is where the bad luck came into play for the team of Paul Bruss and Lynn Niklasch.

With three fish in their boat with one over the very elusive 28 in mark, Bruss and Niklasch went to fire up their boat and head in to the weigh-in only to have a dead battery stand in the way of making the weigh-in on time.

By the time Bruss and Niklasch got to the weigh-in, they were declared late and lost half their weight for the day including half their weight for the big fish.

But it wasn't all bad news for the team since no other team had a fish over
28 inches, Bruss and Niklasch still managed to hold on to second place with an official weight of 4.97-pounds and won the big fish honors with an official weight of 3.44-pounds.

Bruss and Niklasch caught their fish by pitching jigs to shoreline riprap and jigging stumps in the main lake.

Third place honors went to Bill Needles and Tim Bartels. Rigging and jigging main lake points accounted for the team catching four fish weighing 4.81­pounds.

So luck stayed on the side of Harwood and Hughes confirming the old adage that was heard in the crowd after the weigh-in "It¹s better to be lucky than good!"

Lynn Niklasch won¹t be relying on luck in any other tournaments this year. He stated he was going out and getting new batteries and a good jumper cable!

The win puts Randy Harwood and Jim Hughes in the lead of the Wisconsin Team Challenge points race heading into the next event Sunday May 15th on Green Bay.

To see pictures of the winning teams and a complete list of how all the teams finished, visit the WWA website at www.worldwalleye.com http://www.worldwalleye.com which is hosted by the leaders in multi media technology, OutdoorsFirst Media. Or watch for results on all the WWA tournaments in the Badger Sportsman magazine in upcoming issues.

For information on fishing the World Walleye Association, a "Tournament Circuit For Fisherman, Run By Fisherman", visit the website or call 920-651-1066

The World Walleye Association is proudly sponsored by Yarcraft Boats, "The Dry One!"

PETENWELL RESULTS
Place Team Name # Fish Weight Points Prize
1 Randy Harwood, Jim Hughes 4 5.18 400 1440.0
2 Paul Bruss, Lynn Niklasch 3 4.97 398 830.00
3 Bill Needles, Tim Bartels 4 4.81 396 620.00
4 Chad Wiskow, Dean Stoflet 3 4.26 394 560.00
5 Rick Jorandby, Jesse Quale 3 4.05 392 300.00
6 Dick Clark, Mary Clark 2 3.87 390 230.00
7 David Woyak, Butch Schulz 3 3.74 388
8 Steve Weidmeyer, Rick Czekalski 3 3.16 386
9 Dan Vukovich, Jerry Tipping 2 2.64 384
10 Scott Hausauer, Larry Dawson 2 2.43 382
11 Ron De Graaf, Ed Lockwood 2 2.36 380
12 David Kent, Scott Paulson 1 1.61 378
13 Matt Bunk, John Borgwardt 1 1.55 378
14 Elmer Hoppman, Joe Murray 1 1.55 378
15 Wayne Gray, Jeff Rueth 1 1.26 376
16 Bob Ellenbecker, Scott Thimmig 1 1.24 374
17 Dave Kiesow, Dave Ehlke 1 1.21 372
18 Dave Doege, Matt Ashbeck 1 1.18 370
19 Chris Gasser, Gina Gasser 1 1.09 368
20 Mike Manthei, Bill Anderson 0 0 100
21 Paul Ruch, Chris Ruch *sub 0 0 100
22 Jason Robinson, Dan Kehoe 0 0 100
23 Mike Karempelis, Kevin Smith 0 0 100
24 John McCardle, Evan Tautges 0 0 100
25 Bob Wilson, Richard Hurley 0 0 100
26 Jememy Niemczyk, Bill Niemczyk 0 0 100
27 Terry Mayhall, Tony Dowiatt 0 0 100
28 Greg Aldridge, Darrell Aldridge 0 0 100
29 Kevin Carstensen, Dave Rasmussen 0 0 100
30 Cliff Jakusz, Rich Olds 0 0 100

Big Fish Paul Bruss, Lynn Niklasch 3.44

WWA WI Qualifier - Petenwell Flowage Results