By Steve Weisman
GNWC Publicity Director

    Dave Smithburg from Libertyville and Joel Shaw from Fairfield used a
fourth place finish at Prairie du Chien on the Mississippi River on Sunday
to capture the Mercury Team of the Year title on the Grand National Walleye
Cup's (GNWC) Iowa Circuit.
    Smithburg and Shaw, who won the title by 12 points over the team of Alan
Wittmus from Fort Dodge and Mike Clark from Runnells, weighed a five-walleye
limit of 10.33 pounds.
    Eight teams weighed five-fish limits on a river that had been dropping
6-12 inches daily since Tuesday. Payout went through 12 places.
    Winning the Prairie du Chien qualifier and a check for $2000 was the
team of Ron Mason from Estherville and Jim Wahl from LeClaire with five
walleyes weighing 13.48 pounds.
    Earning second place and a check for $800 was the team of Brad Bull from
Mason City and Robert Mordini from Webster City with a five-fish limit
weighing 12.56 pounds.
    Ironically, both teams locked up river to fish the same wing dam. So,
the drama unfolded in front of their eyes as they battled for the first
place honors. Each team anchored and used live bait rigs tipped with leeches
to take their fish.
    However, the third place team of Jeremy Ruehle from Ruthven and Moe
Hansen from Dickens ran south to Guttenberg where they used three way rigs
and a plain hook tipped with a leech to catch their five-fish limit weight
of 11.05 pounds. This placing also gave them third place in the Mercury Team
of the Year competition.
    GNWC Tournament Director Dean Higgins found this to be the perfect way
to end a great season on the Iowa Circuit. "Even though the water levels
dropped 6-12 inches each day since Tuesday, these teams put on quite a show.
It's hard to tell what kind of weights they would have brought to the scales
if the river would have remained stable."
    Higgins continued, "We had lots of drama out there today. The Mercury
Team of the Year was decided and we had eight teams bring in limits of fish.
I'm really proud of all the teams who competed on the Iowa Circuit this
year."
    The Abu Garcia Big Fish award of two Abu Garcia Linecounter 6500 reels
went to the team of terry Mitchell from Woodward and Adam Clausen from Long
Grove for a 7.58 pound fish that they caught around 9:30 a.m. at the lower
end of the pool on an orange spinner tipped with a nightcrawler.
    Troy Loeckle from Floyd and Wesley Lockle from Mason City earned the
Berkley Family Angler Award of $250 in Berkley product as the top placing
family team. They finished in eighth place with a five-fish limit of 8.77
pounds. 
    Next up for the Iowa teams will be the State Championship at Clear Lake
on September 13-14. A release in the near future will provide a list of
those qualifying for the State Championship.
    Interested anglers can call 1-800-890-3474, email the GNWC at
info@walleyecup.com or get on the GNWC website at walleyecup.com to catch up
on updated information from all five states.
    Major sponsoring partners for the GNWC include Ranger Boats, Mercury
Outboards, Berkley, Abu-Garcia, The Sportsman Channel and
UpNorthOutdoors.com.
    For those television viewers who do not have The Sportsman Channel and
wish to watch the GNWC's television series Walleye Wisdom, be sure to call
your cable company or satellite television provider and ask them to include
it in their package.

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