Team Northland member Chad Maloy of Fargo, North Dakota, has his sights set on a walleye world title. Along with teammate Don Denning, Maloy is competing this week, Oct. 6-8, in the Master’s Walleye Circuit World Walleye Championship out of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The event pits the top 48 teams from the circuit’s 2015 season against one another for more than $80,000 in winnings, besides some pretty sweet bragging rights on the walleye scene.
Tournament boundaries include Wisconsin waters of Lake Michigan’s Green Bay, plus the Fox River. On day one, Maloy and Denning tackled a tough bite on the lake and ended up in the middle of the pack. However, when gale-force winds on day two limited teams to the river, they were excited to move up the leaderboard—and are planning to rely on Northland jigs and soft baits to help get them there.
“We’ll be pitching jigs in current seams by the dam and doing some vertical jigging as well,” he said, noting that go-to presentations will include a Northland Fire-Ball® Jig tipped with a minnow and a Slurp!® Jig with an IMPULSE Paddle Minnow.
“We also plan on vertical jigging Northland Puppet Minnows, which caught our biggest fish yesterday on the bay,” he added. “The new UV colors are phenomenal.”
Given the average size of the river’s walleyes, Maloy believes a big basket will tip the scale at 12 pounds for five fish. “We’re mostly on resident fish since the water hasn’t cooled down enough for bigger walleyes from the lake to move in, but river systems can always surprise you,” he said.
The championship concludes Saturday. Watch Maloy and Denning’s progress at masterswalleyecircuit.com.