Day 3 of the PWS Lake McConaughy Event just looked like walleye catching day with overcast skies and a good chop on the water!

Not only was today entertaining and educational, but exciting as we saw some new anglers on camera showing us some advanced presentations. If you followed along yesterday with our bracket, you know that we had four matches to watch today. These matches included Max Wilson vs. Bryan Bell, Mike Hanson vs. Joe Okada, Randall Gaines vs. Jeremy Zimmerman, and Corey Heiser vs. Robert Blosser.

Corey and Robert went head-to-head in hopes of advancement to our FINTASTIC4. Corey started the day off strong catching a nice 5lb.-4oz Lake McConaughy walleye. Today was Corey’s first GREAT8 bracket appearance, and after many events of being very close to Day 3, it was well earned.

Despite Corey’s first fish of the day, Robert Blosser continued to grind away as he used his electronics and spoons to pick out individual walleyes likely to eat. Robert’s tenacity paid off with a fish that weighed merely one more ounce than Corey’s! Robert’s fish weighed 5lbs-5oz. Robert’s late-day fish was all he needed to send him into the FINTASTIC4 on Lake McConaughy.

Big fish winner on Day 1, Mike Hanson, was matched up against mister consistency himself today, Joe Okada. Mike provided great insight for all the viewers of the show by breaking down his techniques. Proving his fishing theories again, Mike connected with a solid 6+ pound walleye to advance him to the FINTASTIC4 match. Joe Okada fished hard all day, but he couldn’t replicate his success on days one and two of the tournament.  

Randall Gaines and Jeremey Zimmerman squared off in what was a slugfest today. Both these anglers set down the rod and reel and used trolling techniques to put up the heaviest weights of the day. Jeremy always seems to find his fish in bunches, and he quickly put several fish up on the WEIGHLIVE App. Jeremy trolled for four fish weighing 18 pounds with a big fish of 5lbs.-7oz.

Despite Jeremey’s flurry of fish, he was unable to best the crafty Randall Gaines. Randy recorded the first fish of the day, and he didn’t look back after that. Catching four fish for a total weight of 25lbs.-1oz., his program produced both the largest and some of the most fish of the day. Randy’s winning program was the lead core line with Off-Shore Planer Boards. This technique kept his bait in the strike zone for the big Lake McConaughy walleyes! Randy’s bait of choice was a Black Tiger Salmo Hornet. Look out for Randy to put his program back to work as we head into the FINTASTIC4 tomorrow!

Our final matchup of the first day of the BRACKET was with last-minute miracle man Bryan Bell and our Days 1 and 2 leader Max Wilson. It was exciting to see Bryan Bell on camera for the first time this year. And what was even more exciting was that he was running a different program than the rest of the field. Bryan was trolling heavy, two-ounce, chartreuse spinnerbaits through submerged cover in hopes of some big bites. Bell managed to pull one scoreable fish out of the trees today that weighed 4lbs.-12oz.

Bell was unable to show us some last-minute heroics today against Max Wilson, however. Max and Bryan kept things very close until around the noon hour when Max caught a 3+ pound fish. That fish for Max combined with his 6lb.-10oz. walleye from earlier in the morning was enough to punch his ticket for Day 4!

Get ready for another great day of fishing as we hit the water and watch Max Wilson go head-2-head against Mike Hanson in one matchup and Randall Gaines vs Robert Blosser in tomorrow’s other battle! Remember, the show starts at 7:40 AM CST, and for more PWS insight visit us on Facebook!