As Day 2 of our Event 3 got under way it’s safe to say we were all happy to see some ripples on the water and a few clouds in the sky – a recipe for Mille Lacs action!

True to the script, action started off hot and heavy for our Day 1 Top 10 anglers! Josh Blosser, Robert Blosser, Jesse Brady and Isaac Lakich all put fish in the net within the first 10 mins of our tournament day to set an exciting pace!

A look at our leader – Joe Okada

Joe Okada stated he was going to go find new fish when he spoke to tournament director, Andy Cleveland, during the post show after Day 1. Looking for new fish quickly turned into catching more fish for Joe as he piled on another 30 + pounds of walleyes to bring his two day total to over 105 pounds! Feeling confident, Joe Okada seems to have something really figured out and believes he can catch fish at any spot on Mille Lacs, which should make for a very exciting start to our GREAT8 Bracket tomorrow!

The GREAT8 Emerges!

We get a good mix of familiar and new faces to start Day 3 of our event and the first day of the GREAT8 Bracket. If you tuned in today, you saw it was an absolute slugfest amongst our anglers in the 8^th – 15^th spots. With so many fish being caught, our WEIGHLIVE App was jumping all the way to the final minutes of regulation, and after the dust settled we are set with our bracket seeds. In a nail biting finish, PWS Angler Corey Heiser just missed his first cut line as Marianne Huskey held on for the win and final 8th spot. Corey fought until the end with his Fenwick spinning rods and Berkley paddle tail plastics catching a two day total of 42 lbs and 15 oz – about 9 lbs short of the cut. All of these anglers seem to be on active fish and if our weather stays stable we will be in for a very exciting Day 3.

1. Joe Okada
2. Josh Blosser
3. Justin Schneider
4. Robert Blosser
5. Brett King
6. Max Wilson
7. Isaac Lakich
8. Marianne Huskey

Tactics and Gear

Lake Mille Lacs only allows one line per angler, which didn’t seem to bother our field.  31 of our 32 anglers caught a walleye over 2 lbs on Day 2! Because of the one rod rule, we saw little to no trolling today. A few of the winning tactics included:

• Max Wilson with his slip bobber rig
• Isaac Lakich had a WNC Death Jig and plastic worm on
• Marianne Huskey used the WNC Marble Eye Jig with a Mag’s Custom Rod
• Justin Schneider (who also uses Mag’s Custom Rods) used a bottom bouncer with a Berkley Gulp Fry, a slow death hook, and 8lb fluorocarbon line
• Joe Okada, spent most of the day with a jig plastic minnow profile bait

Big FISH

Big fish today belongs to GREAT8 newcomer, Brett King, who boated a beautiful 5 lb 13 oz Lake Mille Lacs walleye. Be sure to tune in tomorrow as we get set for what could be the most action packed H2H event of the season!