Day 3 of our fourth event on the Mississippi River Pool 2, presented by The Reel Shot, has our top 8 anglers of the week in the first day of head-2-head matchups.

We witnessed some bite windows in the first two days of fishing. These bite windows had our anglers moving from wing dam to wing dam and in and out of bays in hopes of perfect timing. These Mississippi River walleyes seem to be more spread out than usual. Mix in some spotty showers and yet another day of calm water, and it was a mystery how today would unfold.

Striking first was Joe Okada with a nice 3 lb – 2 oz walleye. Today, Joe was battling head-2-head against the last-minute miracle man, Jarrad Fluekiger. Things did not work out so well for Jarrad as he did not catch a scoreable walleye. What was interesting throughout all of this was that Joe Okada kept fishing his best spots all day. A strategy that we believed came from his last event against Josh Blosser. Joe ended the day with three fish for 11 lbs. We can all be sure that Joe has his fingers crossed that his fish will reload for the start of the FINTASTIC4.

Another matchup today involved our number one seed, Brett King. Brett proved he could find quality fish the first two days by racking up over 17 lbs of walleyes. Brett started Day 3 in the same spot we saw him fish all week, but unfortunately for Brett, his gameplan did not produce a walleye over two pounds today. His competitor today was Paul Meleen. Luckily for Paul, he was able to find one scoreable fish. His fish was enough to advance him to the FINTASTIC4. Paul strayed from his grind-it-out gameplan somewhat today as we got to see him make more moves than expected.

PWS Bracket natives Mike Gofron and Marianne Huskey were also fishing against one another today. Gofron has a reputation of being a good river angler and is coming off an excellent Day 2 performance. Unfortunately, thanks to lack of cell coverage, we did not see Mike do much fishing today. His scorecard showed a zero at the end of the day. His opponent, Marianne Huskey, waited until within the final 30 minutes of fishing to hook her first walleye. Staying in her same bay, it appears Marianne figured something out offshore as she hooked into a 6 lb – 2 oz fish at 12:33 PM, just 27 minutes before lines out! Shortly after her first fish of the day, Marianne hooked another walleye in the same area. It will be interesting to see what her spot holds at the start of the FINTASTIC4 match tomorrow.

The match between Mike McCormick and Isaac Lakich had all the makings to be very entertaining. Isaac is no stranger to the PWS Brackets, while Mike McCormick is known in the walleye world for being a proficient river angler. Mike, who had a big Day 2, only found one fish today that weighed 1 lb – 6 oz. Isaac did what Isaac does and found a way to catch just enough fish to advance. Isaac ended the day with two fish and a total weight of 2lbs – 6oz in his DINKFEST match against Mike McCormick.

Checkout all of the Day 3 results HERE

If you could imagine it, many of the anglers stated today’s river flow was even less than yesterday. Despite the conditions, some of our anglers found success at opportune moments. Today’s techniques and bait choices were brightly colored crankbaits and bright jigs with ringworms. Be sure to mark your calendars for the start of the FINTASTIC4 starting at 7:40 AM with Matt and Daryl!