Father, and son, know best in the MWC
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| Ladd’s Tom Giachetto Jr. (front) and his father Tom Giachetto Sr., also of Ladd, fish the Illinois River during last weekend’s Masters Walleye Circuit tournament in Spring Valley. (BCR photo/Chris Yucus) |
SPRING VALLEY — After day one of the Spring Valley Masters Walleye Circuit tournament, the father and son duo of Steve and Adam Sandor of Ottawa and Tonica, were in second place, having hauled in five fish weighing in at 12.05 pounds.
When he woke up on Sunday, day two of the event, and saw the three inches of snow that had accumulated over the evening, Adam was ready to call it a tournament.
“I honestly was content with them canceling the thing and taking second place to be honest with you, cause I’ve never been there before,” Adam said. “I’m glad it didn’t happen.”
Luckily for Adam and Steve, or “Pinky” as he is known in the local fishing community, the tournament was not canceled. They braved the elements on Sunday to haul in five fish weighing 15.5 pounds, to total 27.6 pounds, enough to secure the victory and a $16,550 first-place paycheck. They added another $960, for landing the biggest fish of day two at 4.76 pounds, for a total haul of $17,510.
Both men agreed that winning the tournament as a family made the victory a truly special event.
“He’s been in the boat with me since he was four years old,” Steve said. “We’ve fished everywhere.
“He’s not only my son he’s my best friend.”
Second-place honors went to Steve “Skoop” Skupien of Frankfort and Dave Kleszyk of Oakbrook Terrace. They brought in 11.48 pounds on day one and 14.06 pounds on day two for a total of 25.54 pounds for $6,600 plus a $1,000 bonus from the Ranger Cup and $100 from the National Professional Anglers Association (NPAA) for a total of $7,700.
The Sandors are certainly no strangers to the Spring Valley MWC. Steve has fished in every one of the 23 tournaments, with Adam alongside him in the boat for the past 16.
Steve says that the duo started off Sunday with the same plan of attack they employed on Saturday.
“We got here this morning and we put the same exact rigs out that we had yesterday,” he said.
After several hours with no success, the Sandors decided a change in tactics was necessary.
“It was 9:15 a.m. and we looked at each other and said, ‘What’s the story here, we can’t get a bite,’” Steve said.
“We switched to pulling orange and chartreuse #9 floating cranks at 10’ to 11’ depth and that really made a difference,” said Adam. “It turned into a fire-drill and we had our five-fish spot on, three almost simultaneously.We only upgraded one fish the rest of the day, those first fish that we got were the fish we needed.”
Adam, who is a member and vice president of the Spring Valley Walleye Club, said that the poor weather conditions and high water that threatened to cancel the tournament helped out the local competitors.
“With the weather conditions the way they are, it favors the locals,” he said. “The guys from out of town just don’t know how to make the adjustments when the weather’s like this. It did kind of work in our favor with the water being high.”
• Getting the tournament into the water was no small feat for the members of the Spring Valley Walleye Club. Flood waters previous to the event had left Barto Landing covered with a layer of mud.
“We were a little worried last week when we had the big floods that we weren’t even sure we were going to be able to launch out of here,” tournament director Mike Hurless said.
The waters receded enough to launch out of the landing, but left a layer of mud covering the parking lot. The Spring Valley Fire Department and volunteers using loaders equipped with brushes were able to clear off the mud to make Barto landing accessible in time for the tournament.
After the accumulation of snow Saturday evening, the tournament’s dedicated volunteers once again came through in a pinch. A trio of snow plows volunteered from area businesses made short work of clearing out the parking lot, and all boats were launched on time Sunday morning, Hurless said.
“It was the first time we’ve ever had an accumulation of snow,” Hurless said. “We’ve had it snow before, but we’ve never had to move any of it around.”
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