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• Endless garage sale coming in May
• Local fisherman highlight this week's FLW Walleye Tour stop in Red Wing
• Pierce County Scoreboard

It's not exactly endless, but that's the way you'll feel if you try to make all the stops on the annual 100-mile garage sale around Lake Pepin. It used to be the 85-mile sale, until Winona joined the fun.

Many sales in the 14 communities - and hamlets inbetween - will be open Friday through Sunday, May 4-6, from 7 a.m. until late afternoon. A trail of distinctive colored ribbons will identify participating garage sales from Alma to Bay City on the Wisconsin side along Highway 35 and from Red Wing to Winona along Highway 61 in Minnesota.

For more information, go online to www.mississippi-river.org.

While you're making the rounds, there are a couple of new places to check out.

In Alma, look for the Wings Over Alma Nature and Art Center at 118 N. Main St. It's a community non-profit organization funded by memberships, donations and grants. Volunteers provide staffing of the center. Features include a deck for viewing, a nature and art center with local and regional art displays, museum displays and visitor information.

If you're on the other side of Minnesota's Goodhue County, check out the fourth annual 100 Ladies and Gentlemen Spring Fling, a craft sale featuring handmade items by upwards of 100 participants.

The sale is held at the Curt and Marlene Morrow residence, 1/2 mile north of Kenyon on Highway 56, just west of Zumbrota. ours are10 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

By Jim Johnson, RiverTown Staff

Let's call it home-stream advantage.

The Mississippi River is one giant stream, and when the Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour kicks off at 7 a.m. Wednesday from Bay Point Marina in Red Wing, Minn., a boatload of locals will be vying for their share of the $509,300 purse.

Steve DeLain, John Renschen and Eric Olson from Red Wing; Scott Allar from Welch, Minn.; Scott Banks from Cannon Falls, Minn.; Nick Johnson from Elmwood; and Keith Carlson of Goodhue, Minn., are all pros on the tour.

"I think we all have a pretty good chance," said Allar, who finished second out of 150 anglers in last year's Red Wing tournament. "We all know the river pretty well. It could be any of us and it could be none of us, that's just how it goes.

"But it does help to have some local knowledge."

The winner out of 150 pros will take home $100,000; the top co-angler out of 150 will win $18,000.

Bay Point Marina will play host to daily takeoffs for the 300 fishermen at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, before the top 100 (50 pros, 50 co-anglers) go out Saturday morning.

Public weigh-ins will be held at the marina at 3 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The championship weigh-in will take place in the Wal-Mart parking lot at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Ranger boat test rides will also be given Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., featuring Yamaha and Evinrude outboards.

"The event itself is exciting - I'll be there," said Kathy Silverthorn, director of the Red Wing Visitors and Convention Bureau, noting she'll be up at 5:30 a.m. each day making coffee.

This is the third time in seven years the FLW Walleye Tour was made a swing through Red Wing, and it's the second of four qualifying events this year before the $675,850 Tour Championship on Lake Erie Sept. 27-30.

Get more on this story and the tournament in this week's print edition of the Pierce County Herald.

Monday, April 30

Softball

No. 10 Elmwood 7, Spring Valley-Plum City 5; Osceola 5, Ellsworth 2; Prescott at Somerset (susp. in 5th inning, rain)

Baseball

Elmwood 12, Spring Valley 10; Glenwood City 12, Plum City 9; River Falls 6, Prescott 3 (8 inn.)

Golf

MBC Meet at Mondovi

175-Mondovi, 178-Ellsworth, 180-Baldwin Woodville