Kreiger captures opening-day pro lead in Northern Division tourney
His partner, Lodl, tops Co-angler Division
DETROIT – It took exactly one boatload of anglers to decide the respective division leaders on day one of EverStart Series Northern Division competition on Lake Erie. Koby Kreiger of Osceola, Ind., returned to the top of the pro leaderboard with a five-bass weight of 19 pounds, 9 ounces while his partner for the day, Cary Lodl of Scribner, Neb., assumed first place on the co-angler side with five bass weighing 15 pounds, 5 ounces.
Nasty weather greeted competitors this morning and continued throughout the day, which took a toll on the fishing. Low temperatures, rain and especially the heavy winds curtailed many boaters’ efforts to reach their fishing locations on Lake Erie. Anglers reported battling 5- to 6-foot swells out on the big water.
“When it gets windy like this on a big body of water, it changes everybody’s game plan,” said tournament director Dan Grimes.
And change the game plan it did. While the waters of Lake Erie and Lake St. Clair have traditionally been extremely generous with smallmouth bass during tournaments, today most of the anglers just couldn’t reach them. In the Pro Division, only 70 competitors out of 142 weighed in fish. In the Co-angler Division, only 43 competitors weighed in fish. Normally a hotbed for catching a five-fish limit, the fishery yielded only 14 limits on the pro side and a mere five limits on the co-angler side.
Many anglers chose to stay close to the shelter of the Detroit River, which connects St. Clair and Erie, but paid the price for the shift in strategy.
“The lake’s awfully rough out there,” said pro Joe Balog of Independence, Ohio, who caught one bass weighing 2 pounds, 2 ounces. “I had to stay in the river and I don’t know what I’m doing.”
On the other hand, the pro leader seemed to know exactly what he was doing today. Kreiger made no more than a 20-minute run on the Detroit River and targeted the current-oriented smallmouth using a Bandit crankbait. By 8 o’clock this morning, he’d caught his limit. When the fish bite slowed down, he switched to the fishery’s more popular bait, a tube, and proceeded to cull his five fish into a division-leading 19 pounds.
“I knew the fishing was going to be tough because of the BFL tournament (held here over the weekend),” he said. “They weren’t catching that much weight. With 12 or 13 pounds a day, I figured I’d have a pretty good shot at the top 10.”
As far as Kreiger is concerned, Mother Nature can continue to unleash her fury on Lake Erie because tomorrow he plans to stay right where he was today – in the shelter of the river.
“I think the big wind really helped me out today,” he said. “If I catch five tomorrow, I know I’ll make into the top 30. The wind isn’t going to bother me.”
It’s no surprise to see Kreiger on top early this week. With over $200,000 in career earnings in collective Operation Bass tournaments, he has been strong on tour over the last three years, especially this year. A mainstay in many final rounds of competition, he already has 15 top-10 finishes in Wal-Mart BFL, EverStart Series and Wal-Mart FLW Tour events over the last four years. Five of those top-10s came in 2001, four of them on the EverStart Series, including his first tour victory in the Central Division tourney at Kentucky Lake.
What’s amazing is his versatility. While many successful competitive anglers tend to do well in a particular region with one type of fishing, Kreiger has excelled in EverStart tournaments in all three divisions from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico. Conquering the smallmouth fishery and capturing the lead in today’s Northern Division competition was particularly rewarding for him.
“It’s pretty neat,” said Kreiger, who also finished in third place at the second Northern Division tournament of the year, held in July on Lake Ontario. “Everybody thinks I’m a largemouth fisherman because I’ve done well in the South with things like sight fishing. But I’m from Indiana, and I used to fish up here all the time.”
For the 33-year-old Kreiger, success this week only continues to validate a decision he made a number of years ago. In college at Indiana State University, he was the place-kicker for the Division I football squad. But a knee injury sidelined him after only one year, and he decided to hang up the cleats and give up the chance at a possibly lucrative kicking career.
“I just decided I was going fishing,” he said.
Following Kreiger in the Pro Division were Barry Bucciarelli (2nd place) of Romulus, Mich., who ended the day with five smallmouth bass weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces; Mike Trombly (3rd) of Perrysburg, Ohio, with five bass weighing 18 pounds, 3 ounces; Kevin Vida (4th) of Clare, Mich., with five bass weighing 18 pounds; and David Reault (5th) of Livonia, Mich., with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 15 ounces.
Bucciarelli also landed the day’s Big Bass award in the Pro Division and $750 with a 4-pound, 13-ounce smallmouth.
Lodl’s ugly lure lands him in first
It took Cary Lodl a little longer than his pro partner to catch his limit, but that didn’t stop him from taking over the Co-angler Division lead. While Kreiger had filled his livewell shortly after the sun rose, Lodl, in the back of the same boat, was still three bass short of five at 1 o’clock.
“Then I pulled out the ugliest tube I had and I got three fish in 15 minutes,” Lodl said. “Koby looked at me and he said, `Man, that is the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.”
The unsightly, chartreuse-colored tube helped the Kreiger-Lodl boat land a combined weight of 34 pounds, 14 ounces of bass when many boats were bringing in a maximum of 5 pounds – or none at all. It also gave Lodl his first lead at an EverStart tournament since last spring.
The co-angler leader admitted that he was a little nervous this morning about the prospect of heading out onto Lake Erie under such rough conditions, but was relieved when Kreiger chose to stay in the Detroit River.
“Today was a good day,” said Lodl. “You can actually fish here in the river.”
Tomorrow, Lodl hopes to catch 6 to 8 pounds more and maintain his grip on the lead so that he and Kreiger can try to repeat their domination of both divisions.
“I think Koby will be in the lead tomorrow and that would put us together for Friday,” he said.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Jim Templin (2nd place) of Lindenhurst, Ill., with five bass weighing 14 pounds, 7 ounces; Troy White (3rd) of Green Bay, Wis., with five bass weighing 13 pounds, 10 ounces; Wayne Weatherbee (4th) of Waterville, Ohio, with five bass weighing 12 pounds, 11 ounces; and Brian Best (5th) of Genoa, Ohio, with four bass weighing 11 pounds, 9 ounces.
Big Bass honors in the Co-angler Division and $250 belonged to Daniel Shuga of Botkins, Ohio, who caught one of the few largemouths of the day. It weighed 5 pounds, 5 ounces.
Tomorrow’s takeoff is scheduled to take place at 7 a.m. at Elizabeth Park Marina. Weigh-in is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the same location.
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