Moynagh leads opening round at Lake Vermilion
Limit frenzy continues in Northern Division
TOWER, Minn. – While Jim Moynagh was glad to take over the Pro Division lead in EverStart Series opening-round competition at Lake Vermilion, it was not something he intended to do. In fact, he reached his limit of bass weighing 15 pounds, 8 ounces Thursday quite by accident. His kicker bass, which weighed over 4 pounds, was a surprise catch, and if he had his druthers, it would have stayed in the water until tomorrow.
But that’s what happens at this unbelievable bass fishery: The fish almost seem to jump in the boat like magic – even when you don’t necessarily want them to.
Moynagh’s division-leading weight total of 31 pounds, 3 ounces over the first two days doesn’t indicate too much by itself. Lots of anglers have led opening rounds with around 30 pounds or so. But take into account the fact that the pro who caught almost half that weight, 15 pounds, finished in 164th place this week at Lake Vermilion, and it’s easier to understand what a monumental task it was to make the cut at this bass bonanza of a tournament – much less lead the thing.
A total of 170 pros caught five-bass limits on day two, and the entire field combined for 900 bass weighing 1,727 pounds, 13 ounces. This after day one where they caught 178 limits, 918 bass, 2,042-1. Keep in mind that there are just 189 pros fishing here, and they caught 348 limits over two days.
And that doesn’t even include the Co-angler Division.
Looks like we’re not in Kansas anymore, Jim.
For the record, like Wednesday, almost everybody went sight-fishing Thursday. Sunny, calm conditions and miles of clear-water shoreline teeming with spawning smallmouth bass made it nearly impossible to avoid it. They used a variety of worms, tubes and jigs to catch them, but whatever they chose, the bass were biting.
“Sight-fishing has been the backbone of what we’re doing this week,” Moynagh said. “And that’s my strategy.”
Talk to anglers near the leaderboard and they will tell you that they had their limits early, some by 7 a.m., some not until 9. Moynagh had his by 10 a.m., so he went practicing and unintentionally stumbled into the lead.
“I had 12 1/2 or 13 pounds, then I caught two more big ones,” he said. “The first big one I caught one purpose for comfort. But the other one – my biggest one – I caught by accident, which sounds weird, but I was really pre-fishing.”
What’s weird is that anglers here, like Moynagh, actually have a choice whether or not to catch their big ones. The “sight-fishing strategy” is pretty simple: You find fish locked on the beds before the tournament starts, punch the locations into your GPS and go catch them during the tournament. More often than not, the anglers with the most – and the biggest – smallmouths dialed into their GPS units are the ones who made the cut Thursday. Those who made the cut are just hoping that nobody else picks off the big ones they chose to leave for later.
The thing is – and this bears repeating – there are just so many bass in the Vermilion shallows that it seems like everybody’s GPS units are stock full.
“This is my first trip here,” said Vic Vatalaro of Kent, Ohio, who placed second in the Pro Division with a weight of 30 pounds, 15 ounces. “I just went and found a bunch of different fish. Then I marked their locations, wrote them down in a notepad and have been catching them with tubes, jigs and jerkbaits. It’s been a lot of fun. I’ve had 50-fish days every day.”
Vatalaro, who won a Northern Division tournament on the Detroit River in 2001, obviously likes what Lake Vermilion has to offer in more ways than one.
“The fish aren’t as big as places like Erie, but there are fish all over,” he said. “The main difference is, up here, it’s more pristine. You’re fishing alongside loons and eagles. Plus, they haven’t really had any (bass) tournaments here, and that levels the playing field. There’s no local advantage. Me, I just came in, bought a map at Wal-Mart and started fishing.”
Some might debate the no-local-advantage argument given that Moynagh, a native of Carver, Minn., is leading the tournament. But he begs to differ.
“It’s in my backyard,” Moynagh said, “but I’ve never fished a tournament here. The last time I was here was 16 years ago, and I couldn’t even tell you where I fished back then.”
In fact, Moynagh is the sole Minnesotan to make the pro cut. Much of the rest of the semifinal-round field is filled out with EverStart and FLW Tour veterans like Koby Kreiger, Jim Tutt, David Dudley, Kevin Vida and Dion Hibdon who hail from all over the map.
Kreiger, of Okeechobee, Fla., placed third with a two-day weight of 30 pounds 7 ounces.
Coming in fourth was Mark Zona of Sturgis, Mich., with a weight of 29 pounds, 14 ounces. Fifth place went to Tutt, of Longview, Texas, with a weight of 29-13.
Needless to say, they all caught limits. And while the same thing will likely occur over the next two days, anglers are saying that big limits could be harder to come by in the final rounds. Not only did the weather take a turn for the worse, some competitors are wondering how many fish will be left after two days of pounding the beds.
“The weights went down today, just like I said they would. I’m looking forward to not catching any tomorrow,” Zona said. Then he winked.
Right. It’s all relative here in magical Smallmouth Land.
Struif holds onto co-angler lead, still can’t believe it
Towards the end of Thursday’s weigh-in, Eric Struif was heard muttering, “Unbelievable. Unbelievable.”
Struif’s strains of incredulity derived from the realization that he was leading the Co-angler Division after two days of fishing in his first EverStart Series tournament. His leading weight in the opening round was 23 pounds, 4 ounces.
“I am still in shock with this whole thing,” the Lake Villa, Ill., native said.
Perhaps part of the reason for his amazement was that Struif had to switch gears and fish for largemouth bass Thursday when almost everyone else was smallmouth-hunting.
“It was totally different fishing today than yesterday when we were in deeper water. Today, we were in 2 feet of water,” he said, adding that he caught all of about 30 fish on a Senko.
Dave Linton of Twin Lakes, Wis., placed second with a weight of 22 pounds, 12 ounces, and Richard Wyrick of Frankfort, Ill., placed third with 22-2.
Judy Israel of Clewiston, Fla., placed fourth (by virtue of a tiebreaker) also with 22 pounds, 2 ounces, and Chris Wade of Preston, Conn., placed fifth with 21-12.
All top five co-anglers also posted limits both days of the opening round.
And they weren’t the only ones. Exactly 108 co-anglers had limits Thursday, and the division combined for 248 limits in the opening round.
The semifinal round commences Friday as competitors take off at safe light from Fortune Bay Resort in Tower. All anglers’ weights will be reset to zero. The top 10 anglers in both divisions following tomorrow’s fishing will advance to Saturday’s final round.
Day-two links: