Canadians rule ‘football’ season opener

Big day one at Lake Erie led by Canucks

HAMBURG, N.Y. – West side, east side – it doesn’t matter where you fish for smallmouth bass on Lake Erie. Chances are, you’re going to catch a ton. That’s exactly what EverStart Series anglers did on opening day of Northern Division competition on the big lake. Fishing the east side this time, the pro field brought in a total 2,079 pounds, 15 ounces of bass – almost exclusively smallmouth, many of them as fat and round as oversized footballs – and almost set a new EverStart record in the process.

On top of the pros, the co-angler field caught 1,566 pounds, 6 ounces, which meant that a total of 3,646-5 of eastside Erie bass crossed the scale Wednesday. That mark just barely fell short of the heaviest one-day total ever recorded on the EverStart Series – 3,708-2 – which was set, not coincidentally, on the west side of Lake Erie at the Detroit River tournament in 2003.

“I’ll tell you what,” said pro Brian Hensley of Edwardsburg, Mich., who placed sixth with a nice limit of smallies, “this place is awesome.”

Leading the charge with the heaviest five-bass limit of the day was pro Mike Desforges of Burlington, Ontario, with 21 pounds, 3 ounces. He was followed by fellow Canadian pro Aaron Barber of Fenwick, Ontario, with a limit weighing 20-5.

Desforges goes big smallie hunting

To a degree, it was a typical tournament-fishing day on big Lake Erie Wednesday. While there was just a moderate south wind, anglers still had to do battle with 4-foot waves. That’s not unusual here; horror stories about big water have historically dominated events based out of the Detroit River and Northern Ohio. Many anglers also caught their quarry of smallmouths, as is typical here, by drifting with the wind and using the ubiquitous Lake Erie “dragging-a-tube” technique.

But the difference today was the depth at which many of the leaders caught their fish. The biggest sacks of the day came out of water as deep as 40 feet or more. That’s deep, especially on Lake Erie, which is the shallowest of the Great Lakes with an average depth of just 48 feet. However, the eastern end of Erie is deeper than the western, so anglers had to go down to get after the good ones.

“I was mostly just fishing for big fish,” said Desforges, who dragged an avocado-colored tube Wednesday to catch his limit. “I went to about seven or eight spots. They’re all spots that I know are usually big-fish spots. I was trying to get a big bag today so it would be easier to make the cut tomorrow.”

Al Gagliarducci of Agawam, Mass., tied for the pro big-bass award with a 6-pound, 1-ounce smallmouth – yes, smallmouth – and placed fourth by fishing a drop-shot in 40 feet of water. He caught 19 pounds, 4 ounces.

“It seems the bigger ones are off the deeper shoals,” he said. “I lost a 4-(pounder) and a 3-(pounder) today, and I caught a 6-2 in practice.”

“It’s really no different than (fishing the western side of the lake). It’s just a matter of finding the right kind of rocks and drop-offs,” said pro Jimmi Leuthner of Vernon, Vt., who tied Gagliarducci with 19-4 for fourth place. “But I think there are more fish out here than there are out there.”

“I’m fishing really deep, actually,” said Hensley, who caught 19 pounds even. “It was something I noticed in practice: When you get deeper, the fish seem to get a little bit bigger.”

The other 20-pound sack

While limits too many to count came across the scale, just three of them weighed more than 20 pounds. In addition to those caught by Desforges and Barber, third-place pro Rodney Sorrell of Stokesdale, N.C., caught 20 pounds, 3 ounces.

“I was even laying off a bit,” said a surprised Barber. “This time of year, the top weights shouldn’t even be 20 pounds. They should be closer to 18 or 19 pounds. … I caught them on an ISG tube. It’s a Great Lakes tube, period. It works everywhere.”

While Sorrell did fish deep, he didn’t throw a tube Wednesday. “I’m doing something a little different,” he said. “I caught them on a Yum Dinger. The harder the wind blew, the better they bit.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros after day one at Lake Erie are Terry Boyd of Cincinnati, with 18 pounds, 12 ounces (7th place); Jack Bell of Kane, Pa., with 18-8 (8th); Kevin Bishop of Hilton, N.Y., with 18-5 (9th); and Richard Lowitzki of St. Charles, Ill., with 18-4 (10th).

All 10 of the top pros caught limits. In fact, you had to drop all the way down to 70th place to find the first nonlimit Wednesday.

More impressive than the limits, however, was the distended size of some of the smallies. Kenneth Plencner of South Bend, Ind., tied Gagliarducci’s big-bass mark with a 6-pound, 1-ounce smallmouth of his own. Indeed, a handful of smallies in the 6-pound range were weighed in for big bass, and countless 5- and 5 1/2-pounders likely weren’t even tried for the award.

Harris heads co-anglers

Jeff Harris of Grand Blanc, Mich., led the Co-angler Division with a limit weighing 18 pounds, 12 ounces. He was followed in second place by James Richardson Jr. of Cincinnati with 17-10.

Casey Hewes of Thornton, Ill., placed third with 17 pounds, 1 ounce; Lou Zahra of Lawrenceburg, N.Y., placed fourth with 17-0; and Franklin Collins of Huntington, W.Va., and Jim Short of Ocean Pines, Md., tied for fifth with 16-7.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers after day one at Lake Erie are Richard French of Newfield, N.Y., with 16 pounds, 3 ounces (7th place); Mark Grahn of Wautoma, Wis., with 16-0 (8th); Jim Parker of Jonesville, Mich., with 15-14 (tied for 9th); and William Trychel of Temperance, Mich., with 15-14 (tied for 9th).

All of the top 10 co-anglers also caught limits.

Tutt’s catch

While weigh-in spectators were treated to a parade of huge Erie smallmouths, one fish drew more oohs and ahs from the weigh-in crowd than all the rest. Sid Tutt of Longview, Texas, caught the biggest football of the day when he landed the big-bass winner on the co-angler side. His fish – a smallmouth – weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and was the heaviest single bass in either division.

“I thought it was a drum for the longest time. (After hooking it) I told my partner, `Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m going to be a while,'” said Tutt, who is the father of FLW Tour pro Jim Tutt. “It would take me 30 years to catch another smallmouth like that.”

Protecting the resource

Since so many fish came out of deep water, FLW Outdoors officials made a concerted effort Wednesday to return them to the water at depth from the release boats. Staff on the two boats worked overtime crating the fish and dropping them down to ensure survival, which periodically led to delays in the weigh-in proceedings. That, combined with nearly every boat coming in with fish, made for one of the longest weigh-ins on record. At four hours long, it took half as long to weigh them all in as it did to catch them on day one.

The opening round of EverStart Series Northern Division competition at Lake Erie continues with its second half Thursday as anglers take off from NFTA Boat Harbor in Buffalo, located at 1111 Fuhrmann Blvd., at 7 a.m. Eastern time. The full fields will be cut down to the top 20 anglers apiece following tomorrow’s action.