Vandebiezen tops pros at Detroit River
Baldwin leads co-anglers; Monsoor falls out of pro points race
TRENTON, Mich. – Neil Vandebiezen took advantage of mild weather and little wind on big Lake Erie to take the top spot in the Pro Division on opening day of the final EverStart Series Northern Division tournament of the year. The Portage, Mich., native notched the biggest five-bass limit – 20 pounds, 11 ounces – on a day full of limits.
As expected, the smallmouths came hard and fast for most EverStart competitors Wednesday. The pro leader fished the Detroit River for the first hour of competition, then moved out onto Lake Erie where he fleshed out his heavyweight stringer by 11:30 a.m. He caught the majority of his bass using a tube and a spinner bait in roughly 6 to 8 feet of water.
“I feel great about it,” Vandebiezen said. “I didn’t think that I’d be leading it, though. I thought 21 or 22 pounds would be first. There are a lot of great fishermen here.”
Vandebiezen keyed on several lucrative spots on Lake Erie not far from the mouth of the Detroit River, but he’s not sure that they will hold up throughout the week.
“I’m catching them fast on the spots where I’m catching them,” he said. “And there are usually follower (fish). But if the wind switches and comes out of the south the way it’s supposed to tomorrow and the water muddies up, I won’t be able to catch them like that again.”
Vandebiezen, who finished in second place at EverStart Lake Ontario in 2001, isn’t too worried about his catch weight Thursday. With the cut weight estimates hovering around 28 pounds or so, he hopes to snag a limit, make the cut and worry about Friday.
“I’m definitely going to ease up tomorrow,” he said. “I had two spots that I didn’t go to today. When I drove by them, I was glad to see that nobody was there.”
Grosse, Vida close behind
Hebron, Ohio’s Richard Grosse and Kevin Vida of Clare, Mich., respectively landed in second and third place in the Pro Division after tallying the only other weights heavier than 20 pounds. Grosse caught five bass weighing 20-5 while Vida caught five weighing 20-1.
Grosse capitalized on the same area of the Detroit River that landed him a 13th-place finish at this tournament last year. The Northern Division visited the Detroit area at roughly the same mid-September timeframe in 2001.
“It’s a couple miles downriver,” said Grosse, a 2001 EverStart Championship qualifier who borrowed a boat in order to fish this event. “I caught a bunch of 2- and 3-pounders there last year, but they’re bigger now.”
Vida, fresh off a final-round appearance at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship at Cross Lake earlier this month, had trouble getting his big fish going early.
“I only had 12 pounds by 1 o’clock,” he said. “Then I went for the big ones.”
Rounding out the top five pros on day one were James Bensch (4th place) of Sandusky, Ohio, with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 12 ounces, and Ken Jones of Shelby, Ohio, and Robert Sherry of St. Charles, Ill., tied for fifth place, each with five bass weighing 18-12.
Out of 153 pros, 75 of them caught five-bass limits Wednesday. Pro big-bass honors went to Roger Miller of Ottawa Lake, Mich., for a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth.
Divisional points leader stumbles
Coming into this tournament, Tom Monsoor of La Crosse, Wis., who hasn’t missed a cut all year in the Northern Division, held a healthy 10-point lead over Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., in the standings race. But Monsoor took himself out of contention for the points title Wednesday when he weighed in just two bass for 3 pounds, 10 ounces and placed 126th. Unless he can somehow manage to catch a limit of 5-pound bass – and then some – Thursday and everybody else struggles, Monsoor’s chances of making the cut are almost nil. Lefebre positioned himself to make the cut with a 24th-place weight of 15-14 Wednesday.
“I had a bad day. It was bound to happen,” Monsoor said. “There’s a lot of water to cover here. I went everywhere I could think of – Erie, St. Clair. I watched guys catch fish all around me. Fishing here is luck because there’s not a lot of structure to throw at.”
While disappointed that he effectively lost the points title (he’s won three prior Wal-Mart BFL points titles as well as an EverStart Northern Division tournament), Monsoor said that some good might come out of this tournament.
“I’m going to quit smoking after this week,” he said. “That’s it. I’m done. The pressure’s off.”
Baldwin brother leads co-anglers
Barry Baldwin of Dayton, Ohio, took command in the Co-angler Division with a five-bass weight of 18 pounds, 13 ounces. Baldwin – whose twin brother, Brad, is also competing as a co-angler this week – led the surge of 36 co-anglers who weighed in a limit Wednesday.
Jerry Thompson of Bemidji, Minn., landed five bass weighing 18 pounds, 11 ounces to place second, and Robert Doster of Allegan, Mich., caught five bass weighing 18-9 for third place.
James Bettle of Amelia, Ohio, (five bass, 17-3, 4th place) and James Nightengale (five bass, 17-1, 5th place) rounded out the top five co-anglers.
Two anglers, Ed Snook of Floyds Knobs, Ind., and Peter Merckx of Westland, Mich., tied for co-angler big-bass honors, each with a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth.
Competition resumes at 7 a.m. Thursday as competitors take off from Elizabeth Park Marina in Trenton for the second half of opening-round competition. The top 20 anglers in both divisions following tomorrow’s fishing will advance to Friday’s semifinal round.
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