Clapper due for win
Well-known Great Lakes expert ready for EverStart title
CLEVELAND – Anyone who fishes tournaments on the Great Lakes has heard the name Steve Clapper. Simply put, he is a legend on these waters.
Clapper pioneered offshore fishing on the Great Lakes and has passed his knowledge on to a host of younger anglers who now make Clapper’s style of long runs, acute electronics study and deep-water dragging a regular part of their fishing arsenal.
Even as the final day of the EverStart Series Northeastern Division event was getting under way, Clapper was offering tips about propeller selection for running the Great Lakes’ rough waters to Aaron Hastings of Middletown, Md.
“Steve is a first-class guy,” Hastings commented. “He is a wealth of information who is humble and generous about his immense knowledge of these waters.”
Hastings remembers meeting Clapper several years ago after the young Hastings had endured a frustrating tournament on the Detroit River.
“We were gassing up at a convenience store, and I noticed he had great big depth finders on his boat,” Hastings recalled. “I didn’t know who he was, but I asked him about his electronics. Steve basically gave me a seminar on how to read electronics on the Great Lakes right there at the gas station. Since then I’ve done so much better up here on these waters.”
Clapper began fishing offshore on Lake Erie long before GPS, and even before Loran.
“We’d go out there with a compass and a map,” he laughed. “Some of the best spots I ever discovered, I found while being lost in the fog. I was trying to find one spot, but I’d happen upon another one that was even better.”
Clapper even remembers using the sound of geese nesting on nearby islands as position markers on foggy days.
“The thrill of finding an unmarked shoal or rock pile loaded up with great big smallies is what keeps me doing this,” the easy-going 57-year-old pro remarked. “To me there is nothing like it.”
Of course, with the advent of GPS and supertuned electronics, keeping such hot spots to himself has been a challenge.
“The miracle of GPS is kind of a double-edged sword,” Clapper said. “On the one hand, you can get right on your spot, immediately; on the other hand, so can everybody else. All it takes is for someone to see you out there, and they can lock that spot into their GPS.”
Ironically, it might be Clapper’s kindness that has kept him from winning an EverStart – his younger competitors now know many tricks of the smallmouth trade, thanks to him.
Clapper has made six top-10s in EverStarts and had finished in nearly every position except No. 1.
He begins the final day in second place, 1 pound, 9 ounces behind Bryan Coates of Amherst, Ohio.
Today, he is hoping that his kind karma will come back to repay him with his first EverStart title. One thing is for sure, he is planning to pull out all the stops to make it happen.
How far will Clapper be running today?
“Let’s put it this way,” Clapper laughed. “My co-angler had to get a Canadian license.”
Saturday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:19 a.m.
Water temperature: 76 degrees
Air temperature: 68 degrees
Expected high: 81 degrees
Wind: forecasted from the NE at 5 to 10 mph
Day’s outlook: sunny
The final weigh-in will take place at 4 p.m. at the Wal-Mart located at 3606 Mayfield road in Cleveland.