Big Muddy cluster

Feldermann leads opening round at La Crosse; leaderboard tight

ONALASKA, Wis. – The wind blew at a steady 15 to 20 mph across the expanse of the Mississippi River Valley Thursday, and it seemed to whip the Pro Division leaderboard into an even tighter jumble than it was Wednesday. Emerging from the maelstrom was river rat Mike Feldermann of Galena, Ill., who took top honors in the two-day opening round of EverStart Series Northern Division competition with a 10-bass weight of 27 pounds, 13 ounces.

Feldermann’s lead was slight, however. Second-place pro Jim Jones came in just 2 ounces behind him, and Feldermann sat just 1-9 ahead of Chris Cox in 10th place.

The wind didn’t seem to bother Feldermann, though. A Mississippi River specialist, he has collected no fewer than 28 Wal-Mart BFL top-10 finishes over his career, the bulk of which came on various stretches of the Mississippi. Included in that are four BFL victories on the river. Additionally, Feldermann finished fourth in the Mississippi River EverStart tournament launched out of Welch, Minn., last year and finished third in the same event in 2002. He also finished fourth in the 1998 BFL All-American held here in La Crosse, Wis.

So changing conditions didn’t get to Feldermann as much as it did some other pros, but even he said he wasn’t as confident as he could be about his fishing Thursday.

“Not really,” he said. “I’m not getting a lot of bites, but the ones I am getting are decent.”

The leader ran about 50 miles downriver to the Lansing pool, or Pool 9, and focused his energies on catching bigger largemouths in shallow cover like eel grass, lily pads and duck weed. With a 13-pound, 15-ounce limit on day one and a 13-14 limit on day two, he said that he caught the bulk of fish on a Team Supreme swim jig, which is turning out to be a very popular bait here this week.

“I caught eight keepers (today),” Feldermann said. “It’s the area that I’m fishing. In practice, the fish were scattered, but this spot has historically been good for some bigger fish.”

Jones second with 27-11

Jones, who hails from Big Bend, Wis., landed in second place for the pros with a two-day, 10-bass weight of 27 pounds, 13 ounces.

He said the wind pushed his baitfish around and hurt his fishing somewhat Thursday, but he still managed to catch around 20 keeper fish.

“I’m fishing wing dams,” Jones said with a laugh. “You can catch fish anywhere here, but the Mississippi River’s a spot-fishing deal to get bigger ones. It’s all about the area.”

Jones, too, said he threw a swim jig Thursday, his made by Brovarney.

Local pro Johnson takes third

Right behind Jones in third place is Jim Johnson of La Crosse, who caught 10 bass weighing 27 pounds, 10 ounces in the opening round.

Johnson used a Carolina-rigged lizard Thursday to combat the windier conditions and get his bait down to sandy drop-offs.

“It’s an area that holds big fish,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going to make the cut with just 12 pounds, so I wasn’t fishing just for fish, I was fishing for big fish.”

It paid off. He hauled in the day’s second-heaviest limit – 14-12 – which was buoyed by the day’s Snickers Big Bass, a 5-2 largemouth, which earned him $650. He caught it around 2 p.m., just before check-in time.

Another Howland climbs leaderboard

Tom Howland of Riceville, Iowa, grabbed the fourth slot for the pros with a 10-bass opening-round weight of 27 pounds, 10 ounces. He ended up switching spots in the top 10 with his brother, Robert, who placed second on day one but fell out of the cut on day two.

“I’m fishing completely different kind of stuff than my brother,” Howland said. “I’m fishing shallow, running 6 inches of water to get to stuff that’s 2 feet deep.”

Howland said he’s also throwing a Team Supreme swim jig and is focusing on wood cover and weeds.

“Honestly, my brother found most of these fish,” said Howland, who ran down to Pool 9 both days of the opening round. “But he took one end of pool and I took the other end, and it paid off.”

Reigning Mississippi River champ fifth

Like Feldermann, Jeff Ritter of Prairie du Chien, Wis., is a river specialist. Last year, he won the EverStart event held upriver at Welch. He’s making a bid to defend that title by placing fifth Thursday with a 10-bass opening-round weight of 27 pounds, 9 ounces.

But he, too, was somewhat discouraged by the blustery conditions.

“Today was actually really tough,” Ritter said. “The wind was blowing the grass around, and the smallmouth weren’t really on a steady bite.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the opening-round cut into Friday’s competition at the Mississippi River:

6th: Fred Roumbanis of Auburn, Calif., 10 bass, 27-5

7th: Clayton Reitz of Morton, Ill., 10 bass, 26-13 (day-one leader)

8th: Bill Lowen of Cincinnati, 10 bass, 26-12

9th: Randy Wieczorek of Buffalo City, Wis., 10 bass, 26-8

10th: Chris Cox of Appleton, Wis., 10 bass, 26-4

Notable

• By making the cut, 10th-place Cox is making a bid to win back-to-back EverStart tournaments in the same division. He won the first Northern Division tournament of the season at the Detroit River in July. Craig Powers of Rockwood, Tenn., made history earlier this season by winning back-to-back EverStarts – West Point Lake and Kerr Lake – but they were in two different divisions.

• Tom Monsoor of La Crosse – who won the EverStart event when it was last held here in La Crosse, in 2001, and was considered a heavy favorite this week – surprised a lot of people by missing the cut and finishing the tournament in 16th place. Said Monsoor: “The wind blew us off my spot today, so we had to come back down here and scramble for a limit.”

Conrad hangs on to co-angler lead

Day-one co-angler leader Richard Conrad of Eau Claire, Wis., held on to the top spot by catching another limit and amassing a two-day total weight of 21 pounds, 11 ounces. He caught limits both days of the opening round.

“We caught our limits by 10 o’clock, then the bite got tougher in the afternoon,” said Conrad, who added that he fished in Pool 9 with pro Joseph Hall Thursday, throwing tubes and spinnerbaits on a weed pattern. “There’s no substitute for great partners.”

Second place on the co-angler side went to Stephen Copps of La Crosse for a 10-bass weight of 21 pounds, 6 ounces.

Co-angler Mark Grahn Sr. of Wautoma, Wis., placed third with a nine-bass weight of 20 pounds, 11 ounces.

B.J. Nelson of Louisa, Ky., qualified in fourth place for the co-anglers with a 10-bass weight of 20 pounds, 10 ounces.

Richard Herold of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, rounded out the top five co-anglers with a nine-bass weight of 20 pounds, 1 ounce. He also won the $230 Snickers Big Bass award on the co-angler side for a 4-pound, 13-ounce kicker largemouth.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers to make the cut:

6th: Homer Stephens of Noblesvile, Ind., 10 bass, 20-0

7th: Mike Devere of Berea, Ky., eight bass, 18-6

8th: Ben Kurth of West St. Paul, Minn., seven bass, 18-3

9th: Robert Horick of St. Petersburg, Fla., nine bass, 18-2

10th: Daniel Mancini of Necedah, Wis., seven bass, 17-14

Into the cut

Day three of Northern Division competition at the Mississippi River begins as the semifinal-round field of 10 boats takes off from Clinton Street Landing in La Crosse at 6 a.m. Central time. Anglers’ weights are reset to zero for Friday, and winners in both fields are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight over the next two days.