It’s all Pete
Gluszek opens 8-pound lead at Hudson Stren with one day left
CATSKILL, N.Y. – The tough got tougher on day three of Stren Series Northern Division competition at the Hudson River, but New Jersey pro Pete Gluszek managed to scrape together a few fish and extend his lead to more than 8 pounds heading into Saturday’s finals.
On Friday, Gluszek caught three bass weighing a collective 9 pounds, 13 ounces. On the surface, that doesn’t seem like much, but on a demanding fishery that has already seen two days of tournament action, 9-13 was downright fantastic. In fact, nobody caught a five-bass limit Friday, and Gluszek’s catch was the third-heaviest of the day.
“Yesterday was a great day,” the pro from Franklinville, N.J., said about his 16-pound limit Thursday. “I thought today was going in that direction, as well. I got two good fish in the early part of the day, but then it got tough because of the wind. I just didn’t get on them like I did yesterday.”
Gluszek, who led coming into the day, extended his Pro Division lead even further by totaling an impressive 30 pounds, 9 ounces over three days. His closest challenger heading into Saturday’s final round is Sparky Petersen, who has 22-4.
Gluszek stuck to his run-and-gun pattern up and down the river, targeting low- and high-tide bites in specific areas.
“I’ve got one pattern that seems to be good at low tide, and I’ve got one that seems to be good at high tide,” he said. “But the wind made it very, very challenging. It eliminated some of my areas today. I was very fortunate to get those two good ones early.”
He said that he’s catching most of his fish in water 5 feet deep or less, and that they are biting on a variety of baits.
“I’m throwing moving baits and slow baits, just moving all over the place,” he said. “They’re biting on all of it.”
Petersen rebounds for second
Unlike Thursday, there was no fog Friday morning, and the anglers took off on time. That made all the difference in the world for Petersen, who hauled in the second-heaviest catch of the day with four bass weighing 11 pounds, 1 ounce.
“Yesterday was bad,” he said. “I missed my tide because of the fog, and the only thing that matters here is the tide.”
Petersen, who hails from Laytonsville, Md., focused his energies, like many pros, on the ubiquitous “chestnuts,” a thick grass seemingly unique to this river. He said he caught his four bass on spinnerbaits at low tide and added that the tide is getting better for him as the week wears on.
“The low tide sucks (the bass) out of the chestnuts,” he said. “At low tide everything’s slow, and they go on an eating frenzy. At high tide they go back into the chestnuts, and you can’t get at them.”
Alexander, Lavictoire struggle, take third, fourth
Local pro Bill Alexander of Sylvan Beach, N.Y., caught just one bass weighing 2 pounds, 4 ounces Friday, but he managed to stay in third place with a three-day total of 21-14.
Thomas Lavictoire of West Rutland, Vt., also a well-known stick on the Hudson, placed fourth for the pros with a three-day total of 19 pounds, 7 ounces. He also had trouble Friday, catching just one bass weighing 2-7.
“I’m happy to have that one,” Lavictoire said. “I had two short bites and one 3- or 4-pounder jumped over a Pop-R, but that was it. So I’m just happy to get that one late in the day.”
Hensley lands three
Rounding out the top five pros was Brian Hensley of Edwardsburg, Mich., who managed to catch three keepers Friday weighing 5 pounds, 9 ounces and climbed up the leaderboard with a three-day total of 18-13.
Rest of the best
Rounding out the top 10 pros to make the cut after three days at the Hudson River:
6th: Mike Balon of Clewiston, Fla., 18-7
7th: Joe Balog of Harrison Township, Mich., 17-6
8th: David Butenewicz Jr. of Monroeville, N.J., 17-3 (heaviest day-three catch, 11-2)
9th: Chris Baumgardner of Gastonia, N.C., 17-1
10th: Edward Cowan of Greeley, Pa., 16-8
Joseph Sancho of New Windsor, N.Y., won the Snickers Big Bass award in the Pro Division thanks to a 5-pound largemouth.
Reed still co-angler leader
For the third day in a row, Charlie Reed of Hayes, Va., emerged as the Co-angler Division leader after he managed to catch another keeper from the back of the boat. His one bass weighing 3 pounds, 11 ounces pushed his three-day total to 14-14.
Rest of the best
Larry Perry of Hurricane, W.Va., took second with a three-day total of 12 pounds, 10 ounces. He caught one bass weighing 1-11 Friday.
Co-angler Chuck George of Upton, Mass., made the cut in third place with a total weight of 10 pounds, 14 ounces. He caught 2-6 Friday.
Cody Kupferschmidt of Gravenhurst, Ont., took fourth place for the co-anglers with a three-day weight of 10 pounds, 6 ounces. His weight Friday was a relatively hefty 5-13.
Mark Condron of Wilton, Conn., rounded out the top five co-anglers with a three-day weight of 10 pounds, 4 ounces.
Notably, both Kupferschmidt and Condron are 17 years old.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers:
6th: Bill Spindler of Turnersville, N.J., 10-0
7th: Howard Hammonds of Portersville, Pa., 9-13
8th: Mike Orbell of Silver Spring, Md., 8-9
9th: Raymond Crowley of Albany, N.Y., 7-15
10th: Boyd Dowell of Minerva, Ohio, 7-15
Eddie Martin of Stanton, Ky., won the Snickers Big Bass award in the Co-angler Division thanks to a 4-pound, 11-ounce bass.
Final round Saturday
Day four of Northern Division competition at the Hudson River begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Catskill Point Park at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. Each division’s winner will be determined by four-day combined weight.