Day two of the Costa FLW Series Northern Division event presented by Mercury at 1000 Islands got started on a slightly different note this morning when FLW’s tournament directors declared Lake Ontario off limits due to hazardous conditions. The change threw a few of the top pros off their primary plans, but regardless the 137-boat field will be cut down to the top 10 after today, so adjustments need to be made in order to qualify to fish the weekend.

Leader Scott Dobson actually caught a few of his big ones yesterday from the river and seemed confident he could wrangle a few more today. Our camera boats weren’t able to get up with him, which isn’t a surprise since there are only a few thousand islands for him to hide among.

As a general observation, pros seemed to be covering water a lot faster today. Most of that could be due to the fact that many anglers spent very little practice time in the river and are now in search mode. They didn’t necessarily write off the river as being a bad fishery. Rather, the odds of catching a 5- or 6-pounder are much higher in the lake than the river, and those are the bites you need to separate yourself from the pack at 1000 Islands. Thus, they focused on the lake in practice.

Much of the dock talk this morning hinted at the river’s population of largemouths being exploited today more so than the smallmouths because largemouths are easier to pinpoint – and less finicky – than the smallies.

Tune in a 2 p.m. ET to see who can adapt and survive to fish the final round.