EverStart rookie Vitaro lights up Sandusky leaderboard, takes pro lead
Co-angler Will tops both divisions with hefty 22 1/2-pound catch
SANDUSKY, Ohio – Of the 330 or so competitors here in northern Ohio this week, no one has been luckier than Jim Vitaro to this point. The Wooster, Ohio, native landed five bass weighing 20 pounds, 14 ounces to nab the Pro Division lead on day one of the third EverStart Series Northern Division tournament of the year. He did it despite a terrible week of practice that included mechanical breakdowns and a drought of fish. Today, Mother Nature also intervened and tried to derail his efforts with some nasty weather, but by afternoon the EverStart rookie had prevailed.
“I just had bad luck all week (in practice),” the 32-year-old angler said. “I burned out a hub (last) Wednesday and had to have the parts overnighted here on Thursday. Then I only caught two keepers each on Saturday and Sunday.”
His confidence bruised, Vitaro went home Sunday to regroup. When he saw the weather was going to take a nasty turn come tournament time, he almost gave up hope. To make matters worse, he didn’t know for sure if he was even going to compete this week. As of Tuesday, he was still on the roster waiting list. He came up to Sandusky anyway and decided to give it the old college try.
Good thing he did. On Tuesday Vitaro found a nice cache of smallmouth “way up north in Canada,” as he put it, and his number was called Tuesday night to fish the tourney today. This morning he caught 18 pounds of solid Lake Erie smallies by 8:30. He was culling 3-pounders out of his livewell and working his way into a 13-ounce lead over fellow Ohioan Joe Balog (20 pounds, 1 ounce) by afternoon.
But those extra two pounds were not easy pickings. “They were feeding right away and then that storm came in,” Vitaro said. “We were out in 3- to 5-foot waves.”
More alarmingly, lightning threatened to put a serious damper on an otherwise successful day. Vitaro said, at one point, his fishing rod began to buzz and his line would drift upwards on an electrical current instead of the usual downwards after his cast.
But, fortunately, the only shocking event of the day was the impressive number of huge smallmouth bass brought in by the entire field today. Thirty-five percent of the Pro Division and 16 percent of the Co-Angler Division weighed in five-bass limits on day one, almost all of which were comprised of smallies. The bountiful Sandusky Bay smallmouth fishery – which suffers relatively little pressure from northern anglers who tend to fish mainly for walleye, pike and lake trout – looks like it might establish a new mark for weight in the Northern Division. Based on today’s catches, it looks like pros will need at least 30 pounds of fish after two days to make the top-30 cut into the semifinal round. The leader after tomorrow could top out at over 40 pounds for the opening round.
Vitaro, who used a watermelon tube in 10 to 32 feet of water to catch his quarry, likes his chances. “I’m going to go out there tomorrow and get my limit,” he said. “I should make the cut with another 15 pounds.”
Following Vitaro on the leaderboard, all with impressive catches, were Balog (2nd) of Independence, Ohio with five bass; Jack Bell (T-3rd) of Kane, Pa., with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 10 ounces; Paul Rambo (T-3rd) of Brighton, Mich., with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 10 ounces; and Larry Bailey (5th) of Vermillion, Ohio, with five bass weighing 19 pounds, 6 ounces.
Big bass and $750 in the Pro Division went to Hal Graham of Toledo, Ohio, for a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth.
Ted Will’s unique rig yields excellent results
It was a day of big stringers across the board, but none was bigger than co-angler Ted Will’s – in either division. Will, who fished with second-place pro Balog near Pelee Island, worked his way into the co-angler lead with a dominating five-bass weight of 22 pounds, 7 ounces. His weight was a full 3 pounds, 7 ounces more than co-angler Dwight Ameling’s runner-up weight of 19 pounds even and 1 pound, 9 ounces more than pro leader Vitaro’s weight.
“It feels great, especially leading both sides,” said Will, who finished seventh earlier this year at the first Northern Division event in LaCrosse, Wis.
But, curiously, Will said he probably would not have pulled such big fish out of Lake Erie if he were a healthy man. To hear him tell it, he credits his fishing success to a pair of bad shoulders.
“I have bursitis in both my shoulders,” he explained. “So it doesn’t take much pull to cause me pain.”
To avoid having to make painfully hard hook sets, Will uses a 50-pound test braided line with a 30-pound test leader tipped with a 1/2- to ¾-ounce walleye sinker, No. 4 hook and dark watermelon tube. In addition to resisting the line-cutting action of zebra mussels in Lake Erie, he said the unique Carolina rig allows a subtle feel and eases the tension on a strike.
“My partner would break one off and I’d hit it,” he said.
As far as continued success this week, Will said he’d find a way regardless of who his pro partner is.
“It’s really irrelevant,” he said. “As long as he’s got some fish, I’ll slap that tube on the line and reel them all in.”
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Ameling, of Fremont, Ind.; Bill Selawsky Jr. (3rd) of Edison, N.J., with five bass weighing 17 pounds, 8 ounces; Warren Thomas (4th) of Lakewood, Wis., with five bass weighing 16 pounds, 2 ounces; and Don Amari (5th) of Fort Wayne, Ind., with five bass weighing 16 pounds even.
Big bass and $250 in the Co-Angler Division went to Lester Morgan of Beavercreek, Ohio, for a 5-pound, 6-ounce smallmouth.
Tomorrow’s takeoff is scheduled to take place at 6 a.m. at Bickely’s Boat Dock located at 101 Shelby Street in Sandusky. Weigh-in is scheduled for 3 p.m. at the same location.
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