Jakub claims co-angler title in Detroit
Rookie wins by 1 ounce over past champion Fabiszak
TRENTON, Mich. – When you fish on Lake Erie with pro angler Steve Clapper and he gives you a little advice, it’s best if you listen to him. That’s what Aaron Jakub did Saturday, and it helped him win the Co-angler Division and $6,000 at the last EverStart Series Northern Division tournament of the season.
Jakub endured the 45-mile run out to Clapper’s fishing area near Pelee Island on Lake Erie and was enjoying a prolific bite, but he had problems early in the day. The 7-foot waves were shaking his hook loose before the smallmouths could really hang on.
“(Clapper) said that I had too big of a hook,” Jakub said. “He gave me a smaller hook so it could set in their mouths better.”
The tactic worked. Coupled with a change in bait – he switched to a green ISG tube that Clapper also gave him – Jakub started getting them into the boat.
“I noticed an immense difference in how they were slamming it,” he said.
Jakub then used some last-minute heroics – catching his last two bass with only 30 minutes remaining, including landing his fifth fish on his very last cast – to amass a weight of 18 pounds, 12 ounces. The co-angler from Lincoln, Neb., fishing in his first season on the EverStart Series, came home and collected his first-ever tournament victory.
But just barely. Ron Fabiszak came in with 18 pounds, 11 ounces. The co-angler from South Bend, Ind., looked like he might win his second Northern Division tourney in two years, but then Jakub pulled up and beat him by 1 ounce.
“Thank God (the tournament’s) over,” said the 28-year-old Jakub, who works at an emergency shelter for abused children. “But I want to stay here and fish every day.”
Fabiszak, who won at the Mississippi River, Wis., in 2001, had a familiar feeling as he watched his fellow co-anglers bring big sacks to the scale.
“The last time I was up there, it was the same thing,” he explained, saying it’s no fun to have to wait and watch the rest of the field try and beat you during the weigh-in.
But last time, he was the windshield. This time, he was the bug.
“I knew that I didn’t have it,” said Fabiszak, who won $4,000. “I just had that feeling.”
Following Jakub and Fabiszak in the Co-angler Division were Kenneth Taylor (3rd place, $3,500) of Shelby Township, Mich., with a weight of 17 pounds, 8 ounces; Scott Green (4th, $3,000) of Essex Junction, Vt., with 16-14; and Robert Suci (5th, $2,500) of Flint, Mich., with 16-0.
All of the top five co-anglers weighed in a five-bass limits, and eight out of the 10 co-angler finalists weighed in limits.
The next EverStart Series event is the EverStart Series Championship to be held at Lake Martin, Ala., Nov. 6-9.
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