Urban bassing

Second EverStart Series Northeastern begins from downtown Cleveland

CLEVELAND – This morning, 200 bass boats idled around in the shadows of Cleveland Browns Stadium awaiting the day-one takeoff of the second EverStart Series event in the Northeast Division being held on Lake Erie.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “I thought FLW Outdoors just had an EverStart Series event on Lake Erie last week.” That’s correct, but that was the EverStart Northern Division stop out of Trenton, Mich.

This week, a different field of EverStart Series anglers is sampling Lake Erie waters. Northeastern Division anglers who were hoping to cash in on some of the phenomenal smallmouth fishing experienced by the Northern Division anglers last week might be a little disappointed, though.

Not that fishing is bad, but last week’s tournament featured several days of perfect summer weather that allowed anglers to make long runs to premium smallmouth grounds.

This week, however, the weather has taken a bit of a wrong turn for smallmouth enthusiasts.

Last night, severe storms lashed the shores of Lake Erie near Cleveland with winds pushing 75 mph. At the Burke-Lakefront Airport, several small airplanes were ripped from their tethers and tossed into airport fencing. At the Holiday Inn Select at City Centre Lakeshore, the official housing for the tournament, several cars had their windows completely blown out from the malicious winds.

Things were calmer this morning as cloudy skies and a few rain showers still lingered in the area. What’s worrying anglers now is the post-frontal north wind that is supposed to kick up to about 10 to 15 mph this afternoon, making for rough boat rides back to the launch site at Voinovich Park.

Al Gagliarducci of Agawam, Mass., who fished the EverStart Northern last week, had his eyes glued to the American Flag flying high in the official Wal-Mart takeoff boat this morning.

“We didn’t have to deal with this stuff last week,” he said. “But it’s certainly going to be a factor this week. The wind is kind of a west-southwest right now, which is doable, but if it shifts around and starts getting some north in it this afternoon, it could get nasty out here.”

What Gagliarducci calls “doable” is making a long 60-mile run to the west where the big smallmouth sacks came from last week.

If the wind hinders anglers, Gagliarducci predicts that weights will be way down from last week.

“The problem is that there is not a whole lot of stuff to fish right here close around Cleveland,” he said. “It’s all flat sand and mud. You have to run either 20 miles to the west or east before you start finding some good rocks and reefs, which hold the smallies. Also, there’s nowhere to get out of a north wind except right here behind the break wall.”

The day-one weigh-in of the EverStart Series Northeastern Division begins at 2:30 p.m. at Voinovich Park in Cleveland.

Wednesday’s conditions:

Sunrise: 6:17 a.m.

Water temperature: 78 degrees

Air temperature: 75 degrees

Expected high: 81 degrees

Wind: forecasted from the NNW at 10 to 15 mph

Day’s outlook: cloudy, rainy and stormy