Lake Erie Top 5 Patterns – Day 2
Pros making longer runs are beginning to dominate the standings
The final day of the Toyota Series Northern Division event on Lake Erie is likely to change things up quite a bit. With many of the top pros making long runs, there’s a chance much of what happened on days one and two will be physically impossible on day three.
Through two days, Troy Stokes is leading the way, but he’s not wildly ahead of the rest of the pack. Considering the quality available in Erie and the variables on the table, anyone in the top five could have a shot tomorrow.
2. Dick Parker – Lorain, Ohio – 35-13 (10)
Running east to near Vermilion, Dick Parker did the best of anyone who crossed the 19-pound mark on day two. So, despite only wrangling 16-8, he moved up to second.
“It was very slow,” says Parker. “I can’t get these fish concentrated. I had to fish bigger areas. I can’t find them grouped up on one spot.”
Mostly fishing a drop-shot on break lines, Parker is fishing in anywhere from 10 to 15 feet of water most of the time. Today, he says he caught several of his bigger fish off the breaks in 17 or 18 feet.
Running a deep-V and armed with a lot of experience on Erie, Parker isn’t afraid of the wind.
“A good wind would probably help me,” says Parker. “The way they’re spread out, it might concentrate them.”
3. Drew Sanford – Springfield, Mo. – 34-14 (10)
Fishing rock piles in 18 to 20 feet with a drop-shot was the ticket for Sanford, but he had to dramatically mix it up today. As a result, he’s the highest finishing pro so far who’s weighed any largemouths.
“I caught two good ones out deep where I had been fishing, and I don’t know what happened,” he says. “I ran through all my stuff from yesterday. I culled 10 keepers yesterday, and never had a bite [today]. At 11:20, I caught my second good one, and I said that by noon, if I didn’t have another, I’d make a decision.”
Come noon, Sanford was running back toward takeoff with just two in the box. After plucking a cruiser in shallow water next to an island, Sanford had to adjust due to the increasing wind.
“I ran into one of the bays, and I caught a 2-pounder on a swimbait and caught another and then another and culled,” says Sanford. “When that storm started coming, I pulled in and caught my largemouth, and as soon as it got here, they shut off. When I caught my largemouth, it was one after another. Tomorrow, as fast as I caught those largemouth, I’m probably going to try to stick a limit of largemouth first and then go out to my big fish.”
4. Chase Serafin – White Lake, Mich. – 33-11 (10)
A standout collegiate angler from Adrian College, this is Chase Serafin’s first solo event with FLW. So far, he’s been going for the gusto, running to the Detroit River each day.
“When I got down there today, it was hot and heavy real fast,” says Serafin. “I think I caught four of the five I weighed in in the first half hour. Then it slowed down, and it was a rough ride back.
“Most of the stuff I’m fishing is pretty deep – like 22 feet off the edge and 18 feet on the top,” says Serafin. “In practice, I was able to drift stretches and catch a lot of big fish. Yesterday, it was so slicked off I couldn’t drift, and I think my biggest mistake was casting up on top of the rock piles too shallow. I spent too much time fishing on top, and my co-angler was fishing off the sides. I made some adjustments and I was able to drift more along the edges of the rock piles.”
Mostly fishing a drop-shot and a tube in the river, Serafin doesn’t think Saturday’s weather will allow him to go back, but he’s prepared for any eventuality.
“I’m gonna wait and see,” he says of his decision. “I think there’s a good chance we get locked down. I fished tournaments here three years in college, and two of the years we got locked down in the bay. I’ve got some largemouth stuff I can run in the bay if I have to. If they let us go, I don’t think I’ll be able to run all the way down there, but hopefully I can get out to the islands or do something.”
5. Jonathan Dietz – Corry, Penn. – 33-10 (10)
The second angler in the top five to mix some largemouths in, Jonathan Dietz is looking forward to whatever the final day brings.
“On the final day of practice, I found a little sweet spot,” says Dietz. “It’s flat slate rock that breaks up into big boulders. It was just an isolated spot that had a whole bunch of big ones on it.
“When I went there the first day of the tournament, that’s where I caught all my weight. With the rain this morning and last night, it had the water clouded up, so they weren’t there as good, but I caught a couple there and a 3-pounder.”
After scraping what he could off his sweet rock, Dietz ran back into Sandusky Bay to fish for largemouth. Targeting bass chasing shad with a Megabass Vision 110, Dietz ended up weighing three largemouths on day two.
“It was around the bridges where you could see the current shooting through,” says Dietz. “I was just throwing around the high spots, which would concentrate the bass. I caught probably 30 fish today; it was just trying to get the size.”
For his part, Dietz is fine staying close on the final day.
“I’m really hoping they confine it to the bay tomorrow,” he says. “That wind is going to trash my smallie spot, but I spent a good bit of time practicing in the bay, so I have plenty of spots to run. There’s 20-pound bags in the bay, and I think 18 pounds is possible for sure.”