Strong winds kept the field at the Detroit River Northern Toyota Series confined to the river itself on day 1, but four anglers still managed to exceed the 20-pound mark. Troy Stokes led the way with 21-04.
“It was crazy, I started fishing, and I hit some honey holes first thing, and there’s like 10 boats on everything,” said Stokes. “I have some other stuff that no one is fishing and I just kept bouncing around until I hit them.”
Stokes says that he never fished next to another boat after his starting spot, and he caught his bigger fish one at a time.
“I’ve got maybe one school, but they’re not big,” he says. “But it’s a good spot to get a limit. The spots where I caught the big ones, it was pretty much just one big one. I didn’t do anything special, just regular smallmouth stuff. I caught one on a spinnerbait, other than that, it was a drop-shot for the most part.”
Here's a look at the initial Top 10:
1. Troy Stokes: 21-04
2. Scott Dobson: 20-14
3. Dan Mittlestat: 20-09
4. Wilson Burton: 20-07
5. Josh Kolodzaike: 19-10
6. Jim Vitaro: 19-02
7. Tom Beale: 18-13
8. Randy Ramsey: 18-09
9. Mike Trombly: 18-04
10. Matthew Kiefer: 18-01
