By BassFan Staff
The morning matches at the Bassmaster Classic Bracket started and ended with a bang.
Steve Kennedy landed the biggest fish of the first session – a 4-03 smallmouth – on his first cast while Dave Lefebre swung a 3-08 largemouth into the boat seconds before time expired in his quarterfinal duel with Kelley Jaye.
Kennedy, the top seed this week at Lake Pokegama, added a 2-15 soon after his first one and then went more than an hour before he caught another keeper. He finished with four fish for 11-09 and trails No. 8 seed Jacob Powroznik, who caught a day-best 13 keepers, the best five of which weighed 13-07.
Lefebre’s last-second catch gave him his biggest fish of the morning and padded his lead over Jaye to more than 3 1/2 pounds. Lefebre wound up with 12-13 while Jaye caught 9-03.
In the two afternoon matches, Ish Monroe set the pace with a 12-15 limit as he opened a 9 1/2-pound lead over Jonathon VanDam, who struggled with two keepers for 3-08.
Mike Iaconelli leads fellow New Jersey pro Adrian Avena by 2-plus pounds. Ike recorded a limit for 10-00 while Avena had four for 7-12.
Overall, five of the eight anglers recorded limits and Kennedy's kicker was the lone fish over 4 pounds. There were five other fish caught that weighed 3 pounds or more.
Below is a brief summary of how the four quarterfinal matches stand after 1 day of competition:
> Match 1: Jacob Powroznik (5, 13-07) leads Steve Kennedy (4, 11-09)
> Match 2: Dave Lefebre (5, 12-13) leads Kelley Jaye (5, 9-03)
> Match 3: Ish Monroe (5, 12-15) leads Jonathon VanDam (2, 3-08)
> Match 4: Mike Iaconelli (5, 10-00) leads Adrian Avena (4, 7-12)
The anglers who competed Tuesday afternoon (VanDam-Combs and Iaconelli-Avena) will return to the water Wednesday morning for the completion of their matches while the group that fished Tuesday morning (Kennedy-Powroznik and Jaye-Lefebre) won’t fish again until Wednesday afternoon.
The morning session was dominated by heavy cloud cover while the afternoon saw the sun break through. A persistent wind hung around all day and will be a theme throughout the week. A storm system is expected to move through the Grand Rapids area this evening and overnight and the morning session on Wednesday could be contested in the rain.
No Surprises For Powroznik
> Day 1: Powroznik – 13-07 (5), Kennedy – 11-09 (4)
Powroznik said things played out about how he expected them to and he doesn’t expect to make many changes for Wednesday.
He caught the most keepers (13) of any of the four morning anglers and did most of his damage with a wacky-worm around docks.
“This lake is full of grass,” he said. “They’re just on little grass points. It’s nothing secretive. It’s either that or boat docks. I thought it was about how I thought it’d go. I thought I could catch 12 to 13 (pounds) without catching a big one.”
When he got word that Kennedy had started strong, he switched to limit mode and caught his fifth keeper at 9:45 a.m. EST. Kennedy caught his third not long after, but then Powroznik caught the next seven keepers and was up to 13-07 before Kennedy caught his fourth.
“He started with a big one so I said I had to go catch a limit, which didn’t take very long,” he added. “You just have to keep moving. When they were here before with MLF, they were finding them grouped up. I think they’re there, but if you catch two or three, you have to let them group back up.”
His goal for Wednesday is to match his production from today.
“I will try to catch 11 or 12 pounds and see what happens,” he added.
Kennedy was understandably frustrated that he failed to register a limit, especially after seeing the first three keepers he caught.
After breaking the 10-pound mark with a 3-08 he caught at 9:54 a.m. EST, he didn’t catch another keeper – a 15-ouncer – until 11:19 with about 10 minutes left in the session.
“I hate that leaving that opening of one fish,” he said. "That’s huge. That’s an easy pound or 1 1/2 pounds.”
After his first three fish, all caught off the same area, he figured he was on his way to a good start. Then he had a couple pike bites and he moved away from the spot.
“I put three in the boat that were all around 3 pounds or better and thought I’d get to 15 (pounds) before it’s done,” he added. “I had one good dock where I caught that 15-ouncer and two other shorts. There were more under there. From there, I only had 10 minutes left so I had no time to run and fish. I stayed and fished what was there. Three hours is definitely a crunch for time.”
He anticipates some changes in conditions for the Wednesday afternoon session, just like it was different today was Monday’s practice period.
“I think it’s going to be post-front and might be severe clear skies with a west wind, which is totally opposite of what we’ve had,” he said. “That swimbait on post-frontal days is usually my Achillies heel, but I’m going to go try.”
Lefebre Pads Lead in Final Seconds
> Day 1: Lefebre – 12-13 (5), Jaye – 9-03 (5)
Lefebre has competed in Major League Fishing Selects and Ultimate Match Fishing events. He says he might like this bracket format more than either.
“It’s a tweak from the other two,” he said. “I like it better because it’s not all one day. We have another day to size it up and make adjustments.”
It was his adjustment to target docks over the last hour this morning that helped him upgrade his weight and has him excited for the final half of his match. He started in the same vicinity as Kennedy and caught a 2 1/2-pound smallmouth to get his day going. He went nearly two hours before landing his next keeper.
“Steve and I tried to start on the same spot and he caught a 4-plus on his first cast,” he said. “I stayed there too long. They’re there, but didn’t bite in the morning. I thought I’d catch five smallmouth, but I couldn’t get them to bite.”
Ultimately, he moved shallow and focused on docks. He broke off what would’ve his biggest fish of the day, then bounced back with a 2-08 for his fourth keeper.
“I excited myself because I didn’t have time to fish docks Monday in practice,” he said." I feel rejuvenated. I didn’t think that was the deal. Now, I’m 100-percent sure it can be won that way.”
Not that he needed more evidence, but his final catch provided a dramatic conclusion to the morning session. He pitched his jig under a boat lift with roughly 15 seconds left. He set the hook and swung the fish over the side of the boat with three seconds to spare. It was a 3-08, his best fish of the day. It gave him a 1-pound, 10-ounce upgrade.
“That’s never happened to me, but I had that all planned out in my head with getting it over the side in time,” he said.
Jaye was headed to a local tackle store Tuesday afternoon to get some more braided line. He hopes it’ll prevent the break offs he endured in the morning from happening again.
“My big one broke off and (Lefebre) caught his biggest with 3 seconds to go,” Jaye said. “That was the difference. I lost some fish that hurt me today. I don’t know what I did wrong other than what I’m fishing around. With all these metal docks, I’m making my first cast out in front of them hoping to get them to come out. After that, you have to throw in there and it’s a 50-50 proposition of getting them out.
“I’ll just go back tomorrow and try again and hope it works in my favor.”
He started near a bridge, then moved to a spot where he hoped to catch some fish on a topwater. He plans to alter his early rotation tomorrow as he doesn’t anticipate the topwater spot to be a factor in the afternoon.
“My starting spot, I don’t think I spent enough time there, but I will spend more time there tomorrow and hope to keep them buckled up,” he added.
Monroe Starts Strong
> Day 1: Monroe – 12-15 (5), VanDam – 3-08 (2)
Ish Monroe has had a run of bad luck recently that even he struggles to understand. He had things happen at the Angler of the Year Championship that he’d never seen before – a fish he had hooked swam into the side of his boat and knocked the hook free, for example – but today, everything went his way as he opened up a sizable lead on VanDam.
Monroe never trailed today and had 5-01 (three fish) on his scoresheet before VanDam recorded a keeper. Monroe’s third fish was a 3-03 largemouth and served as the big fish of the afternoon session. After VanDam caught two straight, Monroe answered with the two more to finish his first limit, which weighed 8-02. He upgraded four times before the session’s conclusion.
While Monroe worked around docks and shallow grass that grew up out of the water, VanDam committed most of his time to offshore areas in search of smallmouth.
“Today, every fish came in the boat,” Monroe said. “I had a 3-pounder wrapped around a metal dock post and he swam out away from it and when I swung him in the boat, he comes off the hook. That’s what should be happening to me. Not the stuff that did happen to me.”
Monroe said he’s going to take a wait-and-see approach to his game plan on Wednesday. Knowing he has a huge lead, he’s not focused on duplicating his weight.
“I’m not trying to catch 13 (pounds) again,” he said. “My goal is to see what happens in the first hour and try to catch a limit and go find something new. I need to have more fish for the rest of the week.
“My deal with the smallmouth didn’t happen today because we didn’t have any sun. Those fish act weird when there’s no sun and there’s not enough largemouth to survive on with everybody hammering on them.”
It was a frustrating day for VanDam, who caught some decent fish during practice on Monday. He spent the first 90 minutes fishing off the bank and when he realized half of the session was gone and he still didn’t have a keeper, he shifted gears.
“I had to make something happen,” he said. “I didn’t have a bass at that point. I’ve never been here before, so I was trying to see as much as I could.”
He caught two keepers within five minutes of each other on a shallow grass flat.
He knows overcoming a 9 1/2-pound deficit in three hours is going to be a tall order Wednesday.
“It’s a northern fishery,” he said. “I think if I can run into the smallmouth somewhere, I know it’s only 3 hours and it’s not very likely, but the only real way I can foreseeably catch up is to find them offshore.”
Ike Takes Charge
> Day 1: Iaconelli – 10-00 (5), Avena – 7-12 (4)
Iaconelli is a veteran of MLF competition, which features timed periods on the water. He’s also no stranger to Pokegama, where he won a round of competition during an MLF event last year.
That experience translated nicely in the opening portion of his match with Avena. While Iaconelli’s fish weren't sizable – his biggest was 2-11 – he settled into a groove of fishing a jig around docks before sliding out to some offshore pencil reeds to catch a couple upgrades later in the session.
Avena was the last of the four afternoon competitors to register a keeper and his first two (both 2-plus pounders) came in quick succession from under an old bridge.
Iaconelli called his effort today a “decent start,” and he is excited for the potential tomorrow holds.
“The whole game is to get to the next round, so from that respect, it was a good start,” he said. “The other side to that is don’t feel like I’m super dialed in yet. That worries me a little bit. You want to come into these things and look at a bank and say, ‘That’s where a fish is going to be.’ I don’t feel like I’m there yet.”
His main adjustment today was managing the three hours on the water. In MLF events, the time is broken up into periods so having just one chunk of time took some getting used to.
“I put my head down and fished and then asked for an update and my official was like, ‘You have an hour left,’” he said. “I was like, ‘What?’ I’m excited about tomorrow. I’m going to pick up where I left off, but we’ll be dealing with different conditions and a different time of day.
“As much as I want to do what was successful today, I want to keep an open mind and mix in some other stuff.”
When Avena didn’t get a bite on his first spot, he knew he’d be scrambling the rest of the session.
“I started on a grass stretch and didn’t get a bite and by then a third of the time is already gone,” he said.
He was also disappointed that he didn’t have more success around docks like several of the other competitors did.
“I knew it was going to be tough,” he added. “It was just a grind. I really thought I’d get more bites fishing docks than what I did. I’m not out of it, but I still feel like I didn’t figure anything out today. In that sense, it’s a little frustrating.”
He’s going to wait to see what the weather is like in the morning before deciding what to do, but he’s ready to abandon the part of the lake he fished today.
“I’m going to start on the total opposite side of the lake tomorrow and treat it like practice again and fish what it’s front of me,” he said.
Notable
> There were a total of 56 keepers caught (33 in the morning, 23 in the afternoon).
Weather Forecast
> Wed., Sept. 20 – Scattered thunderstorms, then cloudy - 67°/48°
- Wind: From the WSW at 10 to 15 mph
> Thurs., Sept. 21 – Mostly Sunny - 74°/62°
- Wind: From the SE at 10 to 15 mph
> Fri., Sept. 22 – Mix of Clouds, Sun - 79°/62°
- Wind: From the SSE at 10 to 15 mph
