HILTS: Japanese angler wins Erie-Niagara Bass Tourney

COMMENTARY

By Bill Hilts Jr.

Inspired by a dying father in Japan, Kotaro Kiriyama of Moody,Alabama came up with back-to-back 25 pound limits — including a 25-pound, nine-ounce day on the final day of the tournament — to win his first Bass Angler Sportsman Society event ever. The contest was held July 31 through Aug. 3 out of the NFTA Boat Harbor in Buffalo. The one day catch was the largest brought to the scales in two years of BASS tournaments. The previous high? Kiriyama’s Saturday total.

Kiriyama won the $100,000 check by placing first overall in the Erie-Niagara Bassmaster Elite Series Empire Chase with a four-day total catch of 93 pounds, six ounces — 50 pounds, nine ounces just from the weekend. He redeemed himself from last year when he placed second overall, a feat he’s done four times in other BASS events. But he wanted to win one for his dad, the reason that the 37-year-old angler was here in the first place. Eighteen years ago, his father told him to go to America and find his future. Today, he wants to be a professional fisherman the rest of his life. His father has stage 4 kidney cancer and is in the final days of his life. He can now rest at ease knowing that his son has finally found himself in America.

Aaron Martens of Leeds, Alabama was a distant eight pounds, five ounces back in second place. Edwin Evers of Mannsville, Oklahoma, the winner in last year’s tournament on Lake Erie, was the only other angler cracking the 80 pound barrier for the tournament and placed third overall.

Kiriyama’s strategy was a gamble. He knew he needed to find some bigger fish than he did last year and he didn’t want to fish in the pack with the other anglers. He identified some bigger fish between Barcelona and the state line so the gamble was whether the Lake Erie waters would be favorable enough to be able to make the run there and back, whether or not there would be enough time to catch the fish he needed and that the other tournament anglers would continue to “share” some of the bigger fish. His strategy paid off.

His technique was a simple one, but he was using some baits no one else had access to. His approach involved light line and spinning tackle for a drop shot rig in 30 to 90 feet of water. Six pound test line, seven pound test Gama drop shot line, a No. 1 Owner hook and weights depending on how rough the lake was (heavier weights for the rougher conditions). His primary enticements were Jackall plastic baits, which included a Crosstail Shad (currently on the market) and Crazy Ninja Worm (prototype). He also used another prototype plastic that has yet to be named. They were all marinated in Berkley Gulp! juice.

Kiriyama had found some suspended fish 40 to 65 feet down over 80-90 foot depths that were responding to his drop shotting and that’s where he caught many of his bigger fish. This must have been destiny for him because he said he caught so many five pounders, they were looking for like four pounders to him. He caught what he believed was 15 five-pound smallmouth on the final day of the competition, giving him a better than five pound average for the final day and the overall title.

BASS will make a return to Lake Erie and Buffalo in 2010.

Bass tips for Lake Ontario

August is also an excellent time for smallmouth bass in Lake Ontario — from the Niagara River to the St. Lawrence River and all points in between. With a big focus on salmon and trout during this time of year, the smallmouth bass has a tendency to be neglected. Add in the fact that the state’s creel census on the lake conducted by DEC shows a downward trend in effort and catch rates for smallmouth, many people are getting the impression that the bass aren’t there any more. That’s not true.

One tidbit of information that was brought out through the Lake Ontario creel census last year was the fact tht many anglers complained about the quality of the fishing and the about the numbers of gobies that they caught that seemed to replace the bass. Others were the complete opposite, experiencing quality days on the waterways with bass catches exceeding 100 fish days. Why the big discrepancy?

Jana Lantry, DEC Aquatic Biologist out of Cape Vincent and involved with the creel census, began collecting information from the successful anglers in an effort to educate the general bass fishing public. “Matt Sanderson of Region 8 conducted a gill netting assessment off Pultneyville in 2007 for the primary purpose of determining smallmouth bass catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) so that he could compare CPUE with previous years done at the same location,” said Lantry. “Matt’s netting indicated that even though the CPUE was down a little from 2000-2001— probably not significantly — it remains good and there should be sufficient numbers off bass to experience good quality bass fishing — if strategies change.”

Therein lays the key to catching more bass on Lake Ontario, changing your tactics to fish where the bass are hanging out. Here are some tips:

n Avid bass angler Gary Vanderlinden fishes out of the Fairhaven area and does very well on smallmouth. He concentrates his effort above where he finds the gobies, so most of his fishing is for suspended fish. He uses a No. 7 black and silver jointed Rapala to find his fish, trying to stay off the bottom by a good five or 10 feet. He’ll target 25- to 60-foot overall depths, depending on water temperatures and time of year. Stay above the thermocline. Troll off points, bluffs and rocky bottoms. It was not uncommon to have 100 fish mornings last year. While bass may feed on gobies, he feels that they really don’t hang out with them.

n If you don’t like trolling, Vanderlinden has a favorite drifting method that really seems to work. He’ll tie on a floating jig head and tip it with a small tube bait or twistertail. He’ll add a split shot about two feet above the bait (or however long) until you achieve the distance you want off the bottom — and away from the gobies. The split shot should tickle the bottom. It also works great on suspended fish. If you are drifting too fast, try adding some weight.

n Doug Holland, a former creel agent for DEC, passes along that he likes to use goby-colored jigs on 1/4 or 1/8 ounce jig heads, white or chartreuse. The real secret is using super glue on the jig head before attaching the plastic bait. Let it set for 10-15 seconds and give it a go. You should be able to catch 20-30 fish before re-rigging. Drift fish or cast and retrieve very slowly. This also works on perch.

Bill Hilts Jr. is a past president of the New York State Outdoor Writers Association. Contact him at bhiltsjr69@cs.com.