In past events at the James River, the Chickahominy River has been a major player, and at the conclusion of practice last week, Mike Iaconelli predicted more than half the field would try their hand somewhere in that particular river.
But Greg DiPalma and Pete Gluszek, two anglers who know their way around the system very well, predicted that this may be the tournament won outside of those historic waters.
And they were right.
Bassmaster Elite Series sophomore Kenta Kimura utilized two spots within 10 minutes of takeoff to catch 65 pounds even to win the St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Open at James River presented by Mossy Oak Fishing.
Kimura had never seen the system before, and after spending some time in “The Chick” during practice, he decided to stay in the James River and maximize his time. One of his primary spots was 30 seconds from takeoff.
Having never been on the James River, part of Kimura’s strategy was about learning the tide and figuring out the windows the bass would bite during.
“Every time I’ve fished rivers, I make a long run, but I stayed closer to give me time to figure out what tide they liked,” he said. “The first day I was just running around a lot of different places and caught all of my fish on the buzzbait. I had a good day, but it was only 19th place.”
But Kimura wasn’t the only one in the Top 10 to not go to the Chickahominy. In fact, outside of Brad Leuthner who sampled it on Day 3, no competitor fishing on the final day made the run down to The Chick.
Fast notes
Buzzing around: An often overlooked bait during the spawn is a buzzbait, but top finishers in this tournament made sure it was tied on. Kimura used his 3/8-ounce buzzbait as a big fish bait while John Soukup buzzed a Booyah Buzzbait with a clacker over the heads of spawners.
The key to Souku’ps buzzbait was a small skirt so the bass didn’t have much of anything to grab onto other than the hook. He noted that if the bass missed the buzzbait, he would follow it up with a jig.
Local stick TJ Milton also utilized the bait around wood cover before pitching a creature bait and a jig. Along with the buzzbait on top, spinnerbaits and ChatterBaits were heavily utilized during this event and caught fish in every stage of the spawn.
Alex Wetherell specifically threw his spinnerbait to areas he knew had beds, and with one Colorado blade and one willow blade, he was able to keep the bait in the strike zone. A trailer hook helped him keep the bass pinned when they just swatted at the bait.
Brad Leuthner mixed in a Rapala OG Slim crankbait when his two jig presentations weren’t producing, and Bryan Schmitt winded a Spro Little John 50 crankbait.
Angler of the Year update: With the victory, Kimura has taken control of the overall Bassmaster Opens Angler of the Year standings with 543 points while Soukup stands in second with 532 points. Keith Poche rounds out the top three with 492 points.
Kimura also clinched a spot in the Bassmaster Classic given that he fishes the rest of the Northern Opens at Oneida Lake and the Upper Chesapeake Bay. Then, if he double qualifies through the Elite Series, that could open another Elite bid to the Classic.
