MASSENA, N.Y. — The St. Lawrence River has earned a reputation as the nation’s premier smallmouth tournament fishery for a reason – it’s produced some massive bags of brown
bass through the years. None has ever measured up to Erik Luzak’s Day 2 at the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats event.
Luzak brought a ridiculous 31 pounds, 5 ounces of smallmouth to the scales Friday. It’s the first time in the history of MLF/FLW that an angler has topped 30 pounds with five fish on the St. Lawrence.
Luzak’s limit was anchored by a 7-14 giant that easily won Berkley Big Bass honors. It’s the second-heaviest daily big bass in MLF competition on the river, trailing only Thomas Lavictoire’s 8-3 caught way back in 2002.
“I’m definitely speechless after a day like today,” Luzak said.
No surprise, Luzak’s massive day launched him into the lead, although his first MLF win is far from a foregone conclusion with one day of competition remaining. He’s 4-4 ahead of Day 1 leader Brody Campbell, who followed up his 26-2 opening-day bag with 26-15 and somehow fell behind. In third, Alex Korol is also above 50 pounds with 51-9.
Meanwhile, on the co-angler side, Hunter Navari topped 20 pounds for the second day in a row to climb into the top spot. He weighed 22-3 to bring his total to 43-1, which has him 3-4 clear of Eric White.
One bite at a time adds up big time
Across more than 20 years competing in tournaments, Luzak has never experienced a day quite like Friday. His 31-5 total represented the heaviest limit the Canadian pro has ever weighed in competition, and the 7-14 kicker is his biggest smallmouth ever.
“Just a ridiculous day,” Luzak said.
So, it might be strange to hear Luzak describe his day as “super stressful” and “a grind.” But even though the end result may be gaudy, he said getting there wasn’t easy.
Making a long run upriver and fishing in the same general area as Day 1, when he totaled 26-0, Luzak knew he was around big fish, but getting them to bite has been tricky. He never generated a flurry of action, instead picking off fish one here, one there.
“It was a grind,” he said. “Same as yesterday; I’m not catching a lot of fish, but the ones that bite seem to be the right ones.”
Luzak started fast, catching his first 6-pounder of the day on one of his first few casts. However, it took a few hours before he landed another keeper. By mid-morning, he had four in the box when he wrangled the 7-14. At that point, he knew the day had the potential to be special.
“That fish was a freak,” he said. “That was ridiculous. That will never happen again.”
Around noon, Luzak caught his third smallmouth of the day over 6 pounds. Upgrading his limit by about 2 pounds and pushed him over the 30-pound mark. At that point, he decided to head back toward Massena.
“I culled a high 4 with a high 6, and I was like, OK, I’m not going to do better than this,” Luzak said with a chuckle. “So, I just left.”
Across 52 prior MLF/FLW events on the St. Lawrence River, the biggest bag had been 28-14 from Gary Miller in a 2022 Phoenix Bass Fishing League event. Luzak’s record day has him positioned to set another all-time St. Lawrence River mark. The heaviest total weight for a three-day event on the fishery in MLF history belongs to fellow Canadian Chris Johnston, who totaled 77-15 at a Toyota Series event in 2021. In that event, anglers were allowed to access Lake Ontario, which tends to produce larger fish. Johnston also set a new standard for the heaviest river-only total with 76-1 at the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event last month. Luzak is on pace to easily clear both marks.
Luzak isn’t really interested in those records, calling himself “not a record guy.” His first MLF trophy would be more meaningful, but he’s not letting himself think about what that might mean yet, either. He said he’ll take the water Saturday solely focused on getting five keeper bites, something that hasn’t felt automatic during the first two days.
“I’m just here to try and catch five more fish,” he said. “Not thinking any past that. I need them to bite before anything else happens.”
Top 10 pros:
- Erik Luzak – 57-5 (10)
- Brody Campbell – 53-1 (10)
- Alex Korol – 51-9 (10)
- Tommy Dickerson – 48-10 (10)
- Hayden O’Barr – 48-5 (10)
- Clay Reece – 47-4 (10)
- Josh Kauffman – 47-0 (10)
- Jason Burger – 46-3 (10)
- Matt McCluskey – 46-0 (10)
- Logan Dyar – 45-11 (10)
No comments:
Post a Comment