By Sean Ostruszka
Tackle Warehouse Pro Curcuit Press Release
MASSENA, N.Y. – Long runs and giant bags of smallmouth – that’s what pros have come to expect from the St. Lawrence River. Needless to say, it hasn’t disappointed so far.
Group A of the Tackle Warehouse TITLE Presented by Mercury showed out on the first day of competition, with 12 of 25 pros catching more than 19 pounds. And while it was by no means a necessity, it seemed for the majority of those top pros, the longer the run the bigger the bag – with none running further or bringing in more than Joey Cifuentes.
The Arkansas pro basically ran to “the line” – the off-limits line right at the mouth of Lake Ontario – in order to bring in 23 pounds, 4 ounces to edge ahead of Kurt Mitchell, who also caught 23 pounds to set the bar for Group B to reach tomorrow. And in the end, it sure seems like 20 pounds a day will be needed to make Saturday’s Knockout Round.
Then again, with how Cifuentes is fishing, he’s hoping he can just win his group and skip the Knockout Round altogether, especially with how long he’s running.
While the morning only took him an hour and a half, he took his time getting back to weigh-in to the tune of three hours to account for the waves from boat traffic. That didn’t leave a lot of time for him to fish, but he didn’t need it.
“I culled my last time around noon, but I had 22 1/2 pounds by 10 o’clock,” Cifuentes said. “So, only an hour and a half of fishing.”
Even more impressive than that is he only hit five areas of the more than 50 he says he has down that way. Does he think he can replicate another 23-pound bag come Thursday? He’s not sure, but he knows the biggest fish in the system live in the lake, and during practice, the biggest fish he saw swimming around on his electronics were down near the lake. That’s where he plans to go again.
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