Fish difficult to catch on first day of Central Open

• By JOE MACALUSO
• Advocate Outdoors writer
• Published: Nov 6, 2009

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BELLE RIVER — Water, water everywhere and fish were hard to catch — except for Mark Smith and a handful of other anglers gathered at the Belle River Public Launch for Thursday’s first round of the Bassmaster Central Open.

Smith made the trek into south Louisiana’s water from West Monroe and brought in the five-bass limit weighing a healthy 14 pounds, 6 ounces for a lead over Texas’ James Biggs (13-11).

David Cooper, who spent the day with Gonzales angler Wade Leblanc, holds the Co-Angler Division lead at 13-5. Cooper is from Vidalia and is more than a pound up on second-place Matt Guerin (11-8) from Zachary.

As is the case with most multi-day tournaments, mum’s the word on fishing locations, lure choice and presentation.

That tight-lipped approach was more in evidence Thursday when anglers faced the high and still-rising water — most of it extraordinarily muddy for mid-fall south Louisiana tournaments — in the Atchafalaya Spillway and nearby waters.

It didn’t faze Smith who said, muddy, rising water is “…all we’ve got up there (north Louisiana)…this type of fishing suits me to a T.”

It was natural that Smith sealed his lips on location, but admitted to pitching baits around flooded cypresses in shallow water. He said he culled three “keeper” fish to get to his best five of the day. The state’s minimum bass size is 14 inches in this area.

All Cooper and Leblanc said was they worked a small stretch of bank “…slow, painfully slow all day.”

For Smith and Cooper, the fight to stay stop the leaderboard continues today. Weigh-in begins at 2:20 p.m. at the launch south of Pierre Part.

The story inside the story this week is that this third 2009 Central Open event will decide the last two berths for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic.

Pierre Part’s Cliff Crochet is in sixth place in the open’s overall standings and said he needed a solid performance and help from the standings leaders to make the Classic. He brought in five bass weighing 9-11 Thursday. That’s good enough for 19th place.

Standings leader Todd Castledine (570 points) was in 54th place (5 pounds, 2 ounces). Second-place James Niggemeyer (569 points) was 43rd after the first day, but has already qualified for the Classic though the Bassmaster Elite Series.

Stephen Johnson (560 points), third in the standings, is 67th after the first day, while Jerrel Pringle (546 points) is 76th.