Kota Kiriyama Sacks 25 Pounds and the Day 3 Lead at Erie

 Story By Brent Conway - Photos by Mark Jeffreys and Matt Pangrac 

Buffalo, NY – The Empire Chase on Lake Erie has, for the most part, looked like a gigantic wave pool since the pros pulled into Buffalo last Monday. Saturday’s launch, however, greeted the anglers with conditions resembling a child’s wading pool. With barely a whisper of a breeze, the remaining 50 pros experienced a smooth morning run after early-morning thunderstorms swept through the area. 

The calm conditions at launch was a welcomed sight for many, considering the additional fishing time most would receive through shortened run times and the likelihood of increased catches. That being said, the anglers who had prepared for wind feared that without the windy companion, their creel could suffer as a result.

For some in the field, the balance of the season largely rested on today. Both from a spot in February’s Classic and the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year race. There’s a lot at stake beyond the $100,000 first-place prize money available and no one in the remaining field of 50 could understand this better than the two who are still battling for the TTAOY prize.

Todd Faircloth, the only remaining TTAOY contenders inside the Top 12 at Saturday’s end, has already fished well enough the first three days to have a small cushion heading into the final event of the season at Oneida. Kevin VanDam, who started the tournament as the Race leader, stumbled the first day but rebounded to finish the event in 18th. 

By the time weigh-in came around, the cloudy skies had opened up and rain was once again falling. Despite the day’s weather change, Kota Kiriyama came from fourth place by boxing the heaviest limit of the week weighing 25-0 to secure the top spot in Sunday’s final round with a three-day total weight of 67-13.

Over three pounds behind in second place was Aaron Martens with 64-5 overall after weighing 21-10 Saturday. Defending Empire winner, Edwin Evers, ended the third round with a total weight of 64-4 after bringing in 21-6 Saturday to move into the third-place slot.

In fourth heading to Sunday is Day Two leader, Mike Iaconelli, who brought his lightest limit of the week to the scales weighing 17-12 to give him 62-1 over three days. Big John Murray is in the fifth-place position with a total weight of 60-11 after placing 19-3 on the scales Saturday, and Rick Morris jumped from 12th place to round out the Super Six with 59-6 overall after weighing 21-4.

Kota Brings in 25
Kotaro Kiriyama rode a single spot to second place in last year’s Empire Chase. This year, he’s leveraging the same hole and seining it for all he can. Each day is a gamble, and if the wind blows too hard he knows that he’s out of chips. “It’s the same thing every day,” he said. 

“If I can get to my area, I feel sure that I can catch them. But I never know if I’ll be able to get there or not until that day.”

Catching all his fish on a Crazy Ninja, Kota said that he finds the school first on his electronics and then focuses on specific fish within the school. “I see every fish going down after the bait,” he said. “It’s just like playing a video game, but the key is the big fish.”

Kota explained that his color selection is typical of Erie fishing, but explained that size does matter in his bait selection. “Color might make a little bit of a difference,” he said. “The real key is the size of the bait. If I got with anything over four inches in length, for some reason I lose the fish.”

All his fish today were suspended, and once again, Kota had to move another 60 yards to find his school. However, he noted that unlike the past few days, he’s learned that the larger fish within the school are suspending. “They are just following the bait around,” he said. “There are still a few fish on the bottom, but they are very small. 

Kota is confident, once again, that if he can make it to his fish he’ll be a strong contender to win this week. “Today it was very nice because the weather allowed me to move around a little easier to find my fish,” he said. “If I can’t get to my spot, I won’t be able to catch much. That’s the whole key for me.”

A-Mart In the Hunt
Aaron Martens is hoping to catch a break as he knows that catching Kota isn’t impossible but he’ll need a little help from Lady Luck to do so. The luck factor may have kicked in at weigh-in, when he was pleasantly surprised by the near-22-pound bag he weighed. “I really didn’t think I had as much as I did,” he said. 

“I had a terrible start to the day and thought that I only had like 19 pounds. My big one came pretty early but from that point on everything seemed to be 2 to 3 pounders. Usually during that first hour everything is 3 to 4 pounders, so it was a little unusual.”

Fishing in the same area as Edwin Evers, Martens explained that with the slow morning he had a relatively small limit and was forced to move around to find a bigger bite. Once he found the key school, he was able to cull out most of his limit in 45 minutes and head to the ramp. “At 1:30 I only had 17 pounds, so I started graphing around,” he said. 

“I have one area with like five waypoints in it and crossed over one of them and it was just loaded with four-pounders. That was a clutch decision.”

“Just keep your head down and fish” is a great axiom to live by when you’re a professional fisherman; however, Martens points out that it is potentially a poor decision to make at Erie. “The problem is that you have these awesome spots, but if the fish aren’t there they aren’t any good,” he said. 

“What happens to me is that I’ll catch them there good one day and then the fish will have moved, but I’ll stay in there too long trying to make them bite. You just have to move.”

The winds and the current are critical for Martens, so he’s hoping for some on Sunday. “Today was off and it forced me to look around a lot more than I would’ve like to,” he said. “These fish can travel a mile in a day, so that makes it pretty tough to find them. If you have some wind and current, they seem to group up a little bit better and the quality you catch seems to improve.”

Evers Looking to Repeat
Edwin Evers is looking for raise the Empire Chase trophy for the second year in a row, and with over 21 pounds on Saturday he sits just under four pounds away from the lead with one day remaining. Evers hasn’t held anything back in his quest for a repeat performance. “I’m just catching all that I can catch every time I go out,” he said. “I’m rotating between three or four spots just trying to boat everything that bites.”

Evers points out that with the long runs the leaders are making, anything’s possible. “There’s still another day, and like I’ve been saying, it’s a long way out there and a long way back,” he said. “You just never know what to expect on the way home. All it takes is to have a late penalty and you can take yourself right out of it.”

Evers estimates that he boated 20 keepers on the day by catching individual fish that he graphed while fishing in the same area as last year. ”I’m just sticking with the same old, same old,” he said. “They didn’t bite quite as good this morning as I hoped they would, but I worked on them all day long. I still had a lot of fun out there, but I’m glad to be back.”

For Sunday, it’s more of the same for the Oklahoma pro, with one key adjustment. “There’s nothing to change with what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m around the same fish that I have been all week. It’s the same game plan tomorrow with one exception - bigger fish.”

Ike Falls to Fourth
Mike Iaconelli started the day as tournament leader, and ended it in fourth place after weighing his lightest bag of the week. He credits the light bag to his inability to find biting smallmouth in the afternoon. “I’ve got to figure out how to catch them late in the day,” he said. “I’ve haven’t been able to do that all week, and if there’s anything that’s hurting me right now, it’s that.”

Catching between 20 and 25 keepers a day, Ike said that Saturday his numbers were the same yet his quality had died off. “I’m five pounds back, which is a lot of ground to make up,” he said. “I’ve got my work cut out for me now, no doubt about it. 

“It’s not like we’re in Florida or Texas where you can make up that kind of ground in one cast. It’s pretty tough to do that here.”

Fishing shallower than most of the leaders, Ike explained that, as a result of where he’s at, the depth zone is much shallower than most anywhere else on the lake. “One of the key things that I have going on, besides wind current, is durable current,” he said. “I’m fishing pretty close to a river which keeps these fish a little shallower than most other parts of the lake.”

In Sunday’s final round, Ike said that he might be forced to scramble in the afternoon. “I’ve been hitting the same four basic spots all week,” he said. “I might gamble a little bit tomorrow, but all week I’ve felt like I was around the winning fish. The afternoon bite is the deal, so I might change up a little bit tomorrow and go to some other areas to try and make something happen.”

Murray in Fifth
John Murray has been in the hunt all week long, but he’s been counting on the calmer mornings to catch the bulk of his weight and the afternoon for numbers. Saturday was the complete opposite. “I usually try to catch a couple when it’s calm, and then as the wind starts blowing I know that I should be able to get my limit pretty easily,” he said. “Today it wasn’t really like that for me though as my biggest fish came in the wind.”

With two years now in the Top 12 at Erie, Murray seems to be at home on the big water, which is odd considering his western roots. “We don’t have anything like this,” he said. “We’ve got Mead and Powell, but nothing that compares to Erie. I got used to it last year, but the key for me is that I don’t go that far. 

“I’m only going about 10 miles out and even then I really take my time.”

Like most in the Top 12, Murray noted that Saturday’s conditions were exceptionally tough; however, he added that much of it had to do with bait sensitivity. “I’ve had to change up,” he said. “They’ve really got bait sensitive on us, and I’ve really had to downsize my bait. I’ve even downsized my line to six-pound test, which I swore I wouldn’t do. Even since the first day, they’ve gotten a lot more sensitive to the baits.”

Murray intends to go camping Sunday hoping to nail five quality bites out of his big-fish hole. “I’ve got one spot where I’ve caught some big ones in this week that I plan to camp out on tomorrow,” he said. “I’ve fished in there everyday this week, but haven’t really spent a great deal of time in it because I didn’t feel like I had to, but that all changes tomorrow.”

Morris Meets his Goal
Rick Morris ended last year’s Empire Chase in 12th place. He’s hoping to better that performance this year, and from the looks of things he’s on target to do just that. “I’m having another good one, but it’s been a rough and rocky week,” he said. 

“I’ve torn up a lot of equipment, and almost sunk my boat today when my bilge pumps got clogged up but it’s been worth it.”

Morris came to Erie with the goal of solidifying his Classic berth. Mission accomplished, and he’s now added some padding for next week at Oneida. “I came is as a bubble boy, but this week has surpassed my goal of surviving,” he said. “I always have a blast on this lake, and it really seems to suit me. I should be able to go to Oneida and relax a little bit.”

Morris is a run and gun power-fisherman, yet he’s proving a consistent stick at Erie. “I’ve been coming here for about 15 years, and I’ve tried to do all that jerkbaiting and spinnerbaiting stuff that I like to do elsewhere,” he said. “Occasionally you can have a big bag doing that, but I’ve learned that to be consistent here you have to concentrate on finding that key school out deep. It’s always finesse fishing and it’s always deep.”

Sunday won’t have any changes in order for Morris as he’s confident in what he’s doing and where he’s doing it at. “I’m camping out on one spot,” he said. “When I get there, I turn my big motor off and try to never start it again until I’m ready to leave. That’s exactly what I’ll do again tomorrow.”

TTAOY Notable:
Faircloth: “I struggled out there a little bit today. I’m disappointed because I know the kind of fish I’m around. Around 12:00, I left the two spots that I’ve been fishing, and if I had it to do over I wouldn’t have left. I wasted two hours to go looking for fish and it didn’t work out at all. I’ve built this season on making good decisions, and I feel like today I may have made a bad one that cost me some time and most likely a few pounds.”

DAY THREE STANDINGS