Pro bass angler Mike Iaconelli brought his fishing show "City Limits Fishing" to Cleveland on Tuesday and was surprised at the outstanding largemouth bass fishing he found around Cleveland Harbor.
Pro bass angler Mike Iaconelli brought his fishing show "City Limits Fishing" to Cleveland on Tuesday and was surprised at the outstanding largemouth bass fishing he found around Cleveland Harbor.
"We had a blast filming our first show for 2011 in Cleveland," said Iaconelli, 32, of Pittsgrove, N.J., Known for his fishing skills and zany antics on the pro bass tournament trail, Iaconelli has won many national tournaments and the Bass Masters Classic.
"We had surprisingly good bass action all day long," he said. "It was crazy we could catch so many nice fish with such a big, industrial city in the background.
Iaconelli's guide was pro bass angler Frank Scalish of Cleveland Heights. They caught and released more than a limit of 10 legal-sized bass, and just as many smaller fish. Bob Davis and Lorenzo Jones of the North Coast Black Bass Anglers Association and Ray Halter of The Rodmaker's Shop in Strongsville organized a local crew of fishermen who helped operate camera boats and provide support.
"Iaconelli might come across as wild and crazy at the tournaments, but he was friendly and very professional," said Halter. "He's an outstanding bass fisherman, and it showed."
The Cleveland area bass fishing has been only fair, at best, in recent weeks, but Scalish is a veteran of Cleveland Harbor fishing and knows all of the hot spots. Iaconelli said a Berkley Gripper Jig, a finesse football-style lead-head jig, tipped with a three-inch Crazy Legs Chigger Craw trailer triggered a lot of his strikes.
The Cleveland show will be among the first aired when the 2011 season begins in mid-February on the Versus network.
Koch acquitted: Sandusky commercial fisherman Dean Koch of Whites Landing Fisheries, cited by the Ohio Division of Wildlife for not installing electronic tracking equipment on his boat required by a 2008 law, had the charges tossed out Thursday by Erie County Judge Paul Lux.
Lux ruled the law was vague and unconstitutional, though all of the other Ohio commercial fishermen have installed the tracking gear, said Lake Erie law enforcement supervisor Gino Barna. The law was passed after Cuyahoga County indicted 14 individuals and five businesses in 2005 on charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, theft, and receiving stolen property related to Ohio commercial perch fishing between 2001 and 2003.
Koch was not charged in the poaching case.
Zarts are MWC winners: Gary Zart of Brunswick and his son, Nicholas, finished ninth in the recent MWC walleye tournament on Saginaw Bay, and brought home the trophy for MWC Father and Son Team of the Year. Michigan anglers David Kolb and Ryan Wall were the winners with a two-day total of 28.87 pounds.
Out and about: Noted bamboo fly rod artisan Jeff Wagner is featured Sept. 7 at a 7 p.m. meeting of the Emerald Necklace Chapter of Trout Unlimited at the Cleveland Metroparks' Rocky River Nature Center . . . The deadline for boaters to apply for a lottery for state boat docks is Tuesday (Aug. 31), with docks available in northern Ohio at Cleveland Lakefront State Park and Lake Milton . . . Geauga Bowmen on Sperry Rd. in Chesterland host its annual 3-D deer shoot on Saturday (Aug. 28), with 30 life-like targets . . . The North American In-Water Boat Show drops anchor at Cedar Point Marina, adjacent to the amusement park in Sandusky, on Sept. 15-19.
Cerino second in Top Shot: When the shooting was finally over, Chris Cerino, 41, of Wadsworth just missed taking the title of America's Top Shot, a new reality show that wrapped up recently on the History Channel. Cerino beat all but one of the 16 pre-selected marksmen, losing in the final round to $100,000 winner Iain Harrison, a former British Army captain living in Sherwood, Ore. The final challenge was to be the first competitor to complete seven stations that included accuracy with pistols, rifles, long bows, and throwing knives.
Cerino is a firearms instructor at the Richfield campus of the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy.
Bass bonanza in Detroit: Chris King of South Amherst was on top of the bass world last weekend, but only for a while. King nailed a limit of five smallmouth bass weighing an impressive 25 pounds, 14 ounces to take the lead going into Saturday's final day of the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Northern Open in Detroit. On Saturday, King failed to bring a single bass to the scales, as Todd Schmitz of Goshen, Ind., took the win and $46,000 with a three-day total of 61 pounds, including 23-13 on the last day.
Ohio anglers in the top 10 were David Hasty of Toledo (2d, 59-03) and Jared Rhode (7th, 53-12) of Port Clinton. King slipped to 20th.
Take your pick: The early hunting seasons begin Wednesday, with hunters heading out after squirrel, mourning doves and Canada geese. The early teal hunting season kicks off on Saturday. Doves and geese are plentiful around the state. The nut crops determine the abundance of squirrels, and last fall's crop was lower than average.
Mutes to be managed: Ohio wildlife officials now have approval to manage mute swans. The impressive swans can be found on lakes and ponds around the area. An invasive species, the big, white birds can interfere with nesting trumpeter swans and other native waterfowl, and have been known to attack people.