July 27, 2018  by Colin Moore

Dangerous winds force tournament officials to call off second round for safety’s sake.

High winds that churned up the eastern basin of Lake Erie overnight and prompted a small craft advisory also forced cancellation of day two of the Costa FLW Series Northern Division tournament presented by Polaris. Sustained southwesterly winds of 14 mph and gusts up to 26 mph were forecast for Friday, making boating conditions untenable.

Tournament director Ron Lappin said current plans call for the tournament to continue Saturday morning with all of the 169 boatloads of pros and co-anglers fishing. That presumes the weather forecast will be better, and the heavy waters now topping five feet will subside.

“The forecast for Saturday isn’t much better,” says Lappin, “so we’ll have to wait and see. We can’t take chances. If we can fish – and we’re planning to fish now – the pairings will remain the same.”

On day one, Canadian angler Neil Farlow topped the field with five smallmouths that totaled 24 pounds, 4 ounces. Ben Wright of Peru, N.Y., was close behind with 24-3 and Charles Sim of Nepean, Ont., was third with 23-3. JT Kenney, 23-2 and J. Todd Tucker, 22-15, rounded out the top five. Forty-four limits weighing 20 pounds or more were caught in the opening round.

As it now stands, Saturday’s round will determine the final standings. Lappin said competitors would be notified later Friday regarding Saturday’s plans.