MONROE, Mich. — Fishing familiar territory proved to be the right choice for Aaron Jagdfeld on Day 1 of the 2025 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at Lake Erie presented by Lowrance.
The 24-year-old made the 130 round-trip trek to Lake St. Clair to land 23 pounds, 5 ounces of smallmouth to take the Day 1 lead, anchoring his bag with a 5-7 to take control of Big Bass of the Tournament.
Jagdfeld carries a 1-15 over Iowa’s Chris Miller into Day 2 and a nearly 2-pound advantage over Ohio’s Cody Dawson.
The waves across this massive system created by scattered thunderstorms caught much of the field off guard, cutting many fishing days short and resulting in several late penalties. Even still, more than half the field landed limits on the first day of competition with 27 anglers catching more than 17 pounds.
With winds forecasted at 15 to 30 mph and waves on Lake Erie projected to be between 5 and 9 feet, tournament officials made the decision to cancel Day 2 after Wednesday’s weigh-in. The full field of 166 anglers will compete on the final day.
A native of Rochester Hills, Mich., Jagdfeld said he is far more familiar with Lake St. Clair than Lake Erie, and despite the long run, felt like making the trip was well worth it.
“I spent all of practice in St. Clair,” the Adrian College graduate said. “I broke down new water and tried to find some stuff. I didn’t really find any big groups, it has just been a one here, one there kind of deal. It is all about staying on the trolling motor and hunting them down.”
During the warm-up period, Jagdfeld found many of the smallmouth in St. Clair are still in a postspawn funk and skinny. Those bass are honing in on a mayfly hatch, and have been generally reluctant to bite a bait.
Instead, the 2024 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket presented by Lew’s runner-up is targeting the smallmouth that are in a full summer pattern in deeper water. On Day 1, he pitched a Rapala CrushCity Freeloader and a 6-inch Deps Sakamata Shad to smallies hovering around sand and cabbage in 19 feet of water.
“I’m targeting the bass that have been out there for a good month now,” he said. “I’ve kept two different baits on the deck in several different colors and rolled with it.”
Jagdfeld had about four hours to fish, but made the most of his limited time by landing 21 pounds by 10:30 a.m., landing his biggest bass during that time frame.
“That was about 9 in the morning,” Jagdfeld said. “I had three big ones at that point. I saw it floating out there and casted at it. I thought it was only about 5 at first.”
He managed to cull one last time before seeing the storm clouds building and decided to run back and ensure he made it back to weigh-in on time.
“I saw the storm coming at 11:45 and said screw this, turned around and ran back,” he explained.
His better bites came during the short period of time the sun was out, but once the clouds rolled back in he noticed the bass sank to the bottom.
Miller also made the run to St. Clair, making it back to check-in with a bag of smallmouth weighing 21-10, anchored by a 4-14, with three minutes to spare.
“This place is absolutely awesome,” Miller said. “The winds weren’t supposed to be this bad, and I saw they were picking up so I decided to cut my day short and come back. That was a good call because I barely made it in.”
Fishing around a patch of weeds in 10 to 12 feet of water he found during practice and landed a limit within 20 minutes of fishing. Throughout the day, the Spirit Lake, Iowa native caught around 40 bass to get to his total weight using a Strike King Z Too.
“During practice, I figured out right away that there were postspawn fish that hadn’t fattened up yet,” the 2025 St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Sam Rayburn presented by SEVIIN champion said. “They were long but didn’t weigh much. So I found a section of the lake that I could hit where the bass were more in their summer patterns.
“They were grouped up better today than they had been all week.”
Paul Andorfer from Albion, Ind. and Ontario’s Warren Cooper are tied for the nonboater lead with a three-bass limit weighing 12-0. Rochester, Minn.’s Perry See is third with 11-11. Wisconsin’s Jediah Barrett landed the Big Bass of the Day, a 4-3 smallmouth.
The tournament’s final day is now scheduled for Friday, with the full field returning to Lake Erie at 6:30 a.m. and returning for weigh-in at 2:30 p.m. at Sterling State Park in Monroe. At tournament’s end, the Top 18 boaters and nonboaters will claim a spot in the 2025 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship at Upper Mississippi River presented by Lowrance scheduled for Oct. 22-25 in La Crosse, Wis.
Explore Monroe Michigan is hosting the tournament.
