LA CROSSE, Wis. — Chris Hellebuyck knows what works, but he also knows what works a little better. Trusting his instincts, the White Lake, Mich., angler tallied 34 pounds, 6 ounces and leads Day 2 at the Bassmaster Open tournament at Mississippi River. Hellebuyck placed 19th on Day 1 with 16-3 and took over the top spot by adding a second-round limit of 18-3. With less than a pound between first and fifth places, Hellebuyck heads into Championship Saturday with a 2-ounce lead over Day 1 leader Chris Beaudrie.
“As much as I love coming here to frog and flip and do the Mississippi River stuff, I ended up doing something a little more similar to what I do back home,” Hellebuyck said. “My home lake is Lake St. Clair (Michigan) and I spend a lot of time in the St. Clair River, and the way I’m catching them here sets up very similar.
“I’m using a BOOYAH Boss Pop because I’m so comfortable doing that.”
Hellebuyck said he prefers a popper with a dressed rear treble, but he always uses No. 4 Gamakatsu hooks for their sharpness, reliability and holding power.
“Sometimes I’ll change hooks twice a day,” Hellebuyck said. “That is so important, and I have a really good landing ratio.”
Hellebuyck fished in Pool 8 and worked his bait around current. Throwing his popper along current lines, he surmised that the popper gave the fish a look they don’t often see.
“At home, I’ll get bit on a popper in 10 feet of water, but here I’m fishing 2 to 3 feet, so it’s easy for them to come up,” Hellebuyck said.
Catching most of his fish in the morning hours, Hellebuyck said presentation proved important to tempting pressured fish.
“It seemed like the slower I could get myself to chug that popper, the more bites I’d get,” he said. “It’s hard; sometimes you want to move that thing along, but it seems that the longer pause between each pop is what really gets bites.”
Hellebuyck said he also worked a jig and swimbait into his day, but the topwater was the clear favorite.
“The reason I use the popper is that it just seems to get bigger bites,” he said. “I don’t know why, but the bigger ones seem to like that.”
Beaudrie, who makes his home in Princeton, Ky., is in second place with 34-4. He started strong with 19 pounds on Day 1 and added 15-4. Beaudrie returned to the same grass bed he fished on Day 1 but found two boats working the area. Fortunately, a first-round observation clued him in to something that helped get him back in the hunt.
“Yesterday afternoon when I went practicing, I stopped on an area that looked good for frogging and my co-angler caught a 4 1/2 there,” Beaudrie said. “I just left it alone as a backup, and that came in handy today. I caught about 15 keepers off that stretch.”
Same as Day 1, Beaudrie said the key to his success was targeting deeper zones along the grass edges. He caught his fish on a topwater walker, a frog and a Texas-rigged craw.
“I caught a lot of keepers today; I just didn’t find those lot bigger fish today,” Beaudrie said. “Hopefully, they’ll pull in for me tomorrow.”
John Engler of Vinton, Iowa, is in third with 33-14. After placing 18th on Day 1 with 16-05, Engler secured his final-round spot by adding 17-09. Engler anchored his Day 1 limit with a 4-8 around 1 o’clock in Pool 8. He started his day in Pool 8 and locked down to Pool 9, but most of his weight came from the local pool.
“I actually caught the majority of my fish on Pool 8, so I didn’t need to lock, but it helps getting that solid limit in the boat because that takes a lot of pressure off,” Engler said. “There was a barge in the lock this morning, but I had a couple of fish in the boat when I went through, so that took some of the pressure off. I was able to start culling down there.”
A mix of baits including a topwater walker, a frog and a bladed jig produced Engler’s weight. The big fish bit the latter. Bobby Bakewell of Orlando, Fla., is in the lead for Big Bass honors with his 5-2.
Richard Conrad of Arcadia, Wis., won the co-angler division with 18-11. Day 1 found Conrad and Jimmy Brumfield of Madison, Miss., sharing the lead with 10-8 each. Adding a second-round limit of 8-3, Conrad surged across the finish line and collected the top prize of $15,300.
“It’s been a long road to get here,” Conrad said. “I fish a lot of big tournaments and I’ve been so close a few times.”
Conrad fished Pool 8 on Day 1 and locked down to Pool 9 for Day 2. His top bait was a 1/4-ounce Lethal Weapon swim jig with a twin-tail trailer.
“I just fished really hard, and it wasn’t easy,” Conrad said. “We didn’t get locked down until 9:30 and I was pretty nervous, but I got one key bite and that helped.
“I also did a little dragging with a craw and caught some fish on that, too. But that Lethal Weapon swim jig really paid off for me.”
Amanda Riley of Galesville, Wis., won the $250 Big Bass award among co-anglers with a 4-7.
Easton Fothergill of Grand Rapids, Minn., leads the Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers standings with 1,422 points. Cody Meyer of Eagle, Idaho, is second with 1,394, followed by Tucker Smith of Birmingham, Ala., with 1,350, Emil Wagner of Marietta, Ga., with 1,331, and Andrew Loberg of Grant, Ala., with 1,327.
Saturday’s takeoff is scheduled for 6:30 a.m. CT at Veterans Freedom Park. The weigh-in will be held at the park at 2:30 p.m.
Coverage of the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Mississippi River will air on FS1 on Saturday from 8 to 11 a.m. ET.