Just desserts at Champlain

2004 Wal-Mart FLW Tour looks forward to sweet ending on Lake Champlain

Many bass anglers recognize Lake Champlain as the best bass fishery in America, and the Wal-Mart FLW Tour has made it the final course of a six-course meal – dessert, if you will.

It’s the sweet ending to the 2004 FLW Tour schedule and an event many pros and co-anglers have been looking forward to the most.

After all, what could be more delectable to 400 bass-crazed anglers than spending a few days in the cool Northeast air against the backdrop of the Adirondack Mountains catching world-class smallmouths?

A few anglers will leave the table richer than a hot fudge sundae stacked atop a warm brownie. The pro winner will pocket $200,000 in cash; the runner-up will take home $100,000; and the co-angler winner will receive $40,000.

In fact, the top 50 pros will take home at least $10,000 or better, providing more of a rush than slurping down a triple mocha latte.

This event will be especially tempting for the 48 pros and 48 co-anglers who emerge from Champlain with berths to the FLW Tour Championship, where pros are guaranteed at least $15,000 and the winner will get $500,000.

There is a lot on line during this final course, and it will likely be a matter of ounces between those who go home with a satisfied palette and those who go home with a sick stomach from eating too many sweets.

At Champlain, it’s entirely possible to catch dozens of keeper bass each day of the tournament and still not place in the money.

The last time the FLW Tour stopped here in June 2002, it took a two-day total of 27 pounds just to get a 75th-place check.

“Sure, it’s fun to sit out there and catch a bunch of 2-pounders, but it won’t do you any good in the tournament,” said Kellogg’s pro Jim Tutt of Longview, Texas. “This tournament is not about being on fish, it’s about being on 3 1/2-pounders instead of 2 1/2-pounders. Catching 13 pounds a day won’t even get you a pat on the back here. You have to keep moving to find the bigger ones.”

Indeed, the word “tough” is not used very often at Lake Champlain. In addition to being a fabled smallmouth fishery, Champlain is quite a largemouth fishery as well.

And it’s the largemouths that are giving FLW Tour pros a chocolate-shake brain freeze right now.

Big largemouths usually spell victory on Champlain, and according to several pros, the largemouth bite has been good lately.

But largemouth fishing also means long runs, and long runs are a huge gamble on Champlain because of the wind; it only takes a breeze to get the big lake rolling.

“The good largemouth bite is happening about 80 to 100 miles south of here,” said Mark Zona of Sturgis, Mich. “In calm conditions it takes at least an hour and a half to get down there, but if there is a sniff of wind by nine o’ clock, you’re in trouble.”

Like other anglers, Tutt has contemplated making the long run south to the good largemouth water, but his FLW Tour Championship berth is at stake.

“Twenty pounds of largemouth in your livewell is worthless if you can’t get back,” Tutt reasoned. “And if the wind blows at all from the south or north, you are not getting back – on time anyway. I’m 47th in the points; I can’t afford a bad finish here.”

Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Erie, Pa., has also flirted with the idea of an 80-plus-mile run to get to largemouth water.

“It’s hard to do when you know you are running past millions of pounds of smallmouth to get there,” Lefebre said. “I’m 18th in the points. If I zero because I don’t make it back on time, I could fall completely out of the championship. I just can’t risk that.”

So before the final course arrives, many anglers are trying to decide how to get their cake and eat it too.

“The thing about Champlain is you really can’t say what you are going to do until the morning of the tournament,” Lefebre said. “You have to see how the day dawns, what the weather brings, and then fish the conditions.”

“The best approach to Champlain is to find fish in all directions so that, no matter what the wind does, you have somewhere to fish,” Tutt added. “If the wind really gets to blowing, the 13-pound bag that wouldn’t get you a pat on the back could suddenly be real good.”

“Here’s my plan,” Zona said with an air of definitiveness. “The first two days I’ll fish for smallmouth and just burn through as many fish as I can. If I get lucky and make the top 10, I say load up the gas tanks, baby, because I’m going south.”

Dessert is on the way. Would you like one spoon with that or two?

The tournament begins 6:30 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday at Mooney Bay Marina.

The takeoff will be at Mooney Bay at 6:30 a.m. every day of the event except Friday, when the takeoff will be moved back to 8 a.m.

The weigh-ins will begin a 3 p.m. at Mooney Bay on Wednesday and Thursday; weigh-ins will move to the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Wal-Mart on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday the Family Fun Zone opens at 3 p.m. at Wal-Mart and the weigh-in will follow at 5 p.m.

On Saturday the Family Fun Zone opens at 11 a.m. at Wal-Mart and the final weigh-in will begin at 3 p.m.