Hibdon takes Champlain with final-day rally

Legendary pro sacks over 20 pounds of largemouths on last day for FLW Series Eastern win

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – At the day-four weigh-in of the Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern Division event on Lake Champlain, Guido Hibdon of Gravois Mills, Mo., demonstrated to the bass-fishing world why he is a legendary figure in the sport.

Despite claims from the “young pups” (a term Hibdon uses to affectionately describe his competition) that smallmouths would be the winning ticket on Champlain in September, despite battery and trolling-motor woes that plagued Hibdon for two days of the event and despite having to contend with severe wind conditions during those two days, the 61-year-old veteran hoisted up 20 pounds, 5 ounces of largemouth bass to take back his day-one lead in the final moments of the event.

His three-day total of 56 pounds, 1 ounce gave him over a 2-pound margin of victory worth $125,000.

As Guido and his wife Stella enjoyed their first FLW Outdoors victory on the stage, FLW Series Tournament Director Chris Jones described Hibdon’s unwavering winning drive as “perseverance,” to which Stella jokingly remarked, “You mean stubbornness.”

“This is not about the money,” said the fishing legend as he paused to hold back his emotions. “This is about proving to myself that I can still do this.”

Many consider the Hibdons to be godparents of the FLW Tour. Over the years the Hibdons have helped, housed and fed dozens of young, struggling bass pros on tour. Some of those “young pups” owe their careers to the Hibdons.

Onstage, Gain pro Koby Kreiger noted that when his own father died five years ago, he started looking up to Hibdon as a father figure.

And of all the great anglers who crossed the FLW Series stage this week, there are quite a few who have learned a thing or two from bass fishing’s patriarch, either directly or indirectly.

Exactly how the BP pro won the Champlain Series event is a classic fishing lesson itself.

From the start, Hibdon concentrated on two types of cover for largemouths – grass and docks in the Mallet’s Bay area.

He flipped and pitched isolated patches of “clean, pretty” milfoil in 6 to 10 feet of water for a better part of the tournament. He used a ¾-ounce chartreuse and pumpkin jig, trimmed with either a Zoom chunk or Guido Bug to seine the healthy grass patches.

Once he got a solid limit from the grass each day, Hibdon moved to shallow docks to do what he does best: stalk big largemouths in hard-to-reach places by skipping a jig.

His skipping jig was a 3/16-ounce jig teamed with a brown Guido Bug trailer. The jig was tied to 15-pound-test Trilene braided line on a spinning reel.

“I use bright yellow braid so I can see my line better up under those dark docks,” he revealed. “I color the first few feet of the braid just up from the jig with a dark green marker, but the rest of it is bright yellow so I can see when one of those big suckers starts swimming off with it.”

Hibdon caught his kicker largemouth today on the very last dock he fished at 2:30 p.m.

Wolak relies on largemouths for second

Hefty Lake Champlain largemouths also helped propel David Wolak of Wake Forest, N.C., to second place with a three-day total of 53 pounds, 12 ounces, worth $47,671.

Wolak estimated that he spent about 80 percent of his time fishing for largemouths during the event.

“The largemouth bite was best in the afternoons,” Wolak said. “So I would fish for smallmouths until about 9 o’clock and then moved to largemouth water. Any good smallmouths I caught in the morning were just a bonus.”

Wolak used a unique Title-Shot jig by Fin-Tech Tackle in a 1/2-ounce size to catch his largemouths in the northern New York arm of Champlain. He focused his efforts on “hard structure” in about 8 or 9 feet of water.

“Largemouths here really seem to like some form of hard structure – wood, rock, pilings, tires or anything out of the ordinary that is situated around grass beds. They’ll stay in the grass in the morning, but once the sun gets up and starts creating shadows around hard structure, they’ll set up on it to ambush prey.

“A lot of my largemouth spots were just one or two cast-type places, and I would swim or hop the Title-Shot jig around the darkest parts of the cover for the largemouth bites.”

Correia third

Day-two leader Danny Correia of Marlborough, Mass., stayed with his smallmouth game plan to finish third with a three-day total of 52 pounds, 11 ounces, worth $38,137.

Correia used a big 1-ounce spinnerbait ripped on the surface over 8 to 10 feet of water around the middle portions of Lake Champlain to do most of his damage.

While he did use a drop-shot Senko on the earlier days, he committed to the spinnerbait today.

“The best quality fish really came on the spinnerbait, so that’s all I threw today,” Correia said. “This time of year, the bigger fish start to feed on yellow perch, and that’s what I was trying to emulate: a perch fleeing near the surface.

“I don’t have any regrets about finishing third,” he added. “I fished the way I love to fish for three days and had a flawless tournament in terms of decision-making and execution. There is not much else I could have done to win.”

Wendlandt fourth

Clark Wendlandt of Leander, Texas, finished fourth with a three-day total of 51 pounds, 13 ounces for $28,603.

Wendlandt also committed to smallmouths north of Plattsburgh for the duration of the event.

His two primary lures were a Lucky Craft jerkbait and a ¾-ounce Santone spinnerbait in a perch color, fished over flats.

“I really enjoy fishing for smallmouths up here,” Wendlandt said. “I know a lot of guys like to use drop-shots and tubes, but that’s not me. I love fishing fast-moving baits and making those big smallmouths react to them, especially this time of year.”

Lucarelli fifth

Joe Lucarelli of New Hampton, N.H., finished fifth with a three-day total of 51 pounds, 12 ounces and collected $19,068.

Lucarelli mostly relied on Berkley Gulp gobies on a drop-shot rig with a 1/2-ounce weight, fished in 25 to 30 feet in the Inland Sea area. He also used a Carolina-rigged Berkley power lizard.

“I decided to fish all new water in this tournament,” Lucarelli said. “In practice, I went over to the Inland Sea with one of those new Humminbird side imaging units and found new places that I’ve never fished before, and it worked out pretty well.”

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros in the FLW Series Eastern Division event on Lake Champlain:

6th: Brian Bylotas of Olyphant, Pa., three-day total of 51-3, $18,116

7th: Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., three-day total of 51-0, $17,162

8th: Pat Fisher of Buckhead, Ga., three-day total of 49-10, $16,208

9th: Bill Spence of St. Albans, Vt., three-day total of 47-12, $15,255

10th: Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Ala., three-day total of 47-7, $14,301

Coming up

The fourth and final Wal-Mart FLW Series BP Eastern event of 2007 will be held Oct. 10-13 on Lake Pickwick in Alabama.