Maybe it’s my northern upbringing, but I assumed the final FLW Tour qualifier of the season on Lake Champlain would be dominated by smallmouths. I love the brown bass myself, especially on northern Minnesota’s glacial lakes, where it’s possible to catch well over 100 fish in a day. When I made my Champlain picks, I envisioned dozens of 16- to 18-pound smallmouth sacks. But after talking with several pros, I conceded that this was not going to be the case.
Let me start off by saying hundreds of smallmouth bass will be caught and weighed during the tournament. But the problem for Fantasy Fishing players is that those smallies simply aren’t going to weigh enough to get a pro in the top 10. And if you’ve learned anything over the course of the year, you’ve learned that FLW Fantasy Fishing is all about getting picks in the top 10.
Over the past decade or so, FLW Outdoors has been coming to Champlain during two distinct seasons. The FLW Tour traditionally visited in mid-June and the FLW Series made their stops in early September. In mid-June, the smallmouths are still up spawning on flats. The biggest ones can easily be identified and plucked off their nests. In September, the fish are still in their summer patterns – meaning they are fat and healthy.
In early July, the smallmouths will be postspawn, which means they will be stressed and skinny. A brown bass that weighed 3 1/2 pounds during the spawn might only weigh 3 pounds a few weeks later. Likewise a smallmouth that weighed 4 pounds in September probably only goes 3 1/2 pounds in early July. So what’s the big deal if the smallmouths are a little lighter? Well, those half-pounds quickly add up, especially on Champlain, a fishery that has always been noted for its extremely tight leaderboards.
In 2006, it took exactly 29-11 to finish 50th and take home the last of the $10,000 checks. But it took only 33-5 to make the top 10 – a difference of less than 4 pounds. I’m not saying smallmouths won’t be caught, and I’m not saying smallmouths can’t be used for checks. But I am saying Fantasy Fishing players should choose anglers that are targeting largemouths, because they will be needed to make the top 10 cutoff. For starters, I am removing Scott Dobson and Koby Kreiger and replacing them with Andy Morgan and David Walker. But there will likely be additional changes in the future. If you have a bunch of smallmouth anglers on your roster, I suggest you do the same.