I read the news today, oh boy! All I can say after checking the headline from last weekend’s BFL tourney on Lake Champlain is that it’s time to stack my picks with largemouth power-fishermen.
Fellow pundit Brett Carlson called it in his June 19 blog, letting FLW Fantasy Fishing players in on a little secret: the upcoming Champlain tourney is likely to hinge on a largemouth bite instead of smallies as in many past events there. But the following day, the cat came charging out of the bag when Alabama power-fishing ace Randall Tharp won the Empire Division tourney with a whopping 22 pounds, 15 ounces that included a kicker fish weighing nearly 6 pounds.
Those weights could only mean one thing: The largemouth bite on the far south end of Champlain was dominating the fishery’s renowned smallmouth bite.
More than 1,200 miles outside his neighborhood, clearly Tharp was in town to get in some early practice for the FLW Tour event to be held July 9-12. And obviously, practice was going well.
“I wasn’t even going to fish the (BFL tourney),” Tharp said this morning, adding that his practice partner and fellow Tour pro Scott Canterbury convinced him to enter the Saturday event. “I quit fishin’ early, about 10:30 (a.m.) … I threw back – I don’t even know how many 3-pounders.”
Tharp confirmed that he and Canterbury, also from Alabama, fished the shallow grass and matted vegetation on the south end of the lake during the tournament.
“If I can fish mats … that’s what I do,” said Tharp, one of the biggest sticks to ever fish tournaments on Lake Guntersville, a vaunted largemouth fishery near his home. “Champlain, to me – at least down on that end – fishes just like Guntersville.”
And what does that mean to Fantasy Fishing players? Not only does it mean you should strongly consider Tharp for your Champlain team, but also Canterbury and other great shallow-water largemouth fishermen like Andy Morgan and David Walker.
But it may be wise to leave some smallmouth specialists on your roster too, as a strong wind can easily keep anglers from reaching the southern end of Champlain. Tharp said he and Canterbury also practiced catching smallies nearer the takeoff site to provide the foundation for a contingency plan.
For the record, I added Tharp, Canterbury, Morgan and Walker to my roster; consequently, I dropped Guido Hibdon, Chip Harrison, Jim Moynagh and Tracy Adams.