5 Reasons Champlain is a Perfect Finish
It isn’t just because of the hawgs
Champlain has long enjoyed a reputation as one of the premier lakes in the country. This year, the Walmart FLW Tour will once again finish off the season and the Angler of the Year race at the big Northern lake. That’s a great choice for a number of reasons:
1. There’s no local advantage
Local advantage is fine. It’s cool to watch the local boy bring it home in front of a big crowd on the final day. What the local effect isn’t great for is an Angler of the Year race. Having a prohibitive favorite just isn’t as much fun. What you want to see is a handful of the best duking it out on their skills alone.
Champlain is a perfect place for that to happen. Given the composition of the FLW Tour’s field, there’s nobody near to being a local. Even the guys who have had a lot of success there (Glenn Browne, David Dudley, Scott Martin and the like) aren’t mortal locks to succeed again.
2. The sticks have won glory on Champlain
Though not every 2016 preseason favorite has done well on Champlain in the past, many of them have pretty good track records there. Depending on how the race shakes out, we could be looking at a shootout among some really big AOY names that are projected to be contenders for the tournament title as well. David Dudley, Scott Martin, Andy Morgan, Shin Fukae, Tracy Adams and Anthony Gagliardi have all banked top-10 finishes on Champlain in the past. No matter who is in the AOY race at the end, there should be plenty of pre-tournament anticipation.
3. Diversity makes for a level playing field
Just as a local advantage can make the culmination of an AOY race less dramatic, so too can limited options. Everyone fishing the same thing is a great test of who can do that thing best, but a mat-flipping tournament doesn’t really give Andy Morgan a chance to show off his tight-quarters casting skills or Cody Meyer the opportunity to finesse better than anyone else.
Champlain is big and diverse. Shallow largemouths 100 miles apart, big smallmouths roaming rock and grass, docks, laydowns, pads – you name it, Champlain has it. Even if a pro decides to commit to one end of the lake, there’s a ton of variety to be found. The south end, know for its grass-dwelling largemouths, also has some great rock banks and outcroppings that hold fish, small stretches with inflowing current, and other types of cover in addition to a myriad of grass choices. The same goes for the north side.
4. The fishing is great
Excellent fishing potential has the double effect of making the AOY race more fun for those involved and making the fishing more fun for everyone else. You basically can’t avoid catching fish on Champlain. There are a ton of them, and they are eager to bite.
Having happy competitors is never a bad thing, and really having a shootout for the AOY is fun. Though it was a different dynamic in 2014 when Meyer and Morgan ran away with the race, you can’t successfully argue that both of them averaging just shy of 20 pounds a day for three days at the finale on Kentucky Lake was less fun than the grind-fest at the Potomac that produced Scott Martin’s 2015 triumph in the last week of the season.
5. There are big gambles to take
One of the factors that can affect the outcome of a tournament on a lake such as Champlain is a long boat run to a favored spot. It’s all or nothing, go for broke – sometimes it works, more often it doesn’t.
At Champlain, making the trek south to Ticonderoga, though it has become more routine in recent years, is still a big thing. To run 60 miles on a lake that can get brutally rough will likely never be anything except a gamble. Maybe someone trying to make up ground or cement the win will fish for just a little longer than he should and get stuck with a penalty. Maybe the wind will unexpectedly get up and make a whole flight late. Less random than the risk of being locked out by a barge, but still random enough to be unpredictable – there’s a chance the AOY will truly have to beat the weather as well.
