Anglers will have plenty of tactical choices to ponder during 2001 Wal-Mart FLW Championship
Later this month, FLW anglers will visit one of the nation’s best bass fisheries at Lake Champlain on the Vermont/New York border. This lake offers over 110 miles of lush weed beds, rocky shoals, river deltas, and steep ledges as well as a host of other diverse holding structures and bass cover. As a result of the relatively large variation of cover and available forage, the lake is chock full of largemouth and smallmouth bass in the 2- to 6-pound range.
But the diverse ecosystem and relative abundance of fish on Lake Champlain presents anglers with a unique problem: How do you fish the lake? More specifically, does an angler fish for largemouth bass or smallmouth bass?
Conventional wisdom suggests that anglers should go after largemouth bass. In most parts of the country, largemouth bass have an edge over their smallmouth counterparts by maintaining a heavier average weight. With a limit of five bass, most tournament anglers will strive to fill the bag with the weightier largemouth bass. Then again, that is conventional wisdom. And Lake Champlain often defies conventional wisdom.
A review of Lake Champlain tournament-winning weights reveals that smallmouth bass have an equal footing with their big-mouthed cousins. Smallmouth bass limits between 16 and 19 pounds have been relatively common among tournament winners on Lake Champlain. And largemouth bass hunters have typically scored with similar weights.
So with two viable species equally divided among past tournament winners, the fishing decisions become more difficult. To make the right choice at this year’s FLW Championship, anglers will need to evaluate the fishery each day. On Lake Champlain, the action can change as fast as the direction of the wind. One day, everything an angler throws will produces a bass. Other days, anglers can struggle to reel in a tournament-worthy limit. In fact, only when one understands how the fish are behaving can one make an intelligent decision whether to target largemouth or smallmouth bass.
Largemouth bass-fishing strategies
Largemouth bass live in weedy places and behave pretty much as one would expect them to on Lake Champlain. Nearly all baits designed for largemouth bass will work. That is good news for largemouth bass enthusiasts because, even on the slow days, anglers should be able to catch a limit of fish.
However, most of the largemouth bass available will measure about 16 inches and weigh a little over 2 pounds. Thus, it would be relatively easy to produce a stringer weighing 11 to 13 pounds. However, those weights are not nearly enough to make the tournament cut.
The highly desirable 3- to 5-pound largemouth bass are spread out across the lake. Consequently, it could take all day to catch enough good largemouth bass to bring a stringer weight up into the range of 16 to 18 pounds. While difficult, it can be done. The key to catching these weights is to cover a lot of water. Power flipping toward the weeds is one of the lake’s most productive largemouth bass tactics. To do this successfully, largemouth bass anglers will run along the weed beds flipping tubes, jigs and soft plastic worms. With enough flips, a decent stringer will come.
While it takes time and space to produce a quality largemouth bass creel, anglers usually won’t “burn-out” an area. And there’s no need to. Most anglers can drop the electric motor down and start fishing in any part of the lake. Eventually, a skilled angler will come across a chunky largemouth bass or two. The next day, an angler can go back to the same area and probably repeat the previous day’s performance.
Smallmouth bass fishing requires tactical changes
Smallmouth bass behave much differently than largemouth bass, which is both good news and bad news for anglers.
“If you can get on the right hump, you can catch 18 pounds just like that. I’ve caught limits of Lake Champlain smallmouth bass within minutes,” said professional angler Terry Baksay, a Lake Champlain fishing enthusiast. “But some days you have to wonder because the fish just don’t bite.”
Smallmouth bass, especially during the summer and early fall, school up around the offshore humps and rock piles. Consequently, it is fairly common to pull up on a hump and hook five fish on five casts. And if an angler has picked the right spot, those five fish will each weigh more than 3 pounds, perhaps as large as 4 pounds.
Of course, if the fishing were always that easy, everybody would be chasing after smallmouth bass instead of largemouth bass. The problem is that smallmouth bass can be very fickle. In fact, it is not uncommon for anglers to pull up on the right hump with loads of smallmouth bass and never get a bite.
Worse yet, anglers can hook a smallmouth on a hump and watch helplessly as the fish jumps into the air and spits out the hook. As a result of the commotion from losing a fish, smallmouth bass can stop biting altogether in the general area. To make matters worse, an angler is now forced to go out and spend valuable time searching for another hump where the fish are still biting.
However, that is the very essence of smallmouth bass fishing on Lake Champlain.
Combo platter
Because of the fickle native of smallmouth bass and the relative obscurity of monster largemouth bass, it makes good tournament sense to have game plans established for both bass species. That way, when one fish fails to deliver the winning weight to move on in the tournament, the other bass can fill in the void. To be sure, a mixed bag of chunky smallmouth and largemouth bass can produce an 18-pound stringer as well as a trip to the second round of the tournament.
Baksay agrees that good tournament anglers will almost undoubtedly factor in both species when preparing for the FLW Championship.
“When I fish the lake, I have one set of rods rigged for largemouth bass sitting on one side of the deck. And on the other deck, I’ve got a set of rods rigged up for smallmouth bass,” Baksay said. “I’ll start in the weeds flipping for largemouth. As I come around, I’ll go out to deeper water casting spinnerbaits and other stuff for smallmouths.”
Baksay’s commentary helps to underscore the point that all tournament anglers need to first study the lake. Pre-tournament scouting is almost mandatory
Although tournament strategies will vary greatly, a typical game plan might look like this: First, an angler will search for a few heavily populated smallmouth bass humps. These humps will be the spots anglers will want to start on if the wind is down and the smallmouth bass are biting well. Once a smallmouth bass hump is located, an angler can then look around to find largemouth bass holding spots in the general vicinity. These new largemouth bass areas will serve as an angler’s fallback position when the smallmouth bite shuts off or the weather makes fishing deep water next to impossible.
Location, location, location
Lake Champlain is a long narrow lake that can be divided into three sections – the north, central and south. Because the lake runs on a north to south plane, wind often prevents tournament anglers from running long distances between sections. Therefore, the section where an angler launches from becomes a major factor in deciding whether to fish for smallmouth bass or largemouth bass.
The better largemouth bass action is located in the extreme southern and northern ends of the lake. Tournament anglers launching from the south can easily drop down into the weed beds and water chestnut patches where the trophy largemouth bass often hang out. Northern tournaments, like the FLW Championship, allow anglers to fish in the large, weedy bays around the Champlain islands.
Smallmouth bass are most prevalent in the northern and central sections of the lake. Both sections contain countless numbers of rocky humps, points and shoals where the smallmouth bass can feed on crayfish and baitfish. Most of these humps are not marked on the lake charts, so an angler will need some good scouting reports.
Armed with solid lake information and an understanding of the lake’s bass behavior, anglers should be able to make the right decision about pursuing largemouth bass and smallmouth bass on Lake Champlain. However, whatever species is targeted, an angler cannot live by that fish alone. As plenty of tournament champions have discovered, it’s imperative to have a few backup plans ready when things go astray.