Chilling out

Cold front greets Stren Northern anglers on Lake Champlain

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Vermont and New York are jointly celebrating the 400th anniversary of Lake Champlain’s 1609 founding, and Stren Series Northern Division anglers are hoping an unseasonable cold spell won’t crash the party.

The overnight hours saw a cold front slide into the area, following a couple days of windy conditions. Fortunately, this scenic sliver of pristine Adirondack water known as Lake Champlain holds strong numbers of bass and plenty of forage to keep them fat and happy. Moreover, we’re not talking about a major front – just enough to mix things up a bit and keep everyone on their toes.

Lake Champlain’s well-known bass abundance stands unique in that smallmouth and largemouth both offer winning potential. Where brown bass and green bass coexist, one typically outpaces the other in terms of tournament competition. The truth be told, smallies probably have the population advantage, but Champlain holds plenty of chunky largemouths, and the angler who finds a pile of the ones with the big grin could walk away with this one.

Florida pro Matt Greenblatt feels comfortable enough with the largemouths he found in practice to hang his tournament hopes mostly on this species. During a final check, he pulled up enough to fill out a 20-pound limit.

“I’m on a good largemouth bite; unfortunately, this weather is going to tuck them in a little tighter,” he said. “That’s not going to be as much of a factor today, but after two days of cold – and it’s supposed to be cold tomorrow – the second day is going to be a lot tougher.”

With his largemouths biting best in the afternoon, Greenblatt will begin his day drop-shotting for smallmouths and then switch to Texas-rigged Senkos later in the day. Fishing the lake’s north end, Greenblatt expects to find his better fish on shoals in 15 to 18 feet of water. He said his better fish have come from Vermont waters.

For Pennsylvania pro Randy Yarnall, it will be all smallies. He’ll work a jig and maybe throw a crankbait along the shorelines of Champlain’s north end. Hefty smallmouths have been working schools of bait in shallow water, but Yarnell said that he’ll likely need to adjust with the weather.”

“My plan is to get after those shallow fish – the bigger fish have been shallow,” he said. “But this north wind with this cold front coming in might push the fish out a little bit. If it does, I’ll get after the smallmouth in about 12 feet of water with a drop-shot with a (green-pumpkin) craw or Eerie Darter.”

Greenblatt said he expects a strong showing today: “The fish are biting really well. Everywhere you stop, there’s (a lot of) fish – you just have to find the big ones. There will be some (bags weighing) 21-plus today. With the weather, the weights will probably drop slightly tomorrow.”

Connecticut co-angler John Stanco hopes to have a shot at the quality fish he located during practice. Earlier in the week, he got on a super smallmouth bite while flipping Sweet Beavers and craw baits.

“I found a few spots where every fish was a 4-pound smallmouth,” he said. “It takes a while to get them, but when you do, nearly every one is 4 pounds. I broke off a huge fish that was a lot bigger than 4 pounds on 17-pound-test.”

Contrasting last year’s event, not many boats will make the 60-mile-plus run to the lake’s narrow southern end, colloquially known as Ti, in reference to Fort Ticonderoga on the western shore. This area still holds fish, and someone may pluck a good stringer there, but reports indicate that the southern bite has been off. Some of this could be due to an outbreak of stringy, green algae.

Now, if 5-pound smallies were jumping in the boat, Ti would be pretty crowded. However, when it’s just not happening and the weather is iffy, foregoing the long southward run won’t hurt anyone’s feelings.

“I figure an hour and 20 minutes down, an hour and 20 minutes back on a good day – I’d rather have those two hours and 40 minutes of line in the water,” Greenblatt said. “You can never count on the weather around here. She can turn bad on you in a heartbeat.”

Tournament logistics

Anglers will take off from the Plattsburgh Boat Basin located at 5 Dock St. in Plattsburgh, N.Y., at 6:30 a.m. each day. Weigh-ins will be held at Dock Street Landing beginning at 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Takeoffs and weigh-ins are free and open to the public. The Lake Champlain Stren Series tournament is hosted by the City of Plattsburgh.

Pros will fish for a top award of $25,000 plus a 198VX Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and equipped with a Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics if Ranger Cup guidelines are met. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $7,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.

Co-anglers will cast for a top award of a 177TR Ranger powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard and trailer. If the co-angler meets the Ranger Cup guidelines, they will earn an additional $5,000. If the winner is not a Ranger Cup participant, Ranger will award $2,500 to the highest-finishing Ranger Cup participant in the contingency program.

Wednesday’s conditions

Sunrise: 6:11 a.m.

Temperature at takeoff: 44 degrees

Expected high temperature: 65 degrees

Water temperature: 70-71 degrees

Wind: NNW at 10 mph

Humidity: 50 percent

Day’s outlook: sunny