Lucarelli makes ‘small’ change to stay on top at Champlain

Frazier adjusts, pops into co-angler lead

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Yesterday, he was thinking smallmouth and placed first with largemouth. Today, the deal inverted, but New Hampshire pro Joe Lucarelli remained in the top spot at the Stren Northern Division event on Lake Champlain.

On day one, Lucarelli caught a limit weighing 21 pounds, 8 ounces. Today, he added another limit that scaled 18-3 for a total weight of 39-11 and a lead of nearly three pounds. After the first day’s effort, Lucarelli said that his big sack of green bass actually came by default after the brown ones wouldn’t cooperate. Figuring he’d bank another day on the largemouth game today, he found the deck shuffled again and ended up putting together a mixed bag.

Describing his day, Lucarelli said: “I got to my largemouth spot today and caught one about 2 1/2 pounds, caught another little one, and caught a good fish that was 4 1/2 pounds. It started slowing down and I missed a good fish that was 4-5 pounds. I saw it roll on the bait and I missed in on the hook set. After that, I started bouncing around for smallmouth.”

When he targeted largemouth, Lucarelli used a 1/2-ounce green pumpkin jig and a green pumpkin Gary Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog rigged Texas style, pegged with a 1/2-ounce weight. For smallies, he went with a Yamamoto shad shaped minnow in green pumpkin.

Although he couldn’t pinpoint a reason why the largemouth bite delivered less today than it did on day one, Lucarelli said that leaving that spot and letting it replenish probably worked well for the big picture.

“I should have weighed one more largemouth between 4 and 5 (pounds), so the spot was `okay’,” he said. “It didn’t hurt me when I had to leave the largemouth spot because this whole thing is about managing fish. I didn’t have to go back to that spot and beat them up, so I hope it goes tomorrow.”

Day two saw partly cloudy skies with periods of afternoon sunshine. Winds stayed calm until weigh-in time. In what was essentially a settling-in day after a modest cold front arrived a day earlier, several anglers reported struggling a little more than they did on day one. Pros caught 118 limits; co-anglers 72.

Day one co-angler leader James Connolly of New Middleton, Ohio slipped to 34th after pairing his first round score of 18-15 with just three fish weighing 5-1 today. Lamenting his lack of bites, Connolly said: “Yesterday I shined, today I whined.”

After placing third place on day one with 19-15, Maine pro Mark Desjardin dropped to 30th with 11-4. Desjardin said the day’s flat conditions hurt him most. The moderate winds of day one moved bait around and allowed him to target fish more predictably.

Baksay bolts into final round with second place catch

Easton, Conn. pro Terry Baksay caught a solid limit weighing 16-15 on day one, but he upped his game today and added 19-13 to gain 20 notches for a second place finish at 36-12. Baksay likes fishing jerkbaits, but when that deal wasn’t happening, he shifted gears and put on a bass spanking clinic.

“They just would not bite the jerkbait,” Baksay said. “They’d follow it, follow it, follow it. So I decided to just fish small. I was dropshotting a bunch of different plastics – Lunker City 4-inch Sluggo, Slammers. I was also throwing some Mizmo tubes and a little War Eagle jig.”

The latter, he said was particularly versatile. “I’m catching largemouth and smallies on the jig. It’s a really small profile jig, so I’m able to catch both on it.”

Johnston stays on the smallies for third

Chris Johnston of Peterborough, Ontario moved up three spots to take third place on day two with 36-12. Johnston caught limits both days, with a bag of 19 pounds, 12 ounces on day one and 17-0 on day two.

Johnston caught all of his fish by dropshotting over sparse weeds in 20 feet of water with a Slammer bait. He fished several colors and found that the fish were not picky.

“I could see them on the graph,” Johnston said. “I’d mark the fish, drop down to them, or just fan cast to find them. I got them on watermelon red fleck a lot, but it didn’t matter what I threw down there, they were eating it.”

Staying in areas with abundant forage was important. “There was a lot of perch in the grass. Every cast I’d feel perch hitting my line, then all of a sudden I’d get a big fish. The perch being there was the big thing because the smallies were full of perch.”

In fourth place, Steve Lucarelli of Meredith, N.H. gained five spots and closed in on his son, who sits atop the pro division. Steve Lucarelli bagged 18 pounds, 15 ounces on day one and added 17-11 on day two for a total weight of 36-10.

Following by just an ounce, Pennsylvania pro Jason Ober has positioned himself for a possible repeat of his 2008 Stren Series victory on Lake Champlain. He clearly has some ground to make up on day three, but he’s been fishing well. He weighed 19 pounds on day one and then 17-9 today for a 36-9 total.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top-10 pro leaders at the Stren Series Lake Champlain event:

6th: Michael Drew of West Burke, Vt., 36-4

7th: Donald Sheldrake of Sandford, Ont., 35-7

8th: Jimmy Kennedy of Plainfield, Vt., 35-6

9th: Michael Wolfenden of Warwick, RI, 35-0

10th: Raymond Gratton of Swanton, Vt., 34-14

Ober and Drew shared the Folgers Big Bass award. Both caught 5-pound, 4-ounce fish.

Lesson from past guides Frazier to co-angler lead

Newnan, Ga. co-angler Micah Frazier probably had a different outlook before 1:30 p.m. today than he did afterward. Nevertheless, all’s well that ends well, and moving up five places to first in his division was certainly a job well done.

“I struggled all day,” Frazier recalls. “I caught one big one early on a Carolina rig. Then it got slick calm this afternoon and I picked up a bone colored Pop-R and I caught everything I weighed in, except for that one (early fish). When it gets calm and sunny, that’s when they bite that Pop-R up here.”

Frazier caught all of his bass while fishing over grass in 12 feet. After a mostly unproductive day, a flash of inspiration hit him with about an hour and a half left in the fishing day. “Last year, I came up here and found out about that Pop-R bite and I made the (top-10) cut and caught 18-something pounds on that the last day.”

James Schneider of Watervliet, N.Y. placed second with 33-8, while Terry Chapman of Stanley, N.C. took third with 33-8. Michael Sweeney of Mansfield, Mass. sits in fourth with 33-5 and Patrick Chow of Gilford, Ontario is fifth at 32-2.

Best of the rest

Rounding out the top-10 co-angler leaders at the Stren Series Lake Champlain event:

6th: Edward Pecore of Plattsburgh, N.Y., 32-0

7th: Tony Bushey of Champlain, N.Y., 31-5

8th: Gary McClain of Chesapeake, Va., 31-4

9th: Michael Drumsta of Clarks Summit, Penn., 30-5

10th: Bruce Frazier of Newnan, Ga., 29-8

John Davis of Parham, Ont. caught the biggest co-angler bass – a 5-pound, 10-ounce largemouth.

Day three of Stren Series action on Lake Champlain continues at Saturday’s takeoff, scheduled to take place at 6:30 a.m. (EST) at Dock Street Landing, located at 5 Dock Street, Plattsburgh N.Y.