Lake Champlain Top 5 Patterns – Day 2
Smallmouths and largemouths up north are doing the damage
One of the windier tournament days in recent memory did a lot to reshape the leaderboard of the Costa FLW Series event on Lake Champlain. The run south to Ticonderoga was not impossible, but the wind up north kept a lot of pros from effectively fishing their best stuff. That made weights drop pretty much across the board on day two.
In the lead, Bryan Thrift basically did the same thing he did on day one, albeit with more brown fish mixed in and a much lower weight. Behind him, the other pros that started with 20 pounds or better stumbled harder than he did, but a few folks maintained or improved to keep the heat on him.
Assuming the wind lays down a little on Saturday, we should be headed for a barn-burner of a final day. The fish are biting and the entire top 10 has between 35-2 and 38-12.
2. Scott Dobson – Clarkston, Mich. – 37-14 (10)
Arguably the best smallmouth angler alive, Scott Dobson has worked up smallie sacks worth 19-4 and 18-10 so far. He says that both days he’s lost 20-pound stringers.
Fishing north of Plattsburgh, Dobson is in his element, targeting moderately shallow smallmouths around a mix of grass, rock and sand. So far, most of his damage has come on a jerkbait or a topwater, but he’s mixed in a drop-shot and a spy bait as well.
“It’s about 300 or 400 yards long, and there are five or six spots that have good fish,” says Dobson of his main area. “The problem is, the big ones only want to bite the jerkbait, and they don’t want to stay on. A lot of them are following it. Today, every fish I caught on the jerkbait ate within three feet of the boat.”
Winning just might depend on his ability to crack 20 pounds like some of the other’s in the top 10 have.
“I’m gonna focus on the same areas,” says Dobson. “If it’s calm enough I might run around, but I’m gonna do the same thing I did today. If I can land even 75 percent of my fish on the jerkbait I have a shot at 20 pounds, I don’t know if that could win, but the fish are there.”
3. Edward Levin – Westerville, Ohio – 37-6 (10)
One of the few anglers that managed to improve on day two, Edward Levin actually abandoned his primary area and still came up with 19 pounds.
“Today kinda went unexpected,” says Levin. “I was running down the lake and I didn’t think I’d be able to hold on my primary area, so I kinda called an audible and went to a couple of backup plans.”
Levin weighed all smallmouths on day one, but he mixed things up on day two.
“I started out throwing for a limit of smallmouth and then went flipping for largemouths and culled up,” says Levin. “I basically just stayed where I could fish to be honest.”
Levin’s largemouth came flipping grass, and a 5-pounder helped the cause a lot. His early smallmouth came off rock piles he ran in anywhere from 6 to 20 feet of water. It’s hard to depend on fish to stay put on any lake, but there are pretty good odds his primary fish got a day of rest, so he might be in good shape for the final day.
4. Brandt Tumberg – Moore, S.C. – 37-3 (10)
Day one was pretty magical for Brant Tumberg, but day two was trying and he only mustered 15 pounds and some change.
“It was a pretty rough day,” says the young South Carolinian. “I started on my topwater spot and didn’t catch any on topwater. So, I picked up a shaky head and caught four for about 11 pounds or something. Then I ran down to my flippin’ spot, and I broke my trolling motor on the way and when I got there, there was a guy sitting on it, so I didn’t even get to fish it.”
After running back to his magical topwater area, Tumberg ground his way up with a Neko rig, losing a 5-pounder on his trolling motor in the process.
“That spot is special,” says Tumberg. “When I pulled up on it yesterday I saw a school of like 30 fish on it. It’s like a foot of water and all rock, it’s the craziest thing I’ve ever seen. If I can get on it tomorrow I’m gonna fish it all day. That’s my best chance of catching a big bag.”
5. Jason Bacon – Nutting Lake, Mass. – 36-5 (10)
Anything over 17 pounds was pretty big today on Champlain, and Jason Bacon did it up right with 19-1, the biggest day-two bag of anyone in the top 10.
“Yesterday, I pretty much fished for green fish all day,” says Bacon. “Today, I went back and plugged away and I mixed in some brown fish as well.”
Bacon started out fishing for smallmouth and two stayed with him until weigh-in. After that, he says he targeted largemouths on grass and isolated cover.