Living the Dream: Lake Champlain, Part 6
Dave Andrews details day two of his FLW Series competition on Lake Champlain
————————————-
Editor’s note: This is the sixth piece in a series of journal entries from Dave Andrews, winner of the 2007 TBF National Championship, detailing his third stop on the 2008 FLW Series Eastern schedule. Entries will be published at FLWOutdoors.com throughout the course of the season. As winner of the “Living the Dream” package, offered by FLW Outdoors through The Bass Federation, Andrews had his entry fees paid to test his club skills on the pro tour with the use of a fully wrapped boat and tow package. Andrews will chronicle his adventure in pro bass fishing, having most recently competed on New York’s Lake Champlain. After Andrews has submitted his journal following each FLW Series event, segments will be posted approximately weekly. (Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5)(Read his Wheeler Lake journal; this links to the final entry, which provides links at the top for each preceding part)
————————————-
Walmart FLW Series BP Eastern Division
Stop No. 3: Lake Champlain
Sept. 10-13, 2008
Competition: Day two
Sept. 11
The second day of the Champlain FLW Series event again started well before the sun would come up. I met my co-angler at 4:45 a.m. at the ramp, and we dropped the Ranger in the water ahead of the crowd. I felt relaxed that morning, at peace with what I needed to do to get back into contention in the tournament. My co-angler was Bruce Frazier from Georgia, and we talked easily as we waited for morning send-off. I told him the plan would be to run several miles north into a huge bay and commit to catching five big smallmouths. I was boat No. 173 and due in at 5:10 p.m.
When they finally called my number, I put the hammer down and rode with a large pack of boats heading north. One by one, they all pulled off until finally I eased up on my starting spot. No boats were within sight of me. I had chosen the spot that Scott and I had found late the final practice day. It was early in the morning and featured the same low-light conditions of that final evening. I was hoping for a repeat performance, as I needed five of those giant smallies to bite today.
Of course I started with the Lucky Craft Rick Clunn model crankbait that I had bought on a whim at Northern Bass Supply just prior to leaving for this event. I threw the crankbait on a Daiwa Zillion and a 7-foot Fenwick Techna rod. I chose 30-pound Daiwa Samaria braided line tied to a 4-foot section of Gamma 14-pound fluorocarbon leader. Cranking with braid is awesome; you can actually feel the fish breath on it before he hits it. When the bite comes, it is jarring.
I worked past the first number I had along the ledge and was right on the spot where I caught the 5-pounder in practice when my crankbait got inhaled. I prayed for the fish to jump as my partner scrambled for the net, but unfortunately the fish stayed down and soon emerged alongside the boat. It was a huge pike, maybe 15 pounds. It took me quite awhile to subdue the beast and get my crankbait out of his mouth.
When I got back to fishing, I noticed I was right on the GPS spot of one of the other big smallies Scott and I had caught in practice. Again, my crankbait stopped and I set on a big fish; this time the fish headed right for the surface and came flying 3 feet out of the water. It was another huge smallmouth, but the battle was over before it could even get started. The big fish threw the hooks on her initial jump. She was easily over 4 pounds.
I got no more bites on the crankbait, so I switched up and began burning the spinnerbait. I soon had another strike and flipped a small 14-inch keeper smallie into the boat. It’s usually nice to get the skunk out of the boat, but in this case, I needed five big bites today, and fish of this size were of no use to me. I dropped it in the livewell anyway, and soon Bruce would answer with one of his own, around the same size, caught on a jerkbait. A few more big pike would grab our spinnerbaits, but 9 a.m. would roll around, and I made the decision to leave this spot and run several miles south to fish a Carolina-rigged lizard on a rocky ledge.
I pulled up on the ledge and recognized my friend Jamie Worth, who had given me his spare transducer on the off day. Jamie had two decent smallies in his livewell, but informed me that the bite was first thing in the morning and he was about to leave. I worked along the ledge with the lizard, eventually putting it down and picking up the spinnerbait again. I moved shallow and picked up the weed edge. I power-fished for about a mile down the edge before I finally had a bite. It was at the end of a long cast, and the fish stayed down initially. When it finally came up and jumped, I called for the net and played the bass alongside the boat. Bruce dipped the net under her, and I had one of the fish I would need for the day, a solid 3 1/2-pound smallmouth.
I stayed awhile longer, but couldn’t connect again. The sun was getting higher in the sky, and the moderate morning winds had backed off to a very manageable 5 to 10 mph out of the south. I hadn’t seen enough action shallow, so I made the decision to move out deeper and slow down my presentation. I picked an offshore ledge and began throwing the lizard again. The bottom was a mix of rocks and weeds in 15 to 18 feet of water. Not long after I stopped, my partner set on a good fish, and I netted it for him. He was ecstatic as he had suffered a long, fishless day one and was just happy to be catching fish. It turned out that he was in the boat that I saw turn around just ahead of me on the morning of the first day. Indeed, he had spent most of his day slamming through 6-footers and not fishing. Another nice smallie grabbed his Carolina rig and went into his side of the livewell. The bite was slow, but the size was good.
It was my turn next. A solid smallmouth mouthed my lizard, and after letting him have a taste, I slammed the hook and quickly subdued the fish. It was solid, just over 3 pounds. When we stopped getting bit, I switched up to a football-head jig with a crawfish trailer and began working it through the scattered grass. I felt a solid hit, but when I set the hook, I stumbled backwards. The line had parted about halfway to the fish, which seemed strange as it was fresh braided line. There must have been a nick in the line. I retied my fluorocarbon leader and put a new jig on. While working on retying, Bruce called for the net. Keeper No. 4 for him weighed over 3 pounds.
I stayed with the football jig and soon had another bite, this time on the initial fall of the bait. I set the hook and again got nothing but slack line. Frustrated, I put the rod away for the day; something was clearly wrong, and I couldn’t afford to lose any more fish today to bad equipment. Later, after the day was over, I would inspect the guides and find a tiny crack in the rod tip. This must have caused the break-offs and probably happened the previous day during the rough ride south. Lake Champlain takes its toll on equipment, for sure.
After going awhile without a bite, I decided the time was right to move up shallow into 6 feet of water to check some sparse weeds. I’ve caught some giant bags of smallmouths from these areas, but everything has to be perfect for the fish to move up this shallow. The spot features mostly sand with 
some dark spots where thin strands of weeds grow. I think the smallies move up when the sun gets high and the water is flat. They are looking for crayfish that live in the dark spots in the sand. Soon after moving shallow, I caught a 14-inch keeper on a watermelon-colored Gambler Ace rigged wacky style. This was my fourth keeper, but again, not the right size of fish.
I switched back to the spinnerbait and burned it across the flats. As I watched the spinnerbait come over a dark spot, a giant smallmouth emerged out of nowhere and boiled on the bait. Somehow it missed the hook and trailer hook entirely, and in an instant darted back down to the bottom. I followed up with the Ace, but couldn’t entice her. My partner continued to work his trusty Carolina-rigged crawfish slowly in the deeper water behind me. At one point I heard a commotion and turned to see him battling a big fish. I got the net ready, and eventually he landed the smallmouth. It was over 4 pounds and gave him a really nice limit. Bruce and I got along great all day, and I was really happy for him. Being from Georgia, he hadn’t caught many smallmouth bass in his life, and I think this was the biggest one he’d ever landed.
The shallow bite never really materialized, and with my time running short, I found myself back out on the deep ledge, looking to put one more fish in the boat to secure my limit. I even bummed one of Bruce’s craws to put on the business end of my Carolina rig. It was after 4 p.m., and there were no more boats left around me when I felt a solid tap on the rig. I swung and called for the net, but when the fish came alongside the boat, it was not a bass, but another giant northern pike. The pike was turning into a symbol of how this event was going for me. Each bite was a sign of hope, of turning things around, but each time the fish came alongside the boat, an ugly, tackle-wrecking pike would emerge to dash my hopes.
I pushed it as long as I could, but never got my limit fish. The fifth keeper didn’t matter much anyway, as I would have needed to cull the two smaller bass in order to get to where I needed to be for the day. I did have five or six solid bites on the day, and if I’d managed to boat them all, I would have had a killer bag. But it clearly wasn’t meant to be. My four fish weighed a paltry 9 pounds and left me out of contention for this event. As I figured, with the nice weather, the weights were strong today, and some beautiful bass hit the scales.
Once back at the cabin, Scott and I loaded up the truck in preparation for leaving New York following the final day. The nice weather of day two would soon be a memory, as a nasty front was fast approaching from the south. Forecast winds were in the 25- to 35-mph range, and it was to rain all day. If the weather was indeed to be that bad, FLW might have to cancel the third day. It didn’t matter to me either way; I was relegated to fun fishing anyway.
————————————-
Editor’s note: Stay tuned for Part 7, the final part of Andrews’ adventure on Lake Champlain, in which he’ll write about day three of his FLW Series tourney at Lake Champlain.
————————————-