Preview: Summit Cup, Back to the Belgrades

When it comes to bass fishing, Major League Fishing is just like their anglers: once they find a great fishing hole, they want to return to it. Such is the case with the Belgrade Lakes region of Maine located near the town of Waterville.

MLF first sampled the Belgrade Lakes for the Summit Cup in 2014 and found some of the most untapped bass fishing in the country. The area lakes provided cool temperatures for August and a scenic backdrop with some red-hot fishing action. With that, MLF has decided to return to Waterville to rekindle some Maine magic.

While most of the 30 pros attending the Summit Cup relish the opportunity to fish up north in the dog days of summer, the only problem becomes revisiting lakes that MLF pros fished in the 2014 trip. During that event, MLF held the six-day event across four of the Belgrades: Messalonskee, Great Pond, Long Pond and China Lake. This time around, Long Pond has been dropped from the mix, but Great Pond, Messalonskee and China Lake will all be in play.

MLF pros often say that having fished a lake previously has little bearing on their fishing decisions the next time they fish the same location; however, whenever pros arrive at any MLF lake that they have fished before, the first topic of conversation is always who has fished there before and who has not. Great Pond near Maine was no exception.

As the first ten pros pulled into the Great Pond Public Boat Ramp to begin the Elimination Round on day one, they were reaching back into their fishing memory banks to recall if they had fished that same lake in 2014.

Great Pond is a rather large body of water to be called a “pond.” In fact, it is one of the largest bodies of water in the United States that’s called a pond. Weighing in at 8,200 acres with an average depth of 21 feet and a maximum depth of 69 feet, Great Pond is certainly that: Great!

In 2014, Great Pond was used for one day of the Elimination Round. With that, Greg Hackney was the first to start scratching his head, trying to pull Great Pond’s layout from his bassing brain.

“I can’t say for sure, but I really don’t think I fished this one before,” Hackney said. “Look, I’m going to be honest, once we get up in this part of the country this time of year – whether it’s Maine, Minnesota or even Michigan – it really all looks the same to me. And here’s the deal: it’s all good fishing. They’ve been bringing us up here for years in August and I don’t remember ever having a bad fishing day in any of them. I mean, I’m not saying that I’ve made the Championship Round in all of them. I’ve taken some lumps up here, but I caught plenty of fish while taken those lumps which makes it fun.”

“So I really don’t care if I’ve been here or not,” Hackney continued. “I just love fishing up here this time of year. These lakes are just full of fish; they get very little pressure and they like to bite. So whether I’ve been here or not, I’m looking forward to it.”

Skeet Reese echoed similar thoughts as Hackney. He didn’t really know if he had fished Great Pond before and didn’t really want to know if he had fished it before.

“I can’t remember what I did yesterday, much less three years ago,” Reese said. “After a while, all these lakes start running together – Alpena, Grand Rapids, Chautauqua, here – once you fish a half a dozen lakes in this part of the country, the differentiations between them fade pretty quickly.”

As it turns out, Hackney and Reese did not fish Great Pond the first time around. In fact, out of the ten anglers fishing Great Pond on day one, only four did not fish it the first time around. In addition to Hackney and Reese, Keith Poche and Shaw Grigsby did not visit Great Pond previously either; however, the other six pros did.

One of those six who has a little clearer memory of Great Pond is Brent Ehrler who caught 56 pounds on the lake in 2014 to dominate his Elimination Round. During that day, Ehrler tapped into a giant school of smallmouths located off a point and racked up 32 bass with a drop shot.

“Yeah, I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going to start,” Ehrler said with a grin. “I’m all about trying to erase history from my head – lakes change and so do the fish. But when you find a place that good, you have to go back and give it a few minutes. If they’re not there, I’m not going to die on the vine trying to recreate the spot; I’ll move on. But I’m going to at least roll over it on the meter and see what’s up.”

Brent Chapman had good memories of Great Pond, too. He racked up 49 pounds of largemouth to finish second in the Elimination Round in 2014.

“I’m pretty sure this where they let us go in the fog for the ride through,” Chapman recalled. “I remember not being able to see anything. I ran up on a field of submerged vegetation and shut down; I was lost. Then my boat official suddenly said, ‘lines in,’ so I just got up, started fishing and blasted them. I literally landed right on top of them – it was crazy how good it was.”

Chapman said he planned to recheck his best area in Great Pond as well.

“I’ll give it a look, but I’m sure these lakes have changed,” Chapman said. “I remember when we returned to Alpena for the second time – it was not anything like it was the first time – and I’m sure these places have changed too. You’ve got to keep an open mind in this game. But it’s fun fishing up here, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Ott Defoe was also reminiscing about his Maine experience the last time around.  Defoe not only advanced out of the Elimination Round on Great Pond, but ended up runner-up in the Championship Round.

“Yeah, I remember this event pretty well,” Defoe said. “Not only did I fish it, but I watched the shows when they came out.”

For clarification, anglers headed to Maine for this Cup were not allowed to go back and review the past shows. Defoe made it clear that he watched the shows when they first aired several years ago.

“The most important thing I learned from that Elimination Round was that smallmouth were the species to target,” he said. “I seem to remember Brent (Ehrler) and Aaron (Martens) lighting them up pretty well on offshore breaks, so smallmouth are on my brain to start this morning.”