Top 10 Baits from Champlain
What to throw for smallmouths or largemouths right now
1. Glenn Browne caught a few on a frog but relied on a custom-made 3/4-ounce flipping jig with round silicone fibers for the majority of his bites. Black and blue was the color of choice, and he matched it with a Zoom Big Salty Chunk trailer.
2. Otis Darnell caught some on a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw, but his primary bait was an undisclosed swimbait rigged on a belly-weighted hook.
3. Champlain expert Joe Lucarelli caught smallmouths the entire time and used a drop-shot with a 4-inch Yamamoto Slim Senko and a Carolina-rigged Strike King Rage Tail Shellcracker to get them to bite. Green pumpkin was the only color he used all week.
4. A PB&J football jig did work for David Cioppa on day one. On subsequent days he caught fish with a drop-shot, as well as a custom-made 9-inch stick worm and a Carolina-rigged green pumpkin Zoom Baby Brush Hog.
5. Brock Mosley wandered up to Champlain from Mississippi and targeted smallmouths with the new Bagley Knocker B, a walking topwater bait. He also added a few fish on a drop-shot and jig.
6. Gerald Spohrer targeted smallmouths with a 3/4-ounce Texas-rigged tube and largemouths with a bruiser-colored Missile Jigs Ike's Mini Flip Jig with a green pumpkin Missile Baits Baby D Bomb as a trailer.
7. Derick Olson used a heavy drop-shot rig with a green pumpkin Zoom Centipede on the south end of Champlain to catch his largemouths.
8. Smallmouths were key for Ryan Smith, and he did his work with regular and small Gene Larew Biffle Bugs on a Carolina rig. Green pumpkin was the only color he needed.
9. Keystone Light pro Chad Grigsby mixed largemouths from Ticonderoga with some smallmouths throughout the week. He caught them on a junebug-colored Charlie’s Worms Salt Bang-O down south. Up north, a shad-colored Charlie’s Worms Zipper Dipper rigged on a 3/8-ounce jighead with the tail dipped in chartreuse dye did the work.
10. Daniel Murphy caught his on a green pumpkin blue-colored 3/8-ounce Keitech Model I Casting Jig with a black and blue Netbait Paca Chunk as well as a new buzz frog from Keitech.