Hibdon hangs on
Largemouths lead the day at Lake Champlain as pro finalists bunch up tight
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Dion Hibdon went back to the Ticonderoga well at Lake Champlain and again came out on top in the first half of a fish-packed final round Friday. The pro from Stover, Mo., who dominated the first two days of Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition caught a five-bass limit weighing 16 pounds, 14 ounces to hold onto the lead for the third day in a row, but this time he’s got company. Lots of company.
All 10 of the pro finalists caught limits Friday – though only nine limits came across the scale thanks to a costly culling error by Curt Lytle. Sitting just 2 ounces behind Hibdon is Tracy Adams in second place with 16 pounds, 12 ounces. Kevin Vida is third with 15-13 and Thomas Lavictoire fourth with 15-5. Fifth-place Keith Williams is right behind Lavictoire with 15-4.
Respectively taking sixth, seventh and eighth place, Scott Dobson (14-12), Shinichi Fukae (14-7) and Scott Martin (13-11) are also still within a reasonable spitting distance of the leader.
While Friday’s competition once again proved that Lake Champlain is always a game of ounces, Hibdon, Adams and, surprisingly, even Vida made the point that perhaps the most valuable of those ounces come in the form of largemouth bass.
Hibdon’s winds of change
There’s really nothing new to report on how Hibdon caught his fish Friday. With the results he had the first two days, that’s no surprise at all. Same bait: a ¾-ounce Lucky Strike jig with a Guido Bug trailer, all green-pumpkin. Same area: southern end of the lake by Ticonderoga. Same cover: grass and milfoil, running about 8 feet deep. Same result: a bag full of 3- and 4-pound largemouths.
But Hibdon only hooked into a little less than 17 pounds Friday, not the 20-pound stringers he managed Wednesday and Thursday. To that end, he admitted that the fishing did change on him today.
“I started right off by whacking the (heck) out of them, but as soon as it hit 10 o’clock, that wind picked up and they shut down,” he said.
A wind shift out of the north Friday caused fits for more anglers than just Hibdon. Where he was, on the south end, Hibdon said the wind started messing up the cover he was fishing.
“When that north wind blows, it changes the flow of the water down there and causes the grass to lie down. The water comes out of Ticonderoga and flows out of there, but with a north wind it just pushes the water that much harder,” he said. “I’m going to tie on a heavier jig tomorrow and see what I can do.”
The north wind screaming down the length of Lake Champlain also caused havoc for the pros who made the run down to Ticonderoga, not so much on the way down in the morning, which was calm, but on the way back this afternoon.
“Tracy (Adams), Curt (Lytle) and I, I’ll tell you what, we put them to the test today,” Hibdon said. “That was a long, hard boat ride back.”
Still, Hibdon harbors no illusions about possibly staying closer to Plattsburgh and sight-fishing for smallmouths Saturday. The forecast is calling for similar conditions, but the leader is heading south for largemouths regardless.
“My roommate in the Northern (Division) Strens lives in Keesville (N.Y.) and I talked with him and talked with Dad (legendary pro Guido Hibdon) about it,” Hibdon said. “We figured that’s the only way you can catch them like that around here.”
Adams also banking on buckets, takes second
Just 2 ounces behind Hibdon, Adams is catching his fish much the way as the leader. He fished a green-pumpkin Zoom Brush Hog in grass down at Ticonderoga and caught his limit, all largemouths, in about 8 feet of water.
“That seems to be the magic number,” the pro from Wilkesboro, N.C., said.
Adams also battled the rough water on his run back up to Plattsburgh Friday, and he’s concerned about whether his fish will hold up for Saturday. However, he, too, plans on making the hour-long run south again Saturday because he has no choice.
“I only practiced two days down there,” he said, “but I found that I couldn’t catch more than 9 or 10 pounds up here.”
Vida third, snags some largemouths
Vida, the pro out of Clare, Mich., renowned for his smallmouth sight-fishing prowess, actually weighed in a pair of largemouth bass Friday, the first time he’s done so all week. Not coincidentally, he said he was blown off of his sight-fish today.
“Today, with the wind and the clouds, I only caught one fish off the beds,” he said. “So hopefully we get some sun tomorrow so I can do some sight-fishing.”
Vida caught his two largemouths fishing close to home in Cumberland Bay early in the day, then went to the North Shore area and hooked into the familiar bronzebacks using a green-pumpkin Mizmo tube and a Berkley Jerk shad.
While he dabbled in largemouth theory himself Friday and the top two weights were both largemouth stringers, Vida said he’s sticking to his smallmouth pattern on the upper end of the lake no matter what Saturday.
“Largemouths are just like smallmouths, they’ve got to be running low,” he said. “I know Ticonderoga and I know those largemouths: They run just like the smallmouths. So we’ll see.”
Lavictoire fourth
Another pro who knows Ticonderoga and just about every other nook and cranny of Lake Champlain is Lavictoire, the local out of West Rutland, Vt. However, he stuck to his guns Friday and caught his 15-pound, 5-ounce limit of smallies on the upper end of the lake by throwing drop-shots, tubes and Senkos.
“I thought they were actually a little heavier than that,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’m just going to do whatever it takes to go and get as much as I can.”
Williams comes back uplake, takes fifth
Williams, of Conway, Ark., started the week fishing on the south end but worked his way back up toward Plattsburgh the last couple days. He caught a good limit’s worth of largemouths Friday on the upper end, however, and was one of the few anglers this week to pull off that feat.
“I’m not catching a whole of fish, but I’m catching some big fish, so that’s what I’m going to keep doing,” Williams said. “But if there’s no wind tomorrow, I might have to think about (heading south) a little more.”
Rest of the best
Following Dobson, Fukae and Martin, Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark. – Keith Williams’ father – placed ninth with 11 pounds, 15 ounces.
Tenth-place Lytle, who hails from Zuni, Va., took a zero Friday thanks to the disqualification he received when he accidentally brought in six bass. He estimated that his five best fish would have weighed around 16 pounds.
“I’m spotting these guys a lot of weight,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’m just going to have to go out and catch about 35 pounds, I think.”
Final round Saturday
Day four of Wal-Mart Tour competition at Lake Champlain begins as the final-round field of 10 boats takes off from Plattsburgh Boat Basin at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time Saturday. Friday’s weights carry over to Saturday, and the $100,000 Pro Division winner will be determined by two-day combined weight.