Large or small?
As Champlain finals unfold, the decision remains: Should the pros stick to spawning smallmouths or go after big largemouths?
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – At most tournament venues, the pros who make the final round of a Wal-Mart FLW tournament are simply hoping to fill out their limits on Friday and Saturday, with maybe a big kicker or two thrown in each day to send them to victory. But Lake Champlain is no ordinary tournament venue; just catching a limit here clearly won’t be enough, and the kicker fish pretty much top out at 5 to 5 1/2 pounds – if they’re lucky.
Hence, the 10 pro finalists who took off from Plattsburgh Boat Basin Friday morning are currently engaging in one big game of Stratego to find that hairline edge on the competition. On the one hand, most of the pros mined Lake Champlain’s prolific spawning smallmouth fishery as their ticket to the finals. On the other hand, the opening-round leader, Dion Hibdon, opened up an astonishing 5-pound gap between himself and the rest of the field by fishing almost exclusively for largemouths.
Factor in the notion that it takes about an hour-and-a-half run on huge, choppy water to reach the area where Hibdon’s fishing, and the final round could turn into a big, calculated game of Risk.
Catching a limit won’t be an issue. Expect all of the pros – and even the co-anglers, who are finishing competition Friday – to bring in five bass each. What kind of bass they catch, however, could be the determining factor between a $100,000 check and a slap on the back.
“It’s going to take 16 1/2 or 17 pounds a day, maybe even more, to win this thing,” said third-place pro qualifier Thomas Lavictoire, a local from West Rutland, Vt., whose name always seems to pop up at Lake Champlain tournaments. “Yeah, you can win on smallmouths, but some of those guys have been on that big largemouth bite, so you definitely have to have good ones.”
Lavictoire, who has thus far caught exclusively spawning smallmouths on the upper end of the lake, hasn’t yet excluded the idea of running to the lake’s lower end – “down to Ticonderoga,” as they say around here – in search of some of the largemouths that have filled Hibdon’s limits. However, the local seemed confident that he had enough of those key, 4- to 4 1/2-pound spawning smallies left up north to pull him through.
One big worry for the finalists that could push a few more of them southward to largemouth land is that so many of the smallie beds have been picked through during the first two days of competition. However, this smallmouth bass fishery is so ridiculously prolific that it appears to be replenishing itself on a daily, almost hourly, basis.
“They’re still coming up,” eighth-place pro Kevin Vida said, erasing any doubt about which species he’s going after.
“Yeah, I saw that,” confabbed fellow Michigan pro and second-place qualifier Scott Dobson, grinning. “I really do think more fish are moving up to spawn.”
So the question remains: Will the smallmouths up north be big enough to beat the largemouths down south?
Final-round logistics
Weights from days one and two were cleared for the final rounds, and co-angler competition will conclude Friday afternoon. The top 10 pros continue competition Saturday, with the winner determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from days three and four.
The winning co-angler will take home a top award of $20,000 cash, while the pros are in the hunt for a top cash prize of $100,000.
Friday and Saturday’s weigh-ins will be held at the Wal-Mart store located at 25 Consumer Square in Plattsburgh beginning at 4 p.m. Eastern time. For those unable to attend in person, check out all the action at FLWOutdoors.com with FLW Live.
The community is invited to attend the free Family Fun Zone Friday and Saturday outside the weigh-in tent in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Family Fun Zone, which opens at 2 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday, features interactive displays, product samples and games for the entire family to enjoy.
Friday’s conditions
Sunrise: 5:09 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 64 degrees
Expected high temperature: 74 degrees
Water temperature: 65-72 degrees
Wind: NNE at 9 mph
Maximum humidity: 65 percent
Day’s outlook: mostly cloudy