Gluszek still gunning at FLW Series

Gluszek, Lefebre mixing green and brown fish for top spots at Champlain

PLATTSBURG, N.Y. – The Walmart FLW Series event on Lake Champlain has turned into a coloring contest of sorts: as in who can mix in the most green with brown.

Catching both largemouths and smallmouths continues to be the object for the tournament leaders.

Pros Pete Gluszek and Dave Lefebre held on to the two top spots from yesterday, while David Wolak slipped to 10th, and Koby Kreiger, who is catching all smallies, moved into third.

Gluszek, who hails from Mount Laurel, N.J., added 18 pounds, 4 ounces to his 21 pounds, 7 ounces from yesterday for a leading total of 39 pounds, 11 ounces.

Like yesterday, his limit consisted of four largemouths and one smallmouth.

He revealed today that he is sharing his primary largemouth spot with two other pros, Terry Bolton and David Wolak, but he found a little something else this afternoon that he believes will come his way with the wind and clouds tomorrow.

“The one sweet spot in this area is getting beat up, so I took some time today to start expanding in the area, and I developed a power-fishing pattern for largemouths that seems to be just getting started,” Gluszek said. “I caught my second-biggest largemouth that way today and culled several times. I’m pretty optimistic about it, because it should only get better with this warming trend we’re in now.”

The good news for Gluszek is that all of his fishing is contained within a two-mile area.

As for the smallmouth pattern, he noted that the smallmouth bite is still not as hot as the largemouth bite in his area.

“I’ll stay with the largemouths for as long as I possibly can,” he added. “I feel pretty good; everything is flowing, and I’m pretty excited about continuing to expand on this largemouth pattern tomorrow.”

Lefebre second

Kellogg’s pro Dave Lefebre of Union City, Pa., defended his second-place spot today with 16 pounds, 6 ounces for a two-day total of 37 pounds, 1 ounce.

Lefebre said he basically has one smallmouth spot – a rock pile – where he starts the day and secures a limit. Then he hits an assortment of largemouth places while checking the rock pile periodically.

Yesterday he was able to cull out all of his smallmouths with largemouths, but today he could only add three largemouths while two smallies had to stay in his bag.

“Even though I wanted to go south, I stayed up here again today to see if I could stay in the hunt without having to make that long run,” Lefebre said. “All of my places up here are within five miles of each other, so it makes going back and forth between my spots pretty easy.”

With a forecasted south wind tomorrow, Lefebre says he will try to stick it out one more day close and then consider a run to the south on Saturday for the win.

“I’ve got one place way down there I’m just dying to fish,” he added. “Maybe if the wind lays down on Saturday, I can make the run.”

Kreiger third

Prilosec pro Koby Kreiger of Okeechobee, Fla., caught 16 pounds, 4 ounces of smallmouths today to take the third spot with a two-day total of 36 pounds, 9 ounces.

Kreiger’s lighter catch today (as compared to his day-one catch of 20 pounds, 5 ounces) was due to lost fish.

“I jumped off a couple of 4-pounders today, and with as few bites as I’m getting per day, I just can’t afford to do that,” Kreiger said. “They just were not eating as good today. Yesterday, they’d inhale the bait, and I had to dig it out of their throats; today, they’d swipe at it three or four times, and the ones I did get in the boat were barely hooked or hooked in the top of the head.”

As for the wind tomorrow, Kreiger said he has two drift socks and is prepared for the worst.

“It won’t be good for the way I’m fishing, because fishing slow is critical,” he added. “But I can’t let that bother me; I’ve got to make the best of whatever happens.”

Fukae fourth

BP pro Shinichi Fukae of Mineola, Texas, moved into the fourth spot today with a two-day total of 36 pounds, 8 ounces.

Fukae is concentrating strictly on smallmouths and is drop-shotting depths of up to 30 feet for his catches.

Powroznik fifth

Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va., jumped into the fifth-place position today with an 18-pound, 15-ounce catch, which gave him a two-day total of 36 pounds, 6 ounces.

Powroznik estimated that his better catch came thanks to a slight move of some 100 feet from his primary spot.

“The fishing on one of my best spots got a little slow, so I started moving around with my trolling motor and looking at the bottom on my graph; suddenly the graph just lit up, and my partner and I crushed them,” Powroznik recounted. “I caught four big ones in a matter of minutes.”

Incidentally, Powroznik’s co-angler, Sam Mitchiner, now leads the Co-angler Division.

Big bass

Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., caught the big bass in the Pro Division on day two weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces.

Rest of the best

Rounding out the top 10 pros in the FLW Series event on Lake Champlain after day two:

6th: Jim Moynagh of Carver, Minn., two-day total of 35-15

7th: David Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., two-day total of 35-10

8th: Jim Tutt of Longview, Texas, two-day total of 35-6

9th: Takahiro Omori of Emory, Texas, two-day total of 35-5

10th: David Wolak of Wake Forrest, N.C., two-day total of 34-15

Mitchiner leads co-anglers

Sam Mitchiner of Garner, N.C., leads the Co-angler Division of the FLW Series on Lake Champlain with 35 pounds even.

Mitchiner caught 18 pounds, 11 ounces yesterday and 16 pounds, 5 ounces while fishing with Jacob Powroznik today.

“Fishing with Jacob worked out awesome,” Mitchiner said. “At one point today, we doubled up on 4-pounders – you can’t ask for much more excitement than that.”

Mitchiner used a Carolina-rigged Zoom Speed Craw for his catch today.

“I know drop-shotting is supposed to be the thing up here, but I don’t drop-shot that much,” he added. “I’m from North Carolina and we Carolina rig a lot, so I’d rather do that.”

Wayne Frierson of Manning, S.C., is in second place in the Co-angler Division after day two with a two-day total of 32 pounds, 11 ounces.

Rest of the best

Bob Snyder of Marion, Ind., is in third place with a two-day total of 32 pounds, 4 ounces.

Andy Jenkins of Elkhart, Ind., is in fourth place with a two-day total of 31 pounds, 12 ounces.

Ronald Mueller of Prosperity, S.C., rounds out the top five in the Co-angler Division with a two-day total of 31 pounds, 8 ounces.

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers in the FLW Series event on Lake Champlain after day two:

6th: Michi Oba of Tokyo, two-day total of 30-9

7th: Chuck Thurlow of Auburn, Ala., two-day total of 29-11

8th: Al Gagliarducci of Enfield, Conn., two-day total of 29-11

9th: Robert Walker of Concord, Mass., two-day total of 28-12

10th: Jim Tedesco of Niagra Falls, Ontario, two-day total of 28-7

Big bass

James Soden of Grant, Ala., caught the big bass in the Co-angler Division on day two weighing 5 pounds, 3 ounces.

Day three of the FLW Series on Lake Champlain will begin Friday at 6:30 a.m. at Dock Street Landing located at 5 Dock St., in Plattsburgh.