Canadians Sim 44th & Richardson 75th
by Curtis Niedermier
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| Largemouth are king for top anglers. (Photo: FLW) |
Impressive is the best way to
describe the collective day-one performance by the pros competing in this
week’s FLW Tour event presented by T-H Marine at Lake Champlain. The top 13 all
caught 19 pounds or better, the top 25 weighed at least 18 and the top 38
caught at least 17.
Most
impressive of them all on day one was Louisiana’s Tyler Stewart, who’s
competing in his first-ever tournament on the big natural lake that straddles
the New York-Vermont border. Stewart weighed in a five-bass limit worth 22 pounds,
3 ounces, which is by all means stout on Lake Champlain.
He’s one of a number of pros who
spent the day targeting largemouths in order to get over that 18-pound mark,
but he had one bonus smallmouth in his bag today, too.
“I
had about 21 pounds probably, and I was on my way back, and I stopped and threw
a Keitech around and ended up catching some smallmouth that culled one of my
smaller largemouths,” Stewart says. “I was actually just planning on going all
in on largemouth, but I had a little extra time, so when I got back I messed
around with that and ended up making a cull, which was pretty crucial.”
Stewart
says he didn’t have much company in his primary area today. His most notable
challenge was a yacht wake that he hit on the way to his starting place. The
impact resulted in a busted front graph and some damage to his Power-Pole
bracket.
The
damage not only cost Stewart a little time, but it made him question whether he
ought to stay closer to the ramp in Plattsburgh. Thankfully, Stewart trudged on
and ended up getting into decent action pretty quickly.
Even
without that bonus smallie, he knew he already had a good enough limit to be in
contention. There was no reason to wear out his best water.
“In
practice I wasn’t getting many bites at all – just quality – so I really didn’t
want to catch anything that I might need tomorrow,” Stewart adds. “I only have
a couple small areas, so that’s basically what I’m doing; just flipping them up
in pretty shallow water.”
2. Tom Redington – Royse City,
Texas – 20-7 (5)
Tom
Redington calls Texas home, but it’s more of an adopted home, if you will. He
grew up in Illinois and lived awhile in Wisconsin. These Northern largemouths
are nothing new to him, as he proved on day one with a 20-pound, 7-ounce limit
of all green bass.
Redington
actually stopped over at Cayuga and Oneida on his way to Champlain to “try and
get in the smallmouth rhythm.” It wasn’t happening, so he reset and dialed in
on largemouths.
“When
I’ve done well here in the past, it’s always been a largemouth deal,” Redington
says. “I grew up in the Upper Midwest. This largemouth fishing is what I grew
up doing. It’s really similar.”
According
to Redington, there are still largemouths in all three phases of the spawn,
likely due to the inconsistent weather this spring and fluctuating water
temperatures around the lake. He caught some that he thinks were on beds, some
guarding fry and some still coming in to prepare to spawn.
While
Redington would like to find a wad of postspawners – the kind of fish he says
he can Power-Pole down on and load the boat with – most of what he’s found has
been less predictable and a little more scattered.
“I
would say it’s not a location pattern, and it’s not a lure pattern; it’s a spot
deal,” Redington adds.
Critical
to his limit was a pair of 4 1/2-pounders. He spent part of the day trying to
catch another and upgrade, but when he was pitching back 3 1/2-pound fish,
Redington decided to let his best waters rest and save the fish for the coming
days.
He’ll
start Friday’s cut-day round tied for second with John Voyles.
2. John Voyles – Petersburg, Ind.
– 20-7 (5)
Indiana
pro John Voyles reversed the trend set by the other two pros at the top of the
standings and weighed in four smallmouths and one 4-pound largemouth that he
caught right at the end of the day.
“I
caught some fish early, and then I fished for two or three hours and finally
pulled on a spot, and, I mean, it was lights out,” he says.
The
smallies Voyles found were schooling and feeding aggressively. He caught them
every cast for a while.
“I
hope they keep coming,” he adds. “What I caught them on today, I hadn’t even
been throwing in practice.”
Voyles
says he just had a feeling that he needed to pick up something different to try
and get a bigger bite. His feeling was right on.
Tomorrow,
he’ll see if the spot can produce similar results to get him into the weekend
within range of a W.
“There
are a lot of fish there,” he says of his main spot. “I don’t know how many big
ones are there, but we’re going to find out tomorrow.”
4. Casey Scanlon – Lake Ozark,
Mo. – 20-0 (5)
Casey
Scanlon, who was the fourth pro to crack 20 pounds, was in the “all largemouth”
club today.
“I
just kind of bounced around,” he says. “I had several different places I had
some confidence in. I didn’t get bit very good early and made a few small
adjustments and started catching them. I didn’t catch them out of any one area;
just kind of bounced around and got some of the right bites. I’ve got some
stuff left that I didn’t touch. I think, hopefully, some of these spots will
reload.”
Scanlon
is incorporating three patterns into his game plan, each one based on the type
of cover he encounters in the parts of the lake he’s fishing. Covering water
and throwing a variety of baits, he says, was key.
5. Kurt Mitchell – Milford, Del.
– 19-15 (5)
Lake
Champlain has Delaware pro Kurt Mitchell feeling right at home this week. He
also weighed in five largemouths and has been committed to the green fish all
week long.
“This
is just on the tail end of the smallmouth spawn, and that’s usually when the
smallmouth start dropping off a little bit,” he says. “Plus, I love fishing for
largemouth up here. This is my favorite place in the world to catch
largemouth.”
Mitchell
says most of the largemouth bass are postspawn.
“Right
now they’re just trying to feed up,” he adds. “They’re gorging on big shad, and
there’s a little bit of an alewife spawn going on. They’re all going up in that
stuff.
“It’s
easy to catch small ones, but to get the bigger ones you’ve got to work for it
a little bit.”
Mitchell
basically weighed in a bag full of 4-pounders by keying on a mixture of rock
and grass – not just one or the other.
“The
biggest deal with largemouth is getting a kicker. I didn’t get a kicker today,”
he adds. “There’s a lot of 5- and 6-pound largemouth in this lake, and I just
didn’t get one today.”
Top 10 pros
1.
Tyler Stewart – West Monroe, La. – 22-3 (5)
2.
Tom Redington – Royse City, Texas – 20-7 (5)
2.
John Voyles – Petersburg, Ind. – 20-7 (5)
4.
Casey Scanlon – Lake Ozark, Mo. – 20-0 (5)
5.
Kurt Mitchell – Milford, Del. – 19-15 (5)
6.
Hensley Powell – Whitwell, Tenn. – 19-14 (5)
7.
Daryl Biron – South Windsor, Con. – 19-12 (5)
8.
Jeff Dobson – Bartlesville, Okla. – 19-9 (5)
9.
Tommy Dickerson – Orange, Texas – 19-8 (5)
10.
Kurt Dove – Del Rio, Texas – 19-5 (5)
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