2018 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Eastern Open No. 3 on Lake Champlain Day 2: Labelle Lands Leads!

Molix Pro Carl Jocumsen nets big bass 6-5lbs!
By Jon Storm
BASS PRESS RELEASE

Mix bag for Bryan Labelle.
(Photo: BASS)

Round 2 of the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Eastern Open No. 3 on Lake Champlain was all about the 20-pound mark, and only two anglers in the massive 194-boat field caught limits of bass weighing 20 pounds or more both days. One was the new tournament leader Bryan Labelle of Hinesburg, Vt., who backed up his Day 1 catch with five bass weighing 21 pounds, 10 ounces today. The other was Thursday’s leader Bobby Lane, who brought in 20-4 today.
 
The two are separated by a little more than a pound with one day left to fish, but they’re separated by more than weight. Labelle is a local angler and Champlain expert. Lane, on the other hand, is an Elite Series pro from Lakeland, Fla., who’s never cashed a check at Champlain despite a half-dozen previous attempts.
 
Third place currently belongs to another Floridian, Rich Howes, who weighed back-to-back sacks of about 19 1/2 pounds (19-9 today). Howes trails leader Labelle by a little more than 4 pounds.
 
Of the 15 bass weighed by the Top 3, only two were smallmouth – one for Labelle, one for Lane —but for most of the field, the largemouth bite started to fade today. The popular spots down south in Ticonderoga burned out, and the Top 3 caught their fish well north of the Plattsburgh weigh-in. The lack of sun today harmed the largemouth bite, as well as the smallmouth bite, because the largemouth weren’t positioned to shade, and the deeper smallmouth weren’t firing like they do under clear skies.
 
Labelle said he’s fishing north, in Missisquoi Bay, where he’s targeting largemouth in grass.
 
“I didn’t have a game plan today — I was just fishing around — and I ‘burned’ all my fish,” Labelle said. “I was around some boats, but they weren’t very close. Tomorrow, I will need more of a game plan, but I’m going to stay in the same part of the lake —I’ll just fish a different area around there.