Canadians Sim 18th.
by Curtis Niedermier
FLW PRESS RELEASE
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Sunday will be the battle of Ticonderoga.
(Photo: FLW) |
There’s a showdown looming on
Lake Champlain tomorrow, and how it’s going to end up is anybody’s guess.
Louisiana
pro Tyler Stewart is in the lead for the third consecutive day at this week’s
FLW Tour event, which is presented by T-H Marine. But Stewart, who weighed, 18
pounds, 5 ounces today, has been catching his fish down at Ticonderoga. That’s
all he has, and he says a hurricane can’t keep him from making the long run to
Ti tomorrow.
Getting
there doesn’t look to be an issue, but if the weather forecast is correct,
getting home from Ti tomorrow afternoon could get a little dicey. The wind is
supposed to blow out of the north at a clip that pro Daryl Biron, who’s fished
Champlain for years, thinks might build big enough waves to more than double
the normally 50-minute run down there.
Stewart
isn’t the only one making the run. Four of the top five and seven of the top 10
are fishing in Ticonderoga, including Biron in fifth, second-place pro Casey
Scanlon and third-place pro Eric Jackson. The only one in the top five staying
up north is Bryan Thrift, who’s in fourth. It’s highly likely that Thrift will
have a limit in the boat before anyone fishing at Ti even gets to his starting
spot – and that’s during the calm period forecast for the morning. The fact
that Thrift is nipping at their heels and they’ll have a shorter day doesn’t
seem to be dissuading any of the top pros from making the run to Ti.
“I’ll
zero tomorrow before I don’t go down there,” Stewart says.
The
thing Stewart has in his favor this week is that Ti continues to churn out
postspawn largemouths that exceed 4 pounds. A 4-pound bass is worth a lot of
money in a tournament at Champlain. Stewart probably needs at least a few of
them and another upper teens limit tomorrow if he wants to hold off the
competition. So far, he’s weighed in 58-6 in three days.
“It
started off kind of slow,” Stewart says of his morning today. “I got down there
to my main places, and it was crowded. There was a tournament out of Ti, and on
one of my main holes, there was a guy fishing it just fun fishing.
“I
didn’t get to fish that. I had two places that were covered up with people
today – where I was really planning on smackin’ them today. I ended up catching
a 4 1/2-pounder and got some momentum going and just grinded all day and ended
up catching some good fish and just kept the wheels going.”
Stewart had to adjust and run
some new water on the fly to stay on the caliber of fish he’s been catching.
His primary tactic all week has been flipping shallow cover on the main lake
where the bass are keying on a particular type of baitfish. Today, he did get a
few bites on a square-bill just “showing them something different,” which
produced one of the keepers he brought to weigh-in. Then he lucked into a 3
1/2-pound smallmouth that culled one of his largemouths once he got back to
Plattsburgh.
The
leader says the smallmouth bites he’s gotten have been all luck, and he has no
other pattern to run in the north end of the lake. He’s all in on the shallow
largemouths in Ticonderoga, no matter the wind or waves. Stewart is gunning for
his first-ever FLW Tour victory, and he’ll have to earn it in challenging
conditions tomorrow.
2. Casey Scanlon – Lake Ozark,
Mo. – 56-8 (15)
Midway
through the day today, it looked like Missouri’s Casey Scanlon was on pace to
overtake Stewart’s lead. Scanlon’s unofficial weight estimate was around 20
pounds, and it looked like Stewart might slip.
As
estimates sometimes go, the predictions were a little off. Scanlon weighed in
18 pounds, 13 ounces and will start day four 1 pound, 14 ounces behind Stewart.
