I wonder if many Elite Series anglers have thought to check out a recent kayak derby to see what it might take to win or cash a check? Well, this event may be their best chance, as the Elites head to Champlain and the Two-day Hobie Bass Open Series (B.O.S.) just concluded. The Hobie B.O.S. is one of three national kayak trails, along with the B.A.S.S. Nation Kayak Series and the KBF Trail Series, that have events all across the US on overlapping fisheries. However, the timing isn’t usually close enough for either side to get an accurate “sneak peak” of what’s to come…until now.
I had never been to Champlain before, but like most, it’s been on my bucket list. Before the event, I noticed Mike Iaconelli entered this one; it’s always cool to have a shot to compete against one of the best, and a former Classic champ. Combine that with the fact that I’m in the midst of trying to defend my 2020 Hobie B.O.S. AOY Title, and I wasn’t going to miss this one!
I explored the entire lake from north to south during pre-fishing and was able to get a decent feel as to what’s going on in each area. I’m not sure many Elites will travel further south than Ticonderoga, but there were certainly a lot of sizeable largemouth willing to eat further south, in stained water with temps that hit mid 70s. With kayak events using length (not weight), I decided not to fish this far south because the largemouth I found, although very fat, were not much longer than 18 inches.
Moving north, I spent a day with my family floating and fishing the La Chute River in Ticonderoga, which is obviously known to be a very popular location for largemouth. The clear water estuary allows for ample light penetration, which helps loads of grass and pads to grow like an underwater rainforest. Combine that with the fact that regional and local bass boat tournaments are held here, and you have an instant population of fish being re-stocked. Iaconelli, who finished seventh, fished here and mentioned on stage that he caught 50-60 fish a day. After Day 1, he and I were tied in fourth with 93.75 inches, me with smallmouth and Ike with largemouth. His best five from Day 1 would have weighed somewhere around 20 or 21 pounds according to the length-to-weight bass calculator. He had a solid 87.75 Day 2 there, which is around 16, maybe 17 pounds max. Could we see an Elite angler gamble and run down to Ticonderoga to target the plentiful largemouth there? It’s always a possibility, and it appears some good weight is certainly down there.
I knew a lot of anglers would be around Ticonderoga, especially since we were limited to launching from the New York side, so I decided to fish somewhere I could hopefully have a population to myself. I fished the upper third of the lake and targeted smallmouth in rivers and river mouths in mid-60-degree water. During practice, I caught a 19-incher and a 17+, then left the area in hopes those two fish weren’t lying. On Day 1, I soon found they were telling the truth, and some of their friends were even bigger! I was able to land a 20.50 and a 20 incher (4+ pounds) on topwater, in route to my 93.75-inch limit of brown fish (+/- 21 pounds). However, my river was low, clear, shallow and not big enough to hold a population of fish that would fully replenish, so I loaded up my Crescent CK1 Venture kayak, cranked up my Tacoma outboard, and move to another river to get to my final 93.75-inch limit.
On Day 2, I reversed the order of my rivers and was fortunate to find a couple bonus smallies schooling closer to the mouth of the lake, plus catch an additional 18+ smallmouth at the mouth. I then lucked out by seeing one still on bed up river. In true smallmouth form, it only took one or two flips with a Z-MAN TRD CrawZ and that 3 pounder (18 inch) was on my measuring board. I got one more solid 19-inch smallie on a spinnerbait and was at 93 inches before I made one small upgrade at my other river to end up with exactly 93.75 again for Day 2. This 187.50 total (approx. 41-42lbs) earned me a second-place finish, and some valuable AOY points. So, could upper lake smallies be the winning strategy for the Elites?
I believe to a large degree they will be. Not because of what I was able to accomplish up there, but because of what the winner of our event was able to do. A friend of mine, Travis Von Neumann, took the title and was also on the upper third of the lake targeting smallmouth. He fished a point that was open to the strong southern wind, which caused some three-to-four-foot rollers to come crashing in. It also swept in giant schools of baitfish, and mega smallies and massive flocks of seagulls were there to capitalize. He chose to throw a plopping style Berkley Beaver bait to get the job done. It was insane because he was literally surfing a beaver on 3fters and having smallies come annihilate it like they were great whites attacking a seal! I know that wasn’t exactly “match the hatch,” but when they are feeding so aggressively, sometimes you actually need something different so your bait stands out. Travis had a Day 1 total of 97.25 inches (+/- 23 pounds) and a Day 2 total of 98.75 (+/- 24.50 pounds) putting his 2-day weight around 47.50 pounds!
If you look at the fish pictures on the TourneyX leaderboard from the top 10 (click on each day and then click on the X to view the photos), it’s clear that smallies were dominant for six of the Top 10 anglers. I predict the winner of the Elite Series event will be primarily targeting smallmouth; I’m not saying some largemouth won’t be in the mix, or won’t cash a Top 10 check or two, but the smallies are more dominant up north where the guys are launching from anyway, so it would make even more sense for most to go that route. Having said that, once you max out around 18-20 pounds of smallmouth, you probably have nothing to lose by hunting a kicker largemouth in a nearby marina, or weedy bay. My prediction is between 78 and 82 pounds to win this derby, but that’s not going out on a limb given that Palaniuk won with 80 last year!
Regardless of how it’s won, it will be interesting to see some of the different ways the Elites tackle this fishery after just getting off of it and seeing for myself why it truly is world class!