PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Summertime is in full swing in upstate New York, which means the Elite Series pros will have ample opportunity to catch big bags of bass during the 2024 Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain.
Tournament days are scheduled for Aug. 8-11 with daily takeoffs set for 7 a.m. ET at the Plattsburgh City Marina. Anglers will return for weigh-in beginning at 3 p.m. The full field of pros will compete the first two days before the Top 50 anglers fish on Day 3. The Top 10 anglers after the third day will compete on Championship Sunday.
Lake Champlain has become a regular stop for the Bassmaster Elite Series. Kyoya Fujita won last year’s edition with a total of 86 pounds, 12 ounces by using his forward-facing sonar to catch pelagic smallmouth.
Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers division pro Zach Goutremout believes this year’s event will be won in the same fashion.
“Honestly, I think it will be similar to last year. Since (Garmin LiveScope) came out, it has changed the way people fish the lake. Scoping roaming fish out there chasing bait is probably how it is going to go down. Somebody might get a day or two out of some largemouth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Day 1 leader with largemouth, but I don’t think that can last four days.”
Over the last several years, the smallmouth bite has become increasingly productive on Lake Champlain with the help of forward-facing technology. Anglers are better able to target the group of smallmouth that roam the deep-water areas in search of baitfish.
These smallmouth chase alewives as well as white and yellow perch in open water. Similarly to past events, Goutremout thinks the Inland Sea region of the lake will see plenty of fishing pressure from the Elite pros.
With an unusually warm and stormy spring and summer, the smallies have been done spawning for months and are in a full summer pattern.
“A lot of it is alewives,” Goutremout said. “Nine times out of 10 it is going to go down in the Inland Sea. For whatever reason, it seems like the bigger fish tend to come out of there.”
Alewives are plentiful, but Goutremout thinks an angler who can find some perch eaters to themselves will have a slight advantage.
“If someone can find a group of bass they have a little more to themselves, that will be important,” he said. “A lot of times if you can find the perch eaters, they tend to weigh a little more than the smallies feeding up on alewives.”
The more “traditional” smallmouth bite occurs around rock and boulders in the mid-depth range, where anglers can drag Carolina rigs, drop shots and Ned rigs.
While smallmouth will be the favorite species to target, there are indications a largemouth bite could play out as well. While heavy winds made smallmouth fishing difficult, multiple 20-pound bags of green fish were weighed in at the Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier presented by Lowrance at the end of July, including a 24-5 limit that led Day 1.
Mark Burgess weighed in all largemouth each day and caught 21-15 and 22-12 the final two days to secure the victory in that event. Higher-than-normal water levels allowed him to execute a flipping bite toward the Canadian border.
Several other anglers mentioned staying on the north side of the lake instead of making the run down to Ticonderoga, a historically popular largemouth destination on the lake.
“I was in my total comfort zone this week,” Burgess stated. “I had a flipping stick almost the whole time with a little bit of ChatterBaiting and square-billing. I just made the right decisions each day.”
Docks, marinas and various types of vegetation hold largemouth on Lake Champlain, and flipping baits, ChatterBaits and swim jigs have all been productive presentations in past events.
Regardless, Goutremout believes it will take close to 22 pounds a day to claim the blue trophy in this tournament.
2024 Bassmaster Classic champion Justin Hamner leads the Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings with 595 points through seven events. Illinois rookie Trey McKinney is second with 571 points, followed by Missouri’s Cody Huff in third with 569 points, Canada’s Chris Johnston in fourth with 556 points and Tennessee’s Jacob Foutz in fifth with 556 points.
McKinney leads the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year race with 571 points, followed by Tennessee’s John Garrett in second with 553 points, South Carolina’s JT Thompkins in third with 547 points, Alabama’s Wesley Gore in fourth with 531 points and Maine’s Tyler Williams in fifth with 514 points.
Coverage of the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain will air on FS1 on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Bassmaster LIVE will be streaming on Bassmaster.com all four days.
