Elite

AdvBassStats: Lake Champlain 2023

Posted on
Written by
ADVBassStats
The weight charts for the 2023 Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain didn’t quite reach the heights of the previous event at Lake St. Clair or the smallmouth Grandaddy, St. Lawrence River, but they look every bit like a great southern Largemouth event. 
 
Cody Huff led Day 1 and retained his lead through a weather-delay on Friday. Kyoya Fujita weighed the biggest bag on Day 2 Saturday to take over the event lead.
After three days, Fujita had separated by almost 3lbs. In what has become the best rookie class performance since the creation of the Elite Series, first-year angler Fujita would be joined in the final day Top-10 field by fellow Elite Series rookie Bryant Smith. Joey Cifuentes would finish 11th, just outside the Championship day field, after having won the previous event at Lake St. Clair.
By the numbers, the final day looks like a bit of an easy cruise for Fujita. He caught enough to force his closest pursuers – Justin Atkins and Cody Huff – to need more 22lbs or more to catch him. That wasn’t happening on this rare Championship *Monday*.
Day 1 rated as the best for number of big bags, but Fujita’s two biggest came on Days 2 and 3, giving him the extra separation he needed to take the victory. Fujita and Smith both wound up with two of the event’s Top-10 bags.
Kyle Welcher moved back into the top spot in the Angler of the Year race at Champlain, after briefly yielding the lead to Brandon Cobb in the seventh event on Lake St. Clair.
 
Kyoya Fujita’s win propelled him into the AOY Top-10, just 2 spots and 15 points behind Joey Cifuentes for Rookie of the Year.
 
Welcher and Cobb have a pretty good gap back to the rest of the AOY field, but the deep water hammers sitting #4 through #8 had to look very scary in the rear view, with St. Lawrence River being the next and final event of the season. Also don’t overlook Drew Cook in third, who has a sneaky-good St. Lawrence resume.
Here’s a closer look at how well the rookie class of 2023 is in the AOY standings. Two in the Top-10, four in the Top-20 and 5 in the Top-40. Those Top-4 are pretty good bets to improve their AOY standing at the final event too.

Related