This year the game has changed for the Bassmaster Elite Series on the St. Lawrence River, with the Canada side of the river out of play.
That’s huge, since most of the best fishing is on the Canada side.
Guide Bill Lortz of NY North Country Bassin said the closed border has forced him to learn new water on the U.S. side – and it’s the same challenge for the Elite anglers.
“There’s boulders over there, and there’s boulders on the U.S. side,” Lortz said. “The difference is there’s more grass on the Canada side.
“What it does is allows them to do all three phases in one location before they get to their summer haunts. They spawn in the U.S. side, but they stay there.
“It’s not one-stop shopping.”
The bottom line is the anglers will have had to identify not only those spawning areas where the bass did their spring rituals and then find offshore areas those fish pull out to as they transition to the post-spawn, which Lortz said is just about over.
“They guys who are fishing deep are fishing for bass coming to them,” he said. “The guys fishing shallow are fishing for resident fish or fish that are leaving.”