Lake Champlain raised some eyebrows yesterday. For a time of year when many of the bass are skinny after spawning recently, it produced heavier limits than anyone was expecting.
For instance, Chad Pipkens 5-bass limit weighing 18 pounds, 3 ounces would have put him in fourth place in 2007, the last time the Elite Series was here. Yesterday it left him in 20th place.
There was also an unexpected smallmouth bass factor, although there were hints of it after the three-day practice period. Many of the post-spawn smallmouth are skinny. The common theory is you have to concentrate on largemouth bass to win a tournament this time of year on Lake Champlain. Jeff Kriet disproved that thought with a third-place bag of smallmouth bass weighing 20-4. The breakdown of the 539 bass that came across the scales was about 50-50 between smallmouths and largemouths.
The following is a comparison of the Day 1 weigh-in from 2007 and 2017:
|
2007 |
2017 |
| 2 – Bags over 21 lbs. | 1 – Bag over 21 lbs. |
| 5 – 18 lbs. or more | 25 – 18 lbs. or more |
| 11 – 17 lbs. or more | 40 – 17 lbs. or more |
| 28 – 16 lbs. or more | 61 – 16 lbs. or more |
| 45 – 15 lbs. or more | 68 – 15 lbs. or more |
| 60 – 14 lbs. or more | 88 – 14 lbs. or more |
| 69 – 13 lbs. or more | 98 – 13 lbs. or more |
| 85 – 12 lbs. or more | 105 – 12 lbs. or more |
| 96 – 11 lbs. or more | 107 – 11 lbs. or more |
| 5 of 108 anglers failed to limit | 2 of 109 anglers failed to limit |