It's our guess that we are going to see some of the largest smallmouth we've seen on the Elite Series this week.
The St. Lawrence River with an influx of gobies has created an unbelievable fishery for the bronze variety of bass. Interestingly, this place isn't known for it's bass fishing. That takes a backseat to the carp fishing that takes place in the same area.
Waddington is actually known as the "World Carp Capitol," and you may actually see someone sitting and watching their line (attached to a dough ball) on the end, rather than a bass angler casting repeatedly.
In September, the Carp Angling World Championship will be held in Waddington. Ironically, the emcee for that event is Ray Scott.
From a carp fishing perspective, this river is a carp angler's version of Lake Falcon and Amistad rolled into one. People come from all over the world to catch one of these huge bottom-sucking monsters. The average size is around 20 pounds, with 40 pounders being common. The New York State Record is 51 pounds.
When you add those up with the giant smallmouth-eating Muskies and the plethora of 4- to 6-pound smallmouth in this river, it calculates to a lot of meat in the water.