I have really been looking forward to this season’s last two Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series events. As a Canadian angler, I love northern fisheries and smallmouth bass, so Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River are right in my wheelhouse.
I’m glad we’re closing out the season on smallmouth-dominant fisheries, because I really need to have two strong events to get back into the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic cut. I’ll admit, I wasn’t feeling too good about it after the Pasquotank River, but the break we had got me back into it. I’m looking forward to getting out on Champlain this week.
Lake Champlain looks a lot like the lakes we fish back home with all the weeds and docks, but it doesn’t really set up the same. The smallmouth in this lake are alewife chasers, while back home, it’s more perch, crayfish and bluegill.
I have to say that practice on Champlain was pretty tough. We can’t use forward-facing sonar in this event, plus the lake has gotten a lot of fishing pressure recently.
I caught a few good ones by just going around and trying to catch suspended fish on 2D sonar. That didn’t really work, so I had to change up and figure out how to catch fish other ways.
I tried fishing deep, I tried fishing shallow and I tried several different baits. I tried everything I know to catch a smallmouth. I figured out a little bit of stuff, but I wasn’t able to catch the big ones. I’m just gonna go out on Day 1 and hopefully catch five and then go look for better quality.
Starting Day 1, I have two ways to catch smallmouth — one moving bait and one slow presentation, so I’ll try to get as many bites as I can. I think covering water with a moving bait will offer my best chance at finding big fish, but I’ll probably start the day dragging a slow bait just to put a few in the boat early.
I spent most of my practice in the same areas I fished during last year’s Bassmaster Elite Qualifier event. Going into that tournament, I knew we would not be allowed to use forward-facing sonar in this year’s Elite, so I focused more on the fish that were relating to bottom structure, rather than suspending fish.
That helped prepare me for this Elite event. At least I can try and catch those bottom-related fish, rather than the ones sitting 10 feet below the surface in 100 feet of water.
Even though smallmouth are my preference, I think largemouth are gonna play a bigger role in this event, especially the first couple of days. I think a few small places might offer the kind of fish guys will be looking for, but a lot of people will be doing this, so I’m not sure how many areas can hold up. Regardless, I do think the guy who wins will definitely have a mixed bag.
Ultimately, I think the keys to success this week will be finding a different way to catch them, or finding an area all to yourself. I think it will be about doing something unique to try and separate yourself from the crowd.
