The action has been steady this morning, though there aren’t a lot of fish being caught. We’re 2 and ½ hours into the day and several of our leaders have either just filled their limits or began to cull in the last 15 minutes. We saw more big schools of bass, with 50 to 100 fish, being targeted on Day 2. Today, we’re seeing the Elites really hone in on the smaller pods of 4 or 5 smallmouth, or even the loaners out cruising all by themselves. We’re learning in real time along with the anglers that these are the bigger bass.
With the high sun and light winds, these bigger bass are often hanging close to the surface, 5- to 10- feet deep over 50- to 100- feet of water. The combination of forward-facing sonar and a jighead minnow is still the most popular choice for most of the leaders, with Justin Atkins being a bit of a standout slow rolling an underspin.
It’s the Kyoya Fujita show out on Champlain right now. With an estimated 19-1 in the boat, he has a 1-pound, 8-ounce lead over his nearest competitor, Jay Przekurat. Both anglers have two 4-pounders in the boat, and three 3s to fill out their limits. Only an ounce separates their Day 3 bags on BassTrakk. Fujita’s 4-12 is the current Phoenix Boats Big Bass leader. Jacob Foutz has the biggest bag of the day so far, with 19-3.
