We’ve reached the finish line, or at least the starting point of the final lap. The 9th and final Bassmaster Elite Series event of the 2023 season is set to start tomorrow. There will be a lot on the line for each angler competing in the Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River.
The Progressive Angler of the Year race will come to an end, an AOY Champion will be crowned, automatic berths into the 2024 Bassmaster Classic will be awarded and 70 anglers will know for a fact that they have qualified for the 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series.
The winner of this event will take home $100,000 and an automatic win-and-you’re-in berth into the 2024 Classic, regardless of his standings in the AOY race. Prize money will be awarded based on where the anglers finish in this event, as well as where they settle out in the AOY standings. Oh yeah, and after having had an Elite Rookie win four of the first 8 Elite Series titles this season, a highly contested Dakota Lithium Rookie of the Year will be crowned as well.
Again, a lot up in the air this week. And competition is fast approaching as the shortest official practice period of the year winds down. The postponement of Day 2 of the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Elite on Lake Champlain last week resulted in a day of practice being shaved off for the St Lawrence River this week.
We caught up with Jake Whitaker midway through the final morning of practice to get his thoughts on how this one is shaping up.
Late to the party
“I’ve never been here this late,” said Whitaker, who competed in last year’s mid-July event. “The fish are obviously a little deeper than in years past. But with that being said, they’re still there. It’s still going to take good weight to win and a good weight to make the cut. But it’s not been as easy as I thought.”
With this event being held a month and a half earlier in 2022, many of the bass were just coming off the bed, and anglers were able to catch large numbers of fish shallow.
“I think there were actually still a few left spawning (last year). Obviously we’re way past that. I was actually up here the first weekend in July, the opening weekend for the Canadian side, and man it was just absolutely ridiculous how many fish are in this place. It’s crazy.”
The bait is deeper now, thus so are the bass. And Whitaker can tell they’ve been feeding up.
“I haven’t caught many big ones this week, but the ones you catch are super healthy. They’re going to be bigger than usual. You’ve just gotta get around the right ones.”
All catch fest aren’t created equal
For the casual observe (especially from the South), it may seem as though the northern swing is just one big smallmouth slugfest after the other. And while that is true, the fishing is very different from one fishery to the next. Think 25 pounds of Okeechobee largemouth in a foot of water compared to 25 pounds on a ledge in 25 feet on Guntersville.
“In Champlain, those smallmouth are so bait oriented. Yes, they do relate to structure somewhat. But they’re so bait oriented. They just roam and they are very pelagic.”
This has to do with the type of bait these bass orient themselves to. As we saw on Champlain last week, the bass were cruising around in 25 to over 100 feet of water chasing schools of alewife.
“Here, they are very structure oriented. The current in the river puts them in a lot of places. They can’t just be out in the current all the time so they have to get in behind stuff, current breaks, eddies, that stuff.”
Though current was certainly present on Champlain as well, the current here is much more defined and stronger, in the St Lawrence River itself at least. This current pins the fish to the bottom. And how convenient, since this is where their primary forage is as well, goby.
“Now in the lake (Ontario), there are boulders and stuff out there they relate to. It’s just a totally different game than Champlain.”
Deep is often a relative term when moving from one fishery to the next as well. But deep is still deep here.
“One of my buddies (a fellow Elite angler) yesterday said he caught a 5 something in 62 (feet of water). So it gets deep. You don’t have to fish that deep to catch them obviously. But, if that’s your game, you can definitely do it. They’ll get deep in the river as well.”
Because of the presence of strong current in the river paired with bottom-dwelling prey like goby and crawfish throughout the fishery, the bass will be deep and pinned to the bottom. Thusly, Whitaker expects to see more dropshots and Ned rigs this week as opposed to the Damiki-rig domination we saw at Champlain.
Weather
In 2022, Jay Przekurat set the all-time winning weight record for all smallmouth, with 102 pounds, 9 ounces. This was done under absolutely ideal weather conditions however. Although the final day of practice here is calm, looking at the forecast for the remainder of the week, rough weather is on the horizon.
“I personally don’t know that it will take a hundred pounds this go round, just because of the weather. Obviously the fish are here. But a lot has to go right for that happen. We’re still going to see those 25-pound bags, I just don’t know that a guy can do it four days in a row.”
The worst weather according to Whitaker is slated for tomorrow, the scheduled Day 1 of this event.
“I think tomorrow is the most likely of being canceled, just because out towards the lake it’s going to be gusting 15- to 25- miles per hour. You probably could fish the river, but they (B.A.S.S. Tournament Staff) told us they weren’t going to restrict us to just the river this week.”
“So, if the lake’s bad, they’ll probably have to cancel the day. I mean, we may wakeup in the morning and it be calm and they send us, but I think tomorrow has the most likelihood of being canceled.”
All this being said, if the anglers are able to compete for four days, Whitaker believes it will still take a weight in the 90s to win. Winning isn’t his focus however, his eyes are on making the cut to fish on Day 3, and returning for the 2024 Elite Series.
Tournament in a tournament
Jake Whitaker will start this event in 75th place in the Progressive Angler of the Year standings, five spots back of an automatic re-entry into the 2024 Elites Series.
“You’re gonna have bad years and you just gotta keep fishing and fish your way out of it. Luckily I’ve had some good years. So, even if I do end up below that 70 line, I should be good for next year.”
In order to protect the careers of anglers who have made professional fishing their livelihood, B.A.S.S. uses a career average to re-qualify a minimum of 6 anglers from below the 70th cutline. One drop year is allowed for every five years the angler has been on the Elite Series.
With this being Whitaker’s sixth year on the Elites, and having had solid finishes in past AOY races, he should be one of those anglers invited back nest season regardless of his finish in this year’s AOY race.
However, there’s a lot of math involved in that figuring, and a bomb here in the last event of the season could make things messy. So, Whitaker would rather just guarantee himself another go at it by doing well this week.
“A top 30 would be really close. I’m looking to make the (Top 50) cut. And then just see what happens from there. I’ve kind of looked at where I’m at in the points and where I stand with my yearly averages. I don’t want to necessarily fish safe. But at the same time I’m not really worried about that right now.”
With only a few hours left in practice for the 2023 Elite Series season, we left Whitaker still scrambling around in search of a quality pattern. Tune in tomorrow to bassmaster.com to follow along as the 102 Elite Pros battle it out for all sorts of prizes and qualifications. This one will be a nail-biter for the anglers, their families and their faithful fans.
