Lake Champlain: Day 4
2:57 p.m. — With minutes to go, Caleb Sumrall caught a fish that culled out a 2-15 right near the ramp.
Just a few feet from the off limits area.
Nail biter.
But even if it doesn’t work out for the win, they could be points necessary to get him back into the Elites.
All the pieces matter.
2:30 p.m. — Trey McKinney is being forced to sweat it out on Live as Drew Cook and Cory Johnston seek to derail his AOY dreams.
1:00 p.m. — Davy Hite: "I don't think the winning fish has been put in the livewell yet."
12:46 p.m. — The big fish bite seems to be accelerating. Brandon Lester just caught a 5-pounder from a rock that has produced a quality fish for him every day. He culls out a 2-pounder.
Carl Jocumsen added a fish, too, meaning that all 10 have limits. It's time for strategic and meaningful culls.
12:36 p.m. — Mechanical issues notwithstanding, Seth Feider is not letting off the gas. He just culled a 3-pounder.
12:24 p.m. — Rumors of Chris Johnston’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. He’s now unofficially tied for the lead.
There's still no one even at 78 pounds, though, so we could see several lead changes before it's all over.
12:05 p.m. — Seth Feider made a move northward but told Seigo Saito that he’s having some mechanical issues which will require service crew assistance. He’s not stopping fishing, though. In fact, as he waited he caught another keeper.
12:02 p.m. — Perhaps the biggest surprise today is that neither Johnston brother has topped 11-6 this morning, and per BassTrakk they’ve fallen to 4th and 6th place. Cory hasn’t managed to capture number five yet.
11:59 a.m. — Seigo Saito has been watching Brandon Lester’s tough morning, but he’s managed to grind out a limit, including a 4-pounder to close it out.
11:55 a.m. — At the beginning of the day all of the remaining anglers were within 11 ½ pounds of hitting 80 for the week – and yet as we near the noon hour not a single one has hit that milestone yet.
11:20 a.m. — Beau Browning’s chances of victory are still alive. Photographer Chase Sansom just reported that the young pro just boated a 3 ¾ pound bass that helped his cause.
“He’s fishing a stretch of grass and rock mix all week on a particular side of Knight Island,” Sansom said. “But he said earlier that he was going to switch it up and go to the other side that he has been saving since practice. Within a few casts he caught that fish which helped him make a ¾ pound upgrade.”
11:00 a.m. — Chris Johnston is looking for a kicker, switching back and forth between largemouths and smallmouths.
10:44 a.m. — Photographer Shane Durrance reports that Bryan Schmitt has changed things up a bit. He has switched over to a shallow running crank bait and the change led to him boating his third and biggest fish of the morning.
10:24 a.m. — Half of the remaining field has limits now, but 16-15 is the biggest. It’s still anybody’s ballgame.
9:12 a.m. — Seigo Saito reports that Beau Browning is back at his primary spot. It has been a relatively slow morning but he is graudally adding fish to his livewell. At 9:05 he completed his limit and it seems that this morning’s gusty winds are helping him – he just needs some big fish mojo.
9:02 a.m. — After what must’ve seemed like an eternity, Caleb Sumrall finally boated fish number one.
He’s still on the train trestle, milking it for all it is worth.
8:53 a.m. — Drew Cook is the first angler to a limit today but Beau Browning – with four fish – is at least temporarily in the lead.
8:39 a.m. — Fun fact: Per BASS historian Steve Bowman, two of Stephen Browning’s four BASS victories came after he was in 9th place heading into the final day. That’s exactly where his son Beau found himself at blast-off this morning.
8:33 a.m. — Photographer Dalton Tumblin reports that it has been a slow start for Louisiana’s Caleb Sumrall.
He’s fishing the same stretch of train trestle that has been so good to him this week, but a combination of wind and local pressure may be hurting his efforts.
“So far I have counted six local boats camped out fishing the trestle,” Tumblin said. “the wind is causing a steady wake making it harder to position and maneuver around it. No bites for Sumrall so far, but he said he is going to stick it out here for the most part.”
7:45 a.m. — Photographer Chase Sansom found tournament leader Chris Johnston and Seth Feider starting on the same exact spot this morning here inside the Gut.
“They literally could cast in one another’s boat,” he said.
7:41 a.m. — Yesterday there was local pressure in some of the top anglers’ best stretches.
That’s understandable. It’s a weekend.
But the question remains as to whether it’ll impact the tournament’s outcome. Current AOY leader Cory Johnston is already seeing some traffic in his starting spot.
6:42 a.m. -- At the start of Championship Sunday, Cory Johnston is one point up in the AOY race, with a chance to gain as many as 3 or lose as many as 6.
6:40 a.m. — Beau Browning: "Top 10 days are not for the weak."
6:38 a.m. — The big question at Champlain is always the wind. Today we’ll have a south wind for the first time. Will that affect anglers’ ability to get to their best areas or fish them? Even if neither of those are an issue, will it change the bite?
Lake Champlain: Day 3
2:46 p.m. — Bryan Schmitt already has one Elite Series win at Lake Champlain. Today Shane Durrance tried to find out if he’s on track for a second.
CLICK HERE to see the gallery detailing the Maryland pro’s efforts.
2:43 p.m. — Chase Sansom put together a fantastic gallery of Carl Jocumsen’s Day 3 highs and lows.
1:55 p.m. — Caleb Sumrall just culled out a 3-5 with a 4-7 and he’s not hiding his emotions.
“I am so fricking fired up right now that I could run through a brick wall,” he exclaimed.
Two great days back to back may save his Elite Series career.
That raised his smallest fish to 3-9. A moment later he boat-flipped another largemouth but this one didn't help.
1:00 p.m. — With two hours left to fish (and travel), the unofficial cut weight is 56-4.
There are five anglers whose estimated weights are within a pound of that weight and likely some others who’ve intentionally or unintentionally underestimated their catch.
When Ed Loughran won here in 2024, it took 41-0 – the highest in Champlain Elite history – to fish on to Day 4.
12:00 p.m. — It’s noon and unofficially the only angler to eclipse the 20-pound mark is Lee Livesay.
Between his big bag and his road roommate Caleb Sumrall’s ongoing success, it’s likely a bad day to be a Busch Light.
11:17 a.m. — Another major cull for Caleb Sumrall at his money spot. This one’s over 5 pounds.
He’s fighting for his Elite Series life and not hiding one bit of emotion.
10:56 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin found Caleb Sumrall where he left him yesterday afternoon.
After catching a limit, the Louisiana pro camps on this abandoned train trestle to hunt big largemouths. It worked yesterday as he connected with biggest Champlain bass in Elite Series history.
He’s slowly flipping from one end to the other, on both sides, picking the cover apart, and it quickly paid off with a 3-9 that helped him to cull up.
It’s certainly not fast and furious, but when he catches one here it’s almost always a big one.
His timing was impeccable on that catch, too. As soon as he put it in the box a line of about 20 boats on a poker run came zooming through the small opening and at least temporarily disrupting the fishing.
10:44 a.m. — With the wind picking up down south, anglers still have plenty of time to fish but they also need to start thinking about how long it will take to get back safely.
10:07 a.m. — Chase Sansom captured the agony of Carl Jocumsen losing an estimated 5-pounder with two great shots.
9:59 a.m. — Chase Sansom just witnessed Carl Jocumsen boat his fifth fish.
The Day 1 and Day 2 leader has moved to the area where he caught the majority of his fish yesterday. There was a local boat sitting there earlier today and he appeared to catch a few bass there as well.
“The next hour is going to be crucial for Carl to determine whether or not his good stretch of grass still holds the quality bass he needs,” Sansom said. “He’s got a small limit for around 13 pounds so he’ll probably need to cull out four of the fish he has in his livewell now.”
9:48 a.m. — Seigo Saito just watched Beau Browning catch his limit fish, which has to take a lot of weight off of his shoulders in his ongoing quest to maintain a slot on the Elite Series roster.
He has about 18 pounds of Champlain bass in his livewell and his convinced he can cull up to the 22-pound mark from this area – which has served him well over two-plus days of competition.
9:22 a.m. — Chase Sansom has watched Carl Jocumsen put four fish in the box this morning. He’s off to a quicker start than yesterday, but he’ll likely need to cull three of them out to maintain the lead.
This morning he stopped about 400 yards short of where he fished yesterday and it has been at least as productive. It seems that anywhere he lands in the bay he can make it work.
Sansom has been texting back and forth with cameraman Brian Eavey who said that Jocumsen has caught a fish on just about every waypoint he’s stopped on today – and he’s got a lot more waypoints to hit before it’s over.
9:09 a.m. — Shane Durrance says that Beau Browning is struggling to connect this morning. He’s getting bites as he did the last two days but the bass seem to be short-striking.
He just lost what could have been his biggest bass of the day.
9:01 a.m. — Right after Dalton Tumblin reported on Feider’s slow morning, the Minneosta pro set the hook and quickly landed his second fish of the day.
8:56 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin wrote in to report that Seth Feider has had a slow start to the morning.
The Llama has steadily bounced around to a few different spots already. He’s picking apart each one deliberately, keeping a crankbait in his hands the vast majority of the time.
He’s probing a variety of underwater points and scattered structure in the 12 foot range.
8:40 a.m. — Day 2 leader Carl Jocumsen said he was making the long run to Ticonderoga again, despite the forecast that winds would finally pick up on Lake Champlain.
"It doesn't look bad," he told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford.
Well, the Australian angler best keep his eye on his windcast app: The winds have arrived, and it's blowing in the worst possible direction — right down the lake from the north.
"We just drove through some hell waves to get down here," he just said on Bass Live.
The question now is how long Jocumsen will be able to stay on his Ticonderoga spot before he has to head back to ensure he makes it through the high seas that are sure to be waiting for him.
8:29 a.m. — Watching Trey McKinney, one would think he had zero pressure on him going into the stretch of the Progressive Angler of the Year race leading the pack. He seems to be fishing relaxed, despite the Elite hounds nipping at his heels in the final 6 days of the season.
"I don't really think about it," McKinney told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford before takeoff this morning. "I mean, what's the worst that can happen: I finish second? I've done that twice, so .... And I still get paid $50,000. That doesn't suck."
When it was mentioned that he could finish third — Drew Cook sits in third right now, just 10 points behind McKinney — the 21-year-old angler's face puckered a bit.
"Now that would suck," he said. "You get paid $15,000 or something. That's why Cook is worrying me: It's not between me and Cory (Johnston) anymore."
8:07 a.m. — Photographer Chase Sansom reports that leader Carl Jocumsen made it to Port Henry for the third straight day – albeit 15 minutes later, likely the result of a mixture of fog and slightly heavier winds.
The Aussie was nervous about a 60 boat tournament out of Ticonderoga but it appears no one is sitting on the spot he’s milked the past two days.
7:48 a.m. — Photographer Shane Durrance found Beau Browning back on the spot where he had 25 fish by 10 a.m. yesterday and the fish clearly haven’t left. He’s gone to work with his trusty Chatterbait and the fish are acting like they haven’t seen it before.
7:19 a.m. — Photographer Shane Durrance reports that after two days of flat water, today the wind is blowing 5-8mph out of the north.
“My boat driver fishes here a lot and thinks that could make it even better,” he said.
6:45 a.m. — Carl Jocumsen: “I need two 21-pound days.”
Lake Champlain: Day 2
2:27 p.m. — Chase Sansom put together an amazing gallery of Day 1 leader Carl Jocumsen’s Day 2 efforts. Check them out here.
1:27 p.m. — Day 1 leader Carl Jocumsen made an hour run back to assure that he’d get in safely and on time. With ample time left to fish, he landed a 4-pound smallmouth on his first cast, culling out a 3.57.
"I made Gussy proud there," he said.
1:24 p.m. — With less than 2 hours to fish, our three leaders in the AOY race are all unofficially in the top 10 in the tournament. Granted, there are still six-plus days of fishing to go, but this one feels like it won’t be settled until the final day, or even the final hour.
12:14 p.m. — With an estimated 6 pound 5 ounce largemouth, Louisiana’s Caleb Sumrall – in danger of relegation – has jumped up over 21 pounds and into the top 10.
He was 81st yesterday with 15-6, but only 2 pounds out of the cut.
Now it appears he’ll be fishing on Saturday and possibly next year as well.
12:07 p.m. — With just a few hours left to fish there are only two bags reported over 20 pounds – Chris Johnston with an estimated 20-8 and Beau Browning with an estimated 20-14. That means we can still see some shakeups.
The expected wind has yet to fully materialize. It has just started to blow a little bit. That may entice anglers to push it, maximizing fishing time.
12:03 p.m. — Beau Browning’s momentum continues. He just caught a 3-pounder on his hunt for new water and new fish. It may not have helped him, but it just showed how well things are going for the young Elite pro.
“You know you are having a good day when a 3-pound smallmouth jumps into your boat,” photographer Shane Durrance reported.
11:54 a.m. — After losing a big fish, Trey McKinney quickly rebounded with a 4-pounder that culled a 2-4. Clearly someone is going to have to beat him to claim the AOY because he seems unlikely to lose it.
Today our leaders are trading punches.
10:58 a.m. — Cory Johnston, fishing super-shallow, ultra-clear water, continues to plug away at his AOY dreams – which would make it three in a row for his family. He’s around 17 pounds, definitely fishing tomorrow barring a mechanical emergency, and likely wondering what the two anglers ahead of him are doing.
10:54 a.m. — After catching yet another 4-pound smallmouth, Beau Browning made the executive decision to save these fish for tomorrow and possibly Sunday.
“That’s it, I am done,” he said. “I am not going to burn through anymore fish. I am going to tie on a big swimbait and go largemouth fishing.”
10:44 a.m. — Shane Durrance reports that Beau Browning “is putting an absolute smackdown on the smallies this morning.”
He’s caught 25 or so keepers, the best five of them nearing 21 pounds unofficially.
Browning’s go-to bait is a small urchin bait but he did heavy damage on a Chatterbait this morning, one of the main lures that has buoyed his young career.
10:13 a.m. — Cory Johnston spent most of Day 1 casting to bass he saw swimming by, and he's back at it today. That's not what he expected, however.
"I think the weights are going to go down today because the wind is going to blow and you won't be able to see them," Johnston told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford before launching his boat.
Indeed, the forecast is for winds to pick up as the day ages, but right now the lake is sheet of glass — at least where Johnston is fishing.
That's allowing him to target hefty bass to push his way into the Top 5 on BassTrakk.
10:11 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin reports that the Coike strikes again – this time for Gussy, who’s added a lone 4-pound largemouth to a livewell otherwise full of brown bass.
The Ned Rig has done most of his damage but this brings him up to 17 pounds.
He’s relieved that he’ll be fishing tomorrow.
9:52 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin moved to cover past Classic champ Jeff Gustafson who is looking to get back to the Super Bowl of fishing.
Immediately upon his arrival, Gussy culled. What’s fascinating is that while he’s fishing near Drew Cook, Tumblin reports that the Canadian is for the most part doing something altogether different.
“Gussy is fishing a very large, shallow grass mat in about 5 feet of water. He’s zig-zagging and fan casting a Ned Rig style setup.” He’s also occasionally sight fishing when the wind is calm and the water slicks off.
9:36 a.m. — Beau Browing is the tournament leader – at least for now – with an estimated 20-plus pounds in the livewell.
He’s fishing the same area as yesterday, but he could only amass 16 pounds there on Thursday morning.
Today they seem to have grown, or at least he’s figured out something to tempt bigger bites.
Once again, he’s fighting for a 2027 Elite Series spot and not going out without a fight.
9:27 a.m. — Once again Chris Zaldain is fishing around a railroad bridge, but unlike the Pasquotank it’s not paying off…yet.
Photographer Shane Durrance reports that Zaldain’s urchin bait has only produced one mere 2-pounder so far, but he’s not worried. He said that his bite will get better as the wind picks up and starts generating current around this man made structure.
9:19 a.m. — Craig Lamb sent us a drone shot of Cory Johnston running a pattern of grass lines and then docks.
9:15 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin reports that Drew Cook has arrived at spot number three, his money spot from yesterday. Upon arrival he quickly secured fish number five.
“His casts seem to be specific, targeting isolated structures with a jerkbait,” Tumblin said. "This area is an extremely large flat in open water, about 12 feet deep with isolated grass, rock and big boulders.”
8:58 a.m. — Dalton Tumblin reports that Drew Cook has pushed on to his second spot, further north and closer to his main spot from yesterday.
After a few quick casts he added fish number three to the livewell, then he pulled the trolling motor to make another move.
8:30 a.m. — Hall of Famer Craig Lamb reports that Beau Browning has amassed 18-12 fishing shallow grass between two islands.
“This was his first stop and given the cadence of his catch rate so far he’s probably not going anywhere,” Lamb said.
Browning is fighting for his Elite Series life and doing everything he can to avoid being relegated.
8:25 a.m. — Chase Sansom reports that Day 1 leader Carl Jocumsen has overcome his morning issues to land fish number one, a solid 4-pounder.
He’s flipping deep milfoil with a new CrushCity Knuckle Bug. He ran out yesterday and borrowed some from Bob Downey.
Jocumen’s not getting a lot of bites – he caught perhaps 9 or 10 yesterday – but they’re the right quality. “What a tank,” he said of this first fish.
8:20 a.m. — Photographer Dalton Tumblin reports that Drew Cook stopped a few miles short of the spot he camped out in for much of yesterday, but he’s still doing the same thing, the technique he does best: Sight fishing.
He’s waved Dalton off to maximize stealth, so we’re not sure what lure he’s using, but he continues to move around looking for isolated fish on the rocky bottom. It’s working.
8:15 a.m. — For the second straight day Carl Jocumsen had prop issues, but photographer Chase Sansom reported that he made a quick pit stop to change it out and has arrived in his starting spot in Port Henry.
Yesterday the Aussie had a half dozen or so boats as company with him in his preferred bay but so far today he is only joined by Brandon Card.
8:09 a.m. — In a tournament where forward-facing sonar is prohibited, Trey McKinney has been relying heavily on his two-dimensional sonar. Unfortunately, today it is acting up on him. He compared the picture to a “tie-dyed flag.”
Nevertheless, he’s pushing on and has three fish early. They’re not the fish he’ll need to hold the AOY lead, but it’s a quick start and he’s making a fairly short run to get to them so he should have lots of fishing time.
8:05 a.m. — Hunter Shryock was the only angler in the field not to weigh a bass during the Day 1 weigh-in. Not because he didn't catch any, but because he failed to make it back from Ticonderoga.
He said his alternator went out on his outboard, so his lithium batteries drained to the point that the engine wouldn't run.
The problem manifested itself fairly early in the day — and technology came through to keep him fishing.
"I called MillerTech, and they were able to hook up to a backup batter through the phone and jump me off," Shryock said while waiting to launch this morning. "They jumped me off four times."
Unfortunately, his outboard would only run a few hundred yards before shutting down again, so he lost the day's entire sack of fish.
7:48 a.m. — Jason Christie has won two Elite events this season — and his wife Shana was absent from both of those tournaments. So it's a bit of joke that Christie only catches them when she's not with him.
Well, yesterday the Most Feared Man in Bass Fishing brought 19 pounds, 13 ounces to the scales. And, you guessed it, Shana wasn't in Plattsburg.
"It's funny: She was here for practice and I didn't catch (anything)," Christie told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford while waiting to launch this morning. "She flew out yesterday and I caught 19 pounds."
His problem is that Shana is set to fly back today.
"She flies in at 11:52 (a.m.), so I have until 11:52 to catch fish," Christie laughed. "If she gets back and I don't catch them, not only will I fly her out, I'm sending her to Australia."
7:05 a.m. — Carl Jocumsen told Dave Mercer that he had a 25-pound day on Monday but didn’t catch his fish in that same area yesterday. He struggled to get on the juice early, had to change a prop mid-lake, and then dialed things in as the day went on. He believes that the pressure pushed the fish to where he caught them.
Lake Champlain: Day 1
12:14 p.m. — Jeff "Gussy" Gustafson has taken the unofficial lead in this event, being the first angler in the field to hit the 20-pound mark.
"Gussy said his fishing is slow, but every once in a while he gets nice one," Bassmaster Seigo Saito reports. "He has three nice ones, include two largemouth, and he needs to get rid of two small ones.
"It is totally different from last few visits we were here. Smallmouth have gottne a lot smarter, and it's harder to get bites."
12:10 p.m. — Trey McKinney has been effectively using his 2-D electronics to upgrade his stringer — landing two 4-pounders in the past hour. After a slow start, during which he unofficially lost the lead of the Progressive Angler of the Year race, the young phenom has not just regained the AOY lead but unofficially propelled himself into the Top 10 of this event.
He currently sits in sixth place on BassTrakk, with 17-6 — just 7 ounces behind current leader Kyle Patrick.
And he just lost what seemed to be another big bass.
11:47 a.m. — Caleb Kuphall is fan casting and covering a very large area of shallow grass with a bladed jig, Bassmaster photographer Dalton Tumblin reports.
"This has made for a productive morning, as he is currently sitting in third on BassTrakk, with a sack full of largemouth," Tumblin said. "The grass is in about 6 feet of water and spans over a very large area. Caleb said he’s extremely happy with the start he’s having, considering that his practice did not go well.
"He said right now he’s hunting around this grass a little quicker in hopes get a couple bigger bites and cull up."
11:33 a.m. — Keith Combs has had a really good morning so far, building a 16-pound stringer that has him unofficially sitting in 10th.
"All his fish have come on a vibrating jig," Bassmaster photographer Shane Durrance reports. "But now he has a problem: In the last hour, floating grass has started to move in on top of his fish, and it’s making it almost impossible to cast the vibrating jig without getting hung up."
11:22 a.m. — Trey McKinney just landed a badly needed football of a bass. Landing what he said was a 4-pounds, 10-ounce smallmouth allowed hi to cull a 2-pounder.
"Now I'm in it; now I know what I'm doing," McKinney said on Bass Live.
That one catch moved him from 37th to 31st place, according to BassTrakk.
"A couple more of those, and we'll be alright," McKinney said.
11:03 a.m. — Beau Browning got off to a hot start this morning, with a five-fish stringer weighing an estimated 16 pounds, 6 ounces. Bassmaster photographer Chase Sansom said Browning is now giving his area a rest, but plans to return this afternoon.
“I was fishing a stretch of grass about 500 yards long this morning, and I smoked them on a Chatterbait," Browning told Sansom. "If I had live scope I’d hate to see how many were actually there, considering how good they bit a Chatterbait.”
Browning is one of the anglers battling for his career. He began this event in 85th place, and he needs to move into the Top 70 by the end of the season to protect his spot on the Elite Series.
10:54 a.m. — Trey McKinney has finally caught his fifth bass, according to BassTrakk — and that edged him back into the unofficial AOY lead.
It's a razor slim lead over Cory Johnston, however: There are now unofficially just 7 points separating the two anglers who have been battling it out in the Progressive Angler of the Year race.
10:38 a.m. — We've been tracking the average age of the Progressive Angler of the Year Top 10, and the addition of a couple of "old" Elite anglers after the Pasquotank River event bumped the age back above the 30-year-old mark.
Brandon Cobb, at 36 years old, and Bob Downey at the ripe old age of 38 joined 41-year-old Cory Johnston. That pushed the average age of the Top 10 going into today to 31.1 years.
That's higher than the past two seasons, during which forward facing sonar were allowed in every event. However, it's still lower than 2020, 2022 and 2023.
10:33 a.m. — Brandon Cobb currently hopped into the Top 12 on BassTrakk.
"He caught this keeper as we were pulling up to him near North Hero island," Bassmaster photographer Dalton Tumblin said. "He’s only fishing in about 8 feet of water along a hard bottom with some scattered grass. He’s spending a lot of his time poled down and picking it apart slowly.
"He told me he can’t seem to catch them on much of anything else besides a drop shot rig at the moment, although he is switching back and forth with a wacky rigged Senko, occasionally."
10:18 a.m. — Matt Messer currently holds sixth place on BassTrakk, and he is fishing shallower water than normal in Inland Sea area, Bassmaster photographer Saigo Saito reported.
"He said he has three decent ones and two that he would like to get rid of," Saito said. "Has about 16 pounds in the livewell, and he is about to leave his best spot for awhile to give the fish at this location a rest."
10:09 a.m. — Austin Felix continues to lead, according to BassTrakk. Bassmaster photographer Chase Sansom said the angler is weeding through fish to build his stringer.
"He is running through numbers of fish to get a couple good ones," Sansom reported. "Running and gunning seems to be the move for Felix, as he’s hit three or four spots since I’ve been with him. He’s running a mixture of high shoals on the main lake — all producing numbers, and a quality bite here and there. He's doing most of his damage with a wacky rig on a drop shot."
10:06 a.m. — Bassmaster's Craig Lamb has been flying a drone down in Ticonderoga, and his photos show massive beds of vegetation.
"From 400 feet and pointing camera straight down, I literally thought I was in Florida," Lamb reported. "What appears to be grass on the surface is actually 5 feet down below.
"Two emerging patterns: following grass line edges and working isolated larger spots of grass. There were at least 10 boats when I left, and none of the original arrivers from 7:30 have moved. My boat driver said of the entire Ticonderoga region that this one area has all the grass, and all the boats came here."
10 a.m. — This year's Progressive Angler of the Year race continues to exciting. Trey McKinney started today in the lead, but he's the only one of the Top 5 without a limit right now. That means Cory Johnston has moved into the unofficial lead, with McKinney slipping into second with a 10-point deficit.
Of course, there's a lot of fishing left — but it's apparent the winner of this year's AOY will not cruise to the finish line.
9:35 a.m. — So far one of the biggest stories of the morning is the amount of anglers that are focusing on the topwater bite. This is certainly a technique that we have seen play in the past, but without forward-facing sonar it appears to be making a comeback.
While photographer Shane Durrance was covering Cory Johnston, he noticed Jordan Lee scooping up a topwater fish off in the distance.
9:20 a.m. — Report from Bassmaster Photographer Shane Durrance:
Cory Johnston, who comes into this event in 2nd in Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, is throwing a topwater walking bait that has a very loud knocker in it. We are at least 50 yards away and we can hear the knocking from here. Johnston currently has two fish, but he did break a big one off early this morning.
He is about to make a run to a largemouth area in hopes of making a move up the standings.
9:08 a.m. — Report from Bassmaster Photographer Dalton Tumblin:
I’m the midst of trying to find Beau Browing, I ran into Dakota Ebare. So far today he’s had three bites with two of them being keepers for about 6-10 on BassTrakk. He’s keeping a Carolina rig set up in his hand, dragging it over a large area of gravel/sandy bottom. He says practice went well in his area, but no wind is definitely changing up his bite. Right now there is no wind and no current, which isn’t good for what he’s trying to do. He said if the wind could pick up, it could turn on for him.
9:00 a.m. — Two hours into Day 1, here's an update on where the Top 5 in Progressive Bassmaster AOY stand on BassTrakk.
- Trey McKinney – 20th (8-8)
- Cory Johnston – 35th (4-15)
- Drew Cook – 34th (5-4)
- Cole Sands – 12th (10-7)
- John Garrett – 40th (3-0)
8:25 a.m. — Every time the Elites visit Lake Champlain, one of the questions that always comes up is if Ticonderoga will come to play.
Craig Lamb is down at Ticonderoga cooking up a drone gallery that will be up on Bassmaster.com shortly, and estimates at least seven boats are in the bay that he's in currently. As you can see from the drone shots above, this area of Lake Champlain features a great deal of vegetation which makes it a largemouth hot spot.
It will be very interesting to see how many anglers in the Top 10 after Day 1 of competition made the long run.
8:20 a.m. — Just before takeoff, Hunter Shryock told Bassmaster photographer Andy Crawford that he's focused on green fish — but he said a lot of others will, too.
"I put all my eggs in one basket," he said. "I didn't give myself enough options."
Shryock said his area could have a lot of competitors hitting it — but he also noted that this is Lake Champlain, which is massive.
"The lake is so big that you can spread out," he said.
8:10 a.m. — Trey McKinney has started around the North Hero island and has only boated two small ones, according to Bassmaster photographer Chase Sansom.
"I asked Trey how this week has gone, and he said, 'It’s been awful, but I’m hoping today we can put together what little bit I did figure out and have a good day.'"
8:03 am. — Anglers repeated the same phrase over and over again during interviews yesterday for the Dock Talk gallery: "Lake Champlain is different this year." Louisiana pro Greg Hackney said much of that difference has to do with the vegetation in the lake.
"The last time we were here, I think the grass was in the best shape it's ever been," Hackney said. "This year, it's the worst. The last time we were here, it was all about finding that one type of grass that held fish within all the other grass. If you figured that out, you could run a pattern: That type of grass amongst the other 10 types of grass.
"This year, (the grass) is all bad."
7:15 a.m. — Reports from practice have been a bit all over the place. We know that this tournament would look vastly different if forward-facing sonar was allowed, but it is not.
After catching up with Justin Atkins this morning at takeoff, he made the comment that "it's easy to catch 15 but hard to catch 17 pounds a day". Being consistent in a non-FFS tournament is typically more difficult, so expect plenty of flip-flopping on the leaderboard each day.
7:14a.m. — Chris Johnston has registered the first catch of the tournament on BassTrakk. A 2 pounder to start the day for the back-to-back Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year winner.
7:00 a.m. — Day 1 of the 2026 SPRO Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain is officially underway! To catch up on what the Elites said about practice, click here for the Dock Talk gallery.
6:45 a.m. — From Bassmaster Photographer Chase Sansom:
I got out here at takeoff pretty early so I spent the morning talking to John Cox and Jason Christie.
Cox is strictly doing the largemouth deal all with Berkley Maxscent Moeba. “I called Melissa last night and I was the verge of tears. It’s useless to throw a swim jig anymore”
Jason Christie spent two days practicing for largemouth and never ran across them but said he spent the majority of yesterday after the smallmouth and figured out a little deal to catch. I asked him where 18 pounds a day would put anglers. “I think 18 in a scope tournament would obviously put you well in the 70’s but this week without scope, 18 pounds I think will be in the 20’s if not the top 20”