Matt Messer had cracked the 20-pound mark by 10 a.m. Thursday and finished day 1 at Lake Champlain with 23-09.
September 18, 2025
By B.A.S.S. Communications PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Matt Messer wasn’t necessarily joking when he said he can’t catch smallmouth bass.
But Thursday, on Day 1 of the Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Lake Champlain, Messer pounded the lake’s legendary smallmouth population to the tune of a five-bass limit for 23 pounds, 9 ounces on a blustery day here in the far northeast corner of the Empire State.
He leads Grae Buck by an ounce while Christian Nash has 22-13 in third. New York native Alec Morrison is fourth with 22-10 and Russ Lane kicked off his bid to requalify for the Elite Series with a 22-09 effort, good enough for fifth.
Messer, a 23-year-old native of Warfield, Ky., is a self-confessed sucker for largemouth bass, so his success with Champlain’s smallies surprised him.
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“I had over 20 pounds (of smallmouth bass) at about 10 o’clock this morning and then caught two bigger ones late,” Messer said. “It was a pretty consistent bite all day. I culled out like eight 4-pounders today … I saw some stuff in practice but didn’t have a set spot to go to, so I was kind of bouncing around this morning. But I landed on ’em big time this morning and I didn’t leave ’em there … I got every bite I could. It was a fun day.”
So fun, in fact, that Messer never had to look for the largemouth he figured he’d need to get a solid start to the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers Series. Instead, he focused on an area measuring about 1 1/2 miles long and hammered the smallies from the start on Thursday. He said his best bites came from pairs and trios of smallmouth bass suspended throughout Champlain’s water column.
The weather is expected to change some overnight, with temperatures dropping from the lower 70s on Thursday to the 50s for much of the fishing time on Friday. Sustained winds of 10-15 mph are expected to blow from the north, as well, which could scatter bass and the bait they’re chasing on Champlain.
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No matter, Messer said. He’ll stick with what put him in the pole position on Day 1.
“I tried to catch largemouth all during practice (and got nothing,)” he said. “I don’t know how these boys are doing it. I love largemouth fishing, but I can’t catch ’em here. So, I’m sticking with the smallmouth.”
Buck, a 35-year-old pro from Green Lake, Pa., said he can't recall having a better day at Champlain.
“It was the best day I’ve ever had on Champlain,” Buck said. “Everything went right.”
Like Messer, Buck started on the smallmouth bite and had a limit within an hour after take-off. That allowed him to spend much of the day “headhunting” for largemouth bass, and unlike the guy he’s trailing, Buck built his bag on largemouth. His 5-11 was the Phoenix Boats Big Bass on Thursday but he also bagged another 5-pound largemouth and added a 5-pound smallmouth to his mix.
“I found two good largemouth that put me over the top today,” he said. “I don’t know if I can do it again tomorrow, but we’re gonna’ try. It was the perfect start to the EQs. I know Champlain better than the other places we’re going, so I wanted to make it count this week.”
Until Thursday, though, Buck said he’s not had great success at this 278,000-acre mammoth lake straddling the New York/Vermont border.
“I’ve fished here a lot … cashed checks here,” he said. “But I’ve never had a Top 10 here. I spent a lot of time here before the off-limit (period) and tried to get really dialed in. One of the areas (I found in pre-fishing) really paid off today.”
A total of 105 pros are competing at Champlain, with 97 of them in the EQ field. The 10 atop the points standings following the season’s three EQ tournaments will earn an invitation into the 2026 Bassmaster Elite Series. The other two EQ tournaments in 2025 are scheduled for Alabama’s Wheeler Lake Oct. 2-4 and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee Nov. 13-15.
In addition to first-place checks of some $58,000, the three winners will earn spots in the 2026 Bass Pros Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour when it’s held in Knoxville on the Tennessee River in March.
The 10 pros at Champlain who aren’t in the EQ group are fishing for a Classic berth and part of $294,000 to be split among the Top 40 anglers in the field.
The Top 50 anglers in the points in both Division 1 and 2 of this year’s Opens qualified for the EQs. The circuit also was open to any 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series pro as well as the Top 3 anglers in the 2024 Mercury B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Lowrance.
