Pelagic Smallmouth Will Be Primary Quarry

By B.A.S.S. Communications Staff

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Summertime is in full swing in upstate New York, which means the Bassmaster Elite Series pros will have ample opportunity to catch big bags of bass during the event at Lake Champlain.

Tournament days are scheduled for today through Sunday, with daily takeoffs set for 7 a.m. ET at the Plattsburgh City Marina. Anglers will return for weigh-in beginning at 3 p.m. The full field of pros will compete the first two days before the Top 50 anglers fish on Day 3. The Top 10 anglers after the third day will compete on Sunday.

Lake Champlain has become a regular stop for the Elite Series. Kyoya Fujita won last year’s edition with a total of 86 pounds, 12 ounces by using his forward-facing sonar to catch pelagic smallmouth.

Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifiers Division competitor Zach Goutremout believes this year’s event will be won in the same fashion.

“Honestly, I think it will be similar to last year. Since (Garmin LiveScope) came out, it has changed the way people fish the lake. Scoping roaming fish out there chasing bait is probably how it is going to go down. Somebody might get a day or two out of some largemouth. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Day 1 leader with largemouth, but I don’t think that can last four days.”

Over the last several years, the smallmouth bite has become increasingly productive on Champlain with the help of forward-facing technology. Anglers are better able to target the groups of smallmouth that roam the deep-water areas in search of baitfish.

These smallmouth chase alewives as well as white and yellow perch in open water. Similarly to past events, Goutremout thinks the Inland Sea region of the lake will see plenty of fishing pressure from the Elite pros.

With an unusually warm and stormy spring and summer, the smallies have been done spawning for months and are in a full summer pattern.

“A lot of it is alewives,” Goutremout said. “Nine times out of 10 it is going to go down in the Inland Sea. For whatever reason, it seems like the bigger fish tend to come out of there.”

Alewives are plentiful, but Goutremout thinks an angler who can find some perch-eaters to themselves will have a slight advantage.

“If someone can find a group of bass they have a little more to themselves, that will be important,” he said. “A lot of times if you can find the perch-eaters, they tend to weigh a little more than the smallies feeding up on alewives.”

The more “traditional” smallmouth bite occurs around rock and boulders in the mid-depth range, where anglers can drag Carolina rigs, drop shots and Ned rigs.

While smallmouth will be the favorite species to target, there are indications a largemouth bite could play out as well. While heavy winds made smallmouth fishing difficult, multiple 20-pound bags of green fish were weighed in at the B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at the end of July, including a 24-5 limit that led Day 1.

Mark Burgess weighed in all largemouth each day and caught 21-15 and 22-12 the final two days to secure the victory in that event. Higher-than-normal water levels allowed him to execute a flipping bite toward the Canadian border.

Several other anglers mentioned staying on the north side of the lake instead of making the run down to Ticonderoga, a historically popular largemouth destination.

“I was in my total comfort zone this week,” Burgess stated. “I had a flipping stick almost the whole time with a little bit of ChatterBaiting and square-billing. I just made the right decisions each day.”

Docks, marinas and various types of vegetation hold largemouth on Champlain, and flipping baits, ChatterBaits and swim jigs have all been productive presentations in past events.

Regardless, Goutremout believes it will take close to 22 pounds a day to claim the trophy in this tournament.

2024 Bassmaster Classic champion Justin Hamner leads the Angler of the Year standings with 595 points through seven events. Rookie Trey McKinney is 2nd with 571, followed by Cody Huff in 3rd with 569, Chris Johnston in 4th with 556 and Jacob Foutz in 5th with 556.

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