I was blessed with a 2nd place finish as a co-angler at the Costa FLW Series event at Lake Champlain. The fish were done spawning but not yet in a full summer pattern. The smallmouths were not grouped up and the Largemouths seemed to be behind also.
About the Lake; Champlain is more then 100 miles long and has a lot of options as far what style of fishing you want to do. The takeoff for the tournament was out of Plattsburgh, NY. The area has a plentiful amount of Smallmouths in the more open areas of the north end and Largemouth in the bays. 60 miles down to the south is Ticonderoga, an area that has more dirty water and grass. I fished on the North end all three days of the tournament. Each day was different catching both Largemouth and Smallmouth. I used a variety of baits throughout the week, basically throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them, lol. When fishing for Largemouth I used a Yamamoto Senko, flipped Flappin’ Hog, a vibrating jig with a Zako trailer and a Duo Realis Pencil 110. For Smallmouth I used Frenzy Nail and dropshot with a Yamamoto Pro Senko, a Realis Jerkbait 100SP or 110SP and their Spinbait 80, 80 G-Fix, Spinbait 90 or the new 72 Alpha. The new Realis 72 Alpha is a 2 7/8″ long bait that weighs in at 1/2oz. One of the things I really love about this bait is that you can cast it great distances with a baitcaster. It has the same listing action and shimmy on the fall as the Spinbait 80’s, only beefier. I fished all these baits with Daiwa Tatula Reels and Powell Rods.
Gary is sponsored by Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, Daiwa, Top This, Duo Realis, Costa Sunglasses, Frenzy Baits, G2 Gemini Jerseys and Powell Rods.