St. Lawrence River Elite Series

Day 2 Tournament Update
Friday, July 31, 2015

Chris Zaldain

> Day 1: 5, 17-03
> Day 2: 5, 18-12
> Total: 10, 35-15 (18th place)

Days 1 and 2 I fished completely different areas, but with the same approach. After 5 whole days on the water, I’m starting to get dialed in on what they’re doing. With 80 miles of river to play with, I decided to abandon all of my deep stuff today. Going back to the big fish I caught in practice in 24 feet of water, I just didn’t feel like my chances of doing well are out there. The fish are shallow and I have all of my eggs in the shallow basket now.

I fished all new water today. I looked at my chart and found some real specific shallow areas about 20 miles up the river toward the lake. I came up with 19 pounds and had one dead one that knocked me back.

Being from California, I love fishing with light line and I’m finesse fishing real shallow. The river’s fishing really big and we’re allowed to move around a lot and I like that. I’m going to have two rods ready for Saturday and they’re both shallow-water rods.

Brent Chapman

> Day 1: 5, 14-00
> Day 2: 5, 15-05
> Total = 10, 29-05 (60th place)

The bite was very slow where I was catching the majority of my fish. I started shallow on day 1 and caught a 4-pounder, which gave me some good momentum. I should’ve stuck with it, but when you’re only getting so few bites, it’s hard to stick with it. I spent too much time chasing deeper fish and the wind made it tough to fish effectively.

It was a little frustrating. I lost one on day 1 that felt pretty good. Every fish out on my deeper spot was better than 3 pounds. If I’d have caught that one and didn’t have two dead fish on day 1, I might’ve made it to day 3. It wasn’t like I was losing a bunch of fish.

It was just a strange tournament. I was hearing about guys catching fish in 1 or 2 feet and catching them in 50 feet. They’re really scattered. The last time they were grouped up, but now you’ll get on the deep sweet spot and catch one where before you could catch a fish every time.

It was really strange. I wish I had it to do over again. I’m going to hope and pray that I’ll have enough points where two Top-10s will give me a shot at the Classic. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around what’s going on this year.

Practice Summary
Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Brent Chapman
We’re here earlier and from what I can tell, those fish are in that post-spawn funk that it seems we’ve been around all year. It’s really scattered out. Where you could catch a bunch a couple years ago, you might catch one.

I’m anxious to see how the weights play out for tomorrow. I hope to get off to a good start. Obviously, there’s a lot of pressure to do well here. I figure I need three Top-30s to have a shot (at the Classic) so it would be nice to get one of those here.

I don’t know what to think. I have three different things going to where I can catch some fish, but it might be a deal where you have to hunker down and focus on one of them. One of those three is working for largemouth, but that’s not consistent.

I found smallmouth from 3 feet out to 40 and I might need to try even deeper tomorrow. I don’t really see how the lake would’ve made a difference this time.

Day 2 Practice Update
Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Chris Zaldain
Whenever people hear ‘the Thousand Islands,’ they think it’s going to be a slugfest with 20- to 25-pound bags easily. That’s not the case this year. Everything is behind, maybe by a month. The water temperature is 70 degrees and I’m not getting as many bites as I was a couple years ago here. The fishing is just off, it seems.

When you catch a deep fish, you think there’s more with it, but it’s the only fish on that current break or hump. It’s strange. I made a point every time I caught one to put my transducer over it to see if more were with it, but there’s never been more than the one I had on.

I’ve caught fish from 2 feet out to 37 feet and after two long days of fishing, there’s not one technique or one depth zone where I can tell you how it’ll be won. It’s all across the board. The shallow fish aren’t real aggressive. They’re just coming off the spawn and they’re not going to chase down an erratic jerkbait or swimbait.

Brent Chapman
The fishing is a lot tougher than last time. I think the top weights will still be good, but I just don't think everyone is going catch them as well as last time. We were here later last time and I think that was the difference.

Editor's note: Chapman was experiencing cellular signal issues at his campground and BassFan was unable to reach him by phone. He sent his report via text.