Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Mich. caught an 18-09 stringer on Saturday to win the Lake Champlain Northern FLW Series with a 3-day total of 54-09. Nelson best a 195-angler field that was the biggest in the history of the division.
He weighed a mixed bag of three largemouth bass and two smallmouths on each of the three days of competition and was the only competitor to surpass the 18-pound mark on Saturday. On Thursday, Nelson started off sight-fishing smallmouths and targeting largemouth later in the day. On Friday, he did the opposite, ditching the early smallmouth and heading to his largemouth grounds. Then, with better weather in the afternoon, the Michigan pro culled twice with smallmouth caught off beds. Saturday, Nelson again targeted the largemouth early before moving to the bedding smallmouth, then back to the largemouth.
“When I was fishing for the smallmouth I threw an (Poor Boy’s) Erie Darter on a stand-up head jig,” said Nelson, who earned his second career FLW Series win – the first coming on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake in 2013. “For the largemouth I threw a Beaver, the Darter and a Yamamoto Senko. It didn’t matter what color I threw, they were biting pretty much anything. I found a couple of largemouth on beds and they were as aggressive as the smallmouth were."
More details of his victory will be published this week.
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Ron Nelson: 54-09
2. Chris Adams: 53-15
3. Thomas Lavictoire Jr.: 52-03
4. Chris Johnston: 52-03
5. Brett Carnright: 52-00
6. Shayne McFarlin: 51-14
7. Neil Farlow: 51-08
8. Ryan Latinville: 51-08
9. Scott Dobson: 50-12
10. Rob Lamoy: 48-13