Guessing that his primary spot would be taken, Jesse Tacoronte went to his "plan B" spot and took the initial lead at the Lake Champlain Bassmaster Northern Open.
“Since I was the last boat (during takeoff), I figured I would go to my worst water first, but it turned out we were done there by 9 o’clock,” the Floridian said. He quickly caught his limit of smallmouth bass and culled to accumulate 21-03
“I didn’t expect that quality of fish to be in that one spot because that was my ‘B’ water,” he said. The rest of the day he “dinked around” because he wanted to save the best spots he found in practice for the rest of the tournament.
“God willing, those spots will be there for me tomorrow,” he said.
Despite a long drive to reach Champlain and limited practice time, Adrian Avena still managed to catch a 20-15 sack to move into 2nd place. Avena and his dad drove 30 hours from the Bassmaster Angler of the Year Championship at Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota. They made it to Champlain on Tuesday so that Avena could practice for 4 hours before the Open.
Avena relied on a junk-fishing pattern that produced a victory for the Vineland, N.J., pro at Champlain in a Rayovac tournament in 2011. “It’s a grind,” said Avena, who had a mixed limit of smallmouth and largemouth.
“I had a couple of really good largemouth bites and that‘s what you need out here are those kickers to put you over the top.”
Here's a look at the initial Top 12:
1. Jesse Tacoronte: 21-03
2. Adrian Avena: 20-15
3. Bryan Schmitt: 20-09
4. Scott Pellegrin: 19-13
5. Brett Carnright: 19-09
6. Jamie Hartman: 19-03
7. Stephen Mui: 19-01
8. Steve York: 19-00
9. Wil Hardy II: 18-13
10. David Gaston: 18-12
11. (tie) Alton Jones Jr.: 18-11
11. (tie) Chris Molineaux: 18-11
