Brandon Coulter is in 30th place in the B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year standings and in good position to make a run at qualifying for his first Bassmaster Classic. He wouldn't be nearly that high if not for a day-2 rally at last week's event at Lake Champlain.
The 47-year-old Tennessean came into the event off a 9th-place finish at the St. Lawrence River, but a risky run to the southern end of Champlain on the first competition day following a one-day postponement due to weather failed to pay off. He was in 85th place on the initial standings sheet with a 14-03 stringer.
"It could've been worse than that – at 1:30 I had two fish for 5 pounds and I had to leave at 2 (to make the long run back to the launch in Plattsburgh, N.Y.)," he said. "Then between 1:30 and 2 I finally caught a few. I know it still looked terrible on paper, but that half-hour saved me."
He went down to Ticonderoga because, after spending the bulk of his practice time in the northern part of the lake, he didn't think he could catch more than 14 to 15 pounds. He'd practiced at Ti for half a day.
"I knew what I was doing down there was pretty specific," he said. "I was catching them on some hard stuff. I was nervous about it, but I didn't think I had a choice."
He opted to stay in the north on day 2 and had a day that was not only productive, but also highly entertaining. He went through about 100 fish en route to a 17-15 haul that narrowly slid him inside the cut in 50th place.
Dropshotting a leech and Carolina-rigging a Zoom Speed Craw, he had about 13 pounds worth of smallmouths when he went hunting for kicker largemouths in mid-afternoon. He boated 35 in the last hour of the day flipping a patch of grass that was about twice as long as his boat and only about one boat-length wide. He enticed them all with a Berkley Havoc Pit Boss.
"I caught 20 in a row that were 2- to 2 1/2 pounds, but no big ones," he said. "Then on the next pass I caught two 3 1/2s and a 4. I guess I'd gotten the little ones out of the way.
"It was one of those days that an angler dreams about on Champlain and I needed every ounce of it to make the cut."
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