Ron Nelson of Berrien Springs, Michigan caught a 19-08 stringer on Saturday to win the Lake Champlain Northern FLW Series for the second straight year. Nelson’s 3-day total of 60 pounds even was enough to earn him the top prize of $96,700, including a new boat and motor package.
Nelson primarily fished the north end of the main lake around the Gut, which is the passage between Grand Isle and South Hero. He targeted smallmouth bass on beds and largemouth near reeds, grass and docks. In the end, Nelson ended up weighing all smallmouth throughout the week.
“I caught my fish mostly sight-fishing this week," he said. "I found the beds pre-fishing and tried to find ones both deeper and shallow that the other anglers had missed. I fished beds that weren’t visually obvious to the average angler and that made a big difference. I caught fish around guys all week. I didn’t have a secret spot or anything like that.
“I knew I had a lot of smallmouth from practice and figured I’d try to find as many as I could in the 4-pound category, and then kind of go blind-fishing for largemouth after I caught a solid bag of smallmouths. On day 1, after I had my smallmouths, I actually ran to a largemouth spot and lost one in the 5-pound range that I thought would really hurt me, but I was fortunate enough to have a solid limit of smallmouth.”
Nelson caught his smallmouth on a watermelon gold-colored Poor Boys Erie Darter and a translucent Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver rigged on a 1/4- or 3/16-ounce darter head. When he fished for largemouth, Nelson used a Yamamoto Senko and a jig.
“Today I switched to using the Darter on a dropshot rig for a little bit because of the wind, but mostly fished the jighead. I was really happy with my equipment – everything worked well. I’m fishing the new 520L Ranger and it was a really nice haul.”
Nelson said one of the key parts to his success was how he broke down his areas.
“My biggest thing was being thorough and learning an area – that was the best strategy. There was no secret part of the lake that had bigger fish. It was tempting to find a 4-pounder, then run 5 miles for another 4-pounder, but there might be another one only a hundred yards away. I’d find a solid fish and build off of it and then go to another area and do the same thing.”
Here are the final totals for the top 10:
1. Ron Nelson: 60-00
2. Brett Carnright: 59-08
3. Austin Felix: 59-01
4. Chris Johnston: 58-01
5. Chris Adams: 57-03
6. Ryan Latinville: 57-00
7. J.J. Judd: 56-11
8. Cory Johnston: 55-11
9. Joseph Wood: 54-07
10. Bradley Dortch: 49-08
