Stephen Estes of Auburn, N.H. brought a five-bass limit to the scale Saturday weighing 21-15 to win the three-day Lake Champlain Northern Toyota Series in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Estes’ three-day total of 15 bass weighing 61-03 earned him the win by a 2-03 margin over 2nd-place angler Matt Becker of Finleyville, Pa., and garnered him the top payout of $44,000.
Estes weighed in all smallmouth and averaged more than 20 pounds per day. Looking hard for the mother lode, Estes said he started his four-day practice period with 90 hours on his motor – by the time he was back at the dock after day 3 of the event, he had over 126 hours logged.
“I was just doing a lot of looking and trying to find something special,” said Estes. “I don’t like to fish around other people and I felt like that was the deal and I just happened to stumble across it. I was idling around and I saw bait and decided to drop the Lowrance ActiveTarget down. I wouldn’t have known the fish were there without the ActiveTarget.”
Estes said he set his target range out to 120 feet, catching fish anywhere from a long cast away to right under his boat. One of his keys on the first two days when it was windy was an independent pole mount from Cornfield Crappie.
“I bought that mount maybe a year or so ago,” said Estes. “I started with LiveScope on the trolling motor, then I changed trolling motor brands and now I’m running all Lowrance. The Lowrance isn’t quite as easy to line your bait up, because the arrow isn’t perfect, but the whole point of the independent mount is when you’re on Anchor Mode, you can independently control it – that was huge the first two days. I keep a remote in my pocket and it has foot pedals.”
Throwing a drop-shot on a 6-foot-9, medium action Hammer Rods spinning rod with 10-pound Vicious No-Fade Braid and an 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu leader, Estes went with a 1/2-ounce Eco Pro Full Contact Drop Shot Weight and a dropshot bait from Hawg Pours Hand Made Bass Baits called the Hawg Teaser.
“Every fish was different,” he said. “I caught some fish suspended, I’d watch my dropshot fall, I’d see it stop falling and set the hook. I would never feel the fish bite. I’ve been doing that for three years and I’ve learned to watch my bait real close.
“Some of the fish I was catching 100 feet out from the boat – I can’t make a cast with a dropshot further than 100 feet according to ActiveTarget,” continued Estes. “There was no rhyme or reason and I can’t tell you how many fish swam up to my bait and didn’t bite it. I just kept my head down and kept fishing and put it in front of a lot of fish.
“This is just an awesome feeling. I never expected this at all, this group of anglers is so good.”
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1. Stephen Estes: 61-03
2. Matt Becker: 59-00
3. Bryan Labelle: 57-13
4. Dakota Ebare: 57-07
5. Kyle Hall: 57-07
6. Bryan Thrift: 56-09
7. Martin Villa: 55-07
8. JJ Judd: 54-04
9. Joseph Thompson: 53-14
10. Jason Bacon: 53-01
