Dave Wolak won last month's Bassmaster Northern Open at Lake Champlain, and now he's threatening to top the Eastern FLW Series event that got under way there today.
Wolak (pictured), a Bassmaster Elite Series pro who grew up in Pennsylvania but now resides in North Carolina, caught 21-02 today to share the early lead with Pennsylvania FLW Tour pro Jason Ober.
Both anglers used baits that mimicked perch. Wolak weighed all largemouths while Ober's bag consisted entirely of smallmouths.
“I ended up having a good day, but it started out really slow – I didn’t have my limit until about 11:00," Wolak said. "I was here 2 weeks ago for an AFS tournament and the bite was crazy; I didn’t see those bites today, but luckily the bites I did get were quality.”
Said Ober: “I was able to eliminate a lot of water today and tomorrow I'm hoping the predictions for wind are wrong, I may not be able to get to my location if that happens. I need some bright sunshine, too. I didn’t have a bite after noon today and that’s when the wind started to play a factor and the sun went under.”
The full field will fish the first 3 days and only the Top 5 will advance to day 4.
Here's the tightly congested Top 10 after day 1:
1. (tie) Dave Wolak -- 21-06
1. (tie) Jason Ober -- 21-06
3. Sheron Brown -- 19-13
4. Anthony Gagliardi -- 19-12
5. Lancen Halbert -- 19-09
6. (tie) Charlie Hartley -- 19-05
6. (tie) Andy Montgomery -- 19-05
8. Mark Hickory -- 19-04
9. Dion Hibdon -- 19-01
10. (tie) Matthew Applebaum -- 18-15
10. (tie) Gary Yamamoto -- 18-15
