Dave Wolak won the recent Champlain FLW Tour Open with a series of patterns. He fished for smallmouths in the mornings, then hunted upgrade fish in the afternoons. He made a critical switch the second day and followed fish as they moved from grass to rock.
Here's a look at how the rest of the Top 5 caught their fish at Champlain.
2nd: Gary Yamamoto
> Day 1: 5, 24-04
> Day 2: 5, 17-08
> Day 3: 5, 17-05
> Day 4: 5, 15-11
> Total = 20, 74-12
Famed bait designer Gary Yamamoto fished his Senko all 4 days, but with a twist. He Texas-rigged it through the thin end, and inserted a woodscrew in the fat end. That way the bait fell somewhat backwards, which was key because most the docks on Champlain are floating docks, and that way he could reach the fish underneath.
"I can skip it very easily and it'll go away from me and fall away from me," he said. "Bass react to that. But it's difficult to rig (the Senko) straight through the small end.
"Also what I tell people is I don't set the hook. I just put tension on the fish. Let him swim and he'll hook himself."
He set a new FLW Outdoors 1-day catch record for Champlain the first day, but as the post-frontal conditions set in, his shallow bite faded. To complicate matters, owners began to remove the docks he was fishing in preparation for winter.
> Senko gear: 7' medium-light Gary Yamamoto rod, Shimano Stradic 2500 spinning reel, 10-pound PowerPro braid, 16-pound Gary Yamamoto Sugoi fluorocarboin leader, 4/0 Gamakatsu Octopus hook, Gary Yamamoto Senko (color 912).
> As noted, he inserted a wood screw into the traditional head of the Senko, then Texas-rigged it through the tail. His screws, which he bought at a hardware store, were No. 6s in either ¾" or 1", depending on depth of water.
3rd: Daryl Biron
> Day 1: 5, 21-04
> Day 2: 5, 17-10
> Day 3: 5, 20-03
> Day 4: 5, 13-14
> Total = 20, 72-15
Daryl Biron, a Connecticut pro, flip-flopped between largemouths and smallmouths. He worked docks and fished some milfoil for the largemouths, and Carolina-rigged his smallmouths.
"I was fishing out a little deeper for smallmouths, but not real deep," he noted. "The slick conditions kind of hurt me, because my smallmouths were sitting in 14 to 16 feet and the boat was right over their heads. The fish were a little spooky.".
> Dock gear: 7' medium-heavy Kistler Helium rod, Shimano Stradic spinning reel, 30-pound PowerPro braid, 14-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon leader, 3/8-ounce Keitech jig (black), Gary Yamamoto Double Tail grub (black/blue-flake).
> He also skipped a Senko (green-pumpkin and watermelon/black-flake), rigged wacky on a 1/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook.
> Smallmouth gear: 7' medium-heavy Kistler Helium 2 rod, Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Gold Series casting reel, 14-pound Berkley Trilene XT mono (main line and leader), 3/4-ounce tungsten weight, 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook, Zoom Super Speed craw.
Glenn Browne's attack plan centered on wood.
4th: Glenn Browne
> Day 1: 5, 17-02
> Day 2: 5, 20-00
> Day 3: 5, 19-02
> Day 4: 5, 16-02
> Total = 20, 72-06
Glenn Browne, a Florida pro, was ultra dialed in on a shallow wood pattern.
"I was running trees and willows and laydowns with a big jig in water 3 feet deep at best," he said. "If you could find a tree blown over with a rootball, it was about automatic."
> Jig gear: 8' extra-extra-heavy E21 Carrot Stix Microguide rod, Lew's Tournament Pro casting reel (left-handed), 65-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid, 3/4- and 1-ounce homemade jigs (black/blue), Zoom Big Salty Chunk (sapphire blue).
Wesley Strader likewise targeted wood.
5th: Wesley Strader
> Day 1: 5, 16-11
> Day 2: 5, 17-03
> Day 3: 5, 18-08
> Day 4: 5, 17-13
> Total = 20, 70-03
Wesley Strader spent his tournament flipping a 5/8-ounce Phenix jig and soft-plastic craw. He understood that fish were moving from the grass to hard targets, so he changed from flipping mats to flipping shallow wood.
"Most of it was logs," he noted. "I caught a few out of some green trees, but they pretty much had to be old."
> Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Powell Endurance 765 CBR rod, Abu Garcia Revo Premier casting reel, 65-pound Spiderwire Stealth braid.
> His jig was a 5/8-ounce Phenix jig (green-pumpkin/brown) tipped with a Zoom Big Salty Chunk (green-pumpkin).
> His plastic was a Zoom Super Speed craw (green-pumpkin) rigged with a custom-bent 4/0 hook and 1-ounce weight.
> He also caught some smallmouth dropshotting a Zoom Swamp Crawler worm (green-pumpkin).
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