By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
(Editor's note: In observance of the Independence Day holiday, a new top story will not appear until Tuesday.)
Jason Meninger's runner-up finish at the Lake Champlain FLW Tour was a strong conclusion to a frustrating season. The three anglers who ended up directly behind him all picked up some momentum for next month's Forrest Wood Cup.
Few venues can boost an angler's confidence like the big natural lake that straddles the New York-Vermont border. Daily limits are a virtual certainty and the key to a high placement often comes down to getting one or two 4-pound-plus bites per day to achieve separation for the horde of competitors who'll bring one 13- to 15-pound sack after another to the scale.
It took an average of 17 1/2 pounds per round to crack the Top 5 on this visit. Following are some of the details of how the closest pursuers to winner Scott Martin achieved those numbers.
2nd: Jason Meninger
> Day 1: 5, 19-02
> Day 2: 5, 17-07
> Day 3: 5, 19-06
> Day 4: 5, 17-11
> Total = 20, 73-10
Multi-day events at Champlain in the early summer are often won on the backs of the big largemouths that live near Fort Ticonderoga at the southern end of the lake, but Jason Meninger was the only Top-5 finisher who fished there exclusively this time. The result was his best-ever Tour finish and a lot of good vibes to carry him into the offseason.
Far out of Cup contention when the derby began, he opted to treat the tournament as his personal championship and focus entirely on quality bites, throwing quantity to the wind. He could've fished just about anywhere he wanted to at Ti because he had almost no company on competition days, but concentrated on a 200-yard stretch of bank that he worked over and over again.
Although the area got almost no pressure from Tour competitors once the tournament got under way, it was beaten up pretty good on the preceding days by anglers fishing Federation Nation and Lake Champlain International events. That prompted him to downsize his offerings, and a 3/16-ounce weight was the heaviest he flipped.
"I practiced some up north and I like catching smallmouths, but I didn't find those 18-pound bags that you need," he said. "I was catching like 14 to 15 and I knew that wasn't going to get it done. I wasn't getting a lot of bites at Ti, but when I did get one, it was a good one.
"I was consistent, but I never broke 20 pounds, and that hurt me."
His key stretch consisted mostly of milfoil, but had a few rocky points and a little bite of wood mixed in. He said that fishing at an extremely deliberate pace – "really soaking the bait" – was critical.
"I'd throw it out and let it sit, and then pull it off a piece of rock. I was making a cast every 3 or 4 yards down the bank."
He had two quality bites pull off and another break free on day 2, which cost him his chance of overtaking Martin at the end.
> Heavy flipping gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Halo Fishing rod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (8:1 ratio), 16- or 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/16-ounce bullet weight (pegged), 4/0 Owner straight-shank hook, Zoom Z-Craw (black/blue sapphire).
> For lighter cover in calm conditions, he employed either a wacky- or Texas-rigged Z-Man Finesse WormZ (green-pumpkin or junebug) on 10-pound PowerPro braided line with an 8-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon leader. He inserted a nail weight into the worm for wacky-rigging and used a 1/8-ounce bullet weight for the Texas rig.
Main factor in his success – "Basically just slowing down and going with a lighter weight."
Performance edge – "I located a lot of that hard structure in practice with my Garmin units with the SideVu. There's various pieces of concrete and all kinds of stuff in that lake."
Shinichi Fukae eventually discovered that his backup area was better than his primary locale.
3rd: Shinichi Fukae
> Day 1: 5, 16-06
> Day 2: 5, 18-11
> Day 3: 5, 17-05
> Day 4: 5, 19-10
> Total = 20, 72-00
Shinichi Fukae was in 35th place after the day-1 weigh-in, but made a steady climb up the standings from there. He jumped to 9th on day 2, 7th on day 3 and third on day 4, when his 19-10 stringer was the best of the final round.
He spent the first 2 days primarily focused on catching spawning smallmouths in the northern end of the lake. It turned out that he'd underestimated his largemouth-laden backup area – he didn't realize the quality that the shallow milfoil contained until very late on the second day.
"If I'd had one more day, I might've been able to beat the Top 2 guys," he said.
He caught most of his bedding bronebacks on a 4-inch Senko on either a dropshot rig or shaky-head. A Yamamoto Swimming Senko or a Flappin' Hog on a flipping stick was effective for the largemouths.
"I think one of the keys of the tournament was using the green-pumpkin baits with gold flake in them. I tried different colors, but that was what got the most bites."
> Dropshot gear: 6'8" medium-light Shimano Zodias rod, Shimano Sustain 2500 spinning reel, 14-pound YGK sinking braid (main line), 8-pound YGK fluorocarbon (leader), 1/0 Gamakatsu Swivel Shot hook, 4" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin/gold flake), 1/4-ounce weight.
> Wacky-rig gear: Same rod, reel, line and bait, 3/16-ounce Gamakatsu G-Finesse jighead, 4" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin/gold flake).
Main factor in his success – "Decisions and timing. I practiced for 15 hours on all 3 days and I had a lot of waypoints."
Performance edge – "I had lots of confidence in the baits and all my equipment was perfect."
David Dudley fished a lot of the same places that carried him to victory at Champlain in 2012.
4th: David Dudley
> Day 1: 5, 19-13
> Day 2: 5, 18-09
> Day 3: 5, 17-03
> Day 4: 5, 15-07
> Total = 20, 71-00
David Dudley caught some largemouths from the same rocky ridge in Missisquoi Bay that Martin utilized – the place had played a key role in previous Champlain victories for both of them. As Martin mentioned, however, the place wasn't loaded with fish this time, and both had to resort to catching bronzeback spawners to fill in the gaps.
The vast majority of the areas that Dudley fished were places that had been productive in the past.
"I've been to the lake five times and just about everything's familiar," he said. "There really isn't much of the lake I haven't fished."
He caught his largemouths with both a flipping stick and a wacky rig. There were sitting in 3 to 5 feet of water and there had to be grass around.
Most of his smallmouths came from the vicinity of Point Au Roche on the lake's northwestern shore.
"The first 2 days I weighed all largemouths and I was sticking with those, but I kind of sensed them fading a little bit in the area I was catching them. On the third and fourth days, it eased my mind to go get some 3- to 3 1/2-pound smallmouths and then go play with the largemouths for the rest of the day."
> Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action unnamed flipping stick, unnamed casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, unnamed 5/0 straight-shank hook, unnamed creature baits (green-pumpkin).
> Wacky-rig gear: 7' medium-heavy unnamed spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, unnamed 10-pound braided line (main line), 10-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon (10' leader), unnamed 1/0 hook, unnamed wacky-rigged worm (green-pumpkin).
Main factor in his success – "Catching those smallmouths on the last 2 days helped me relax when I went to fish for the largemouths."
Performance edge – "The accuracy of the GPS on my Lowrance was important when I was sight-fishing in 3-foot rollers and the trolling motor was coming out of the water. Out there on that rocky flat I was looking for very tiny clean spots – the beds were like swept-off pebbles and they were extremely hard to see. I could get right over top of them with the Lowrance and look straight down and see the bed."
Chris Johnston went in the opposite direction for day 4 as his sacks continued to dwindle.
5th: Chris Johnston
> Day 1: 5, 21-02
> Day 2: 5, 17-07
> Day 3: 5, 15-04
> Day 4: 5, 16-02
> Total = 20, 69-15
Chris Johnston concluded his spectacular debut Tour campaign with his second Top-5 showing of the season (he was 3rd in the opener at Lake Okeechobee). He wrapped up the Rookie of the Year title and landed at No. 2 in the Angler of the Year race.
On the first 3 days he picked off smallmouths in the mornings, then bounced around to various big-fish locales in the northern end of the lake in search of kicker largemouths. Some of the smallmouths he caught were on beds and others were suspended in water as deep as 12 feet, suspended along with carp.
The post-spawn largemouths came from 3 to 6 feet of water.
"I got two good ones from a deep milfoil bed that always produces good fish," he said.
He caught his best bag of the tournament on day 1, then saw his weight fall off by more than 2 1/2 pounds on day 2 and another 2-plus pounds on day 3. That prompted him to shift gears and head in the other direction to Ti for the final day, where he caught enough to maintain his 5th-place position and clinch the Ranger Cup championship over Jacob Wheeler with two places to spare.
A wacky-rigged Senko and a small swimbait produced his smallmouths. He flipped up his largemouths with a jig.
> Senko gear: 7'8" G. Loomis GLX Jig and Worm rod, Shimano Chronarch Cl4+ casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, 3/0 Gamakatsu round-bend hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (green-pumpkin).
> Swimbait gear: 6'8" medium-action Shimano Zodias rod, same reel, 8-pound PowerPro braided line (main line), Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon leader, 1/4-ounce jighead (open hook), Keitech Swing Impact Fat 3.8 (ayu).
> Flipping gear: 7'5" heavy-action G. Loomis GLXrod, Shimano Metanium casting reel (8:1 ratio), 65-pound PowerPro braid, 9/16- or 3/4-pound Punisher Mini Jig (black or black/blue), Zoom Small Salty Chunk trailer (black).
Main factor in his success – "My biggest decision was going to Ticonderoga (on day 4) after my weights had been going down every day in the north. It was a gamble because I could've caught 10 pounds or 20, but in the end it was the right call. If I'd had another hour, I think I could've had an 18-pound-plus bag."
Performance edge – "The Ranger/Evinrude combo for getting me down to Ticonderoga and back and the Power-Poles – without them I wouldn't have been able to hold on those weed beds and nose in and dissect them."
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