For 3 straight days, Dion Hibdon has made a 70-mile run to fish for largemouths at the Champlain FLW Tour, and each time he's come back with the heaviest sack of the day.
His latest quintet weighed 16-14, and it gave him a 2-ounce cushion for day 4.
If the big man from Missouri can hold on tomorrow, it would be his first win in a regular-season tour event. His top-level victory ledger mirrors Luke Clausen's: He's won the Bassmaster Classic (1997) and the FLW Tour Championship (2000), and that's it.
North Carolina's Tracy Adams also went south for the third straight day, and he returned with 16-12 to grab the No. 2 slot. Smallmouth ace Kevin Vida of Michigan was 3rd with 15-13, followed by local favorite Thomas LaVictoire with 15-05.
Arkansas' Keith Williams, the younger half of a father-son Top-10 tandem, caught a 15-04 bag of largemouths on the north end, and he's in 5th.
Here's how the bottom half of the field looks:
6. Scott Dobson: 14-12
7. Shinichi Fukae: 14-07
8. Scott Martin: 13-11
9. Jerry Williams: 11-15
10. Curt Lytle: 0-00
Weights went down a bit today, perhaps due to a stiff north wind that kicked up mid-morning. Seven anglers will start day 4 within 2 1/2 pounds of the lead, and the next man on the list – 2004 champion Martin – won from the seventh spot 2 years ago.
Lytle had zero weight, but it wasn't like he didn't catch anything. He neglected to cull from his livewell after catching his final keeper and returned to the launch with six fish, and thus suffered the day's-weight penalty.
If not for the mistake, he likely would have been the third member of the Top 5 who's catching largemouths in Ticonderoga (he said his five best weighed 15-10 on a hand-held scale). Now that he's out of contention, he'll leave those fish for Hibdon and Adams tomorrow.
Vida, LaVictoire and Martin hope to do some sight-fishing tomorrow, and they might get that opportunity. The Weather Channel predicts partly cloudy skies (so there should be at least a little bit of sun), a high temperature off 75 degrees and a north/northeast wind to 6 mph.
Today's weights will carry over, and the winner will be determined by the highest combined total over the final 2 days.
Hibdon's Bites Smaller
Hibdon, who led the cut by 5 pounds with 40-11, had to settle for smaller specimens today.
"I think it was the north wind more than anything else," he said. "I've been discussing it with my Northern EverStart (now Stren) roommate (Ricky Doyle) and I talked to LaVictoire some, and they said the north wind just kicks them in the shorts for some reason.
"I've caught about the same amount of fish each day – I probably had 15 keepers today – but just not as many good ones. This was the first north wind we've had, so I'm guessing that's what kind of shut them down a little bit."
He told the weigh-in audience how he's catching them – he's throwing bluegill-colored jigs (a 5/8-ounce Luck E Strike and a 1-ounce Terry Odom) with a green-pumpkin Luck E Strike Guido Bug trailer.
"I'm pitching them into the milfoil," he said. "If the grass is laying over a little tight, that's when I pick up the bigger one."
He'll shoot for a bag tomorrow that's similar to the ones he caught the first 2 days.
"I'd love to catch another 20 pounds, and down there that could be the first four times I jerk. I had 25 pounds on one practice day. The big ones live down there, and that's why I'm going."
Tracy Adams, who's fishing near Hibdon, moved into 2nd place today.
2nd: Adams in Same Boat
Adams isn't sharing water with Hibdon, but he's fishing in the same general area. He also said the north wind likely prevented him from catching a bigger bag.
He caught only "eight or nine" keepers, down from the 15 to 20 he caught on each of the first 2 days.
"I was kind of scared for a little while when they quit biting down there, but then I went to another spot and caught a 4-pounder," he said. "It was real good before the wind started blowing, and then it got a little funky.
"It's a good thing it didn't start really blowing until about 12:00, or the fishing and the ride back could have been a lot worse."
Unlike Hibdon, he'll consider other options if the wind blows hard tomorrow.
"I could go try to catch some smallmouth somewhere. I've got some areas with a few fish, but I don't think I could get a very good weight – maybe 10 or 12 pounds.
"I'm thinking I'll need 17 or 18 pounds (to have a chance to win). I expect Dion to catch another big bag, and LaVictoire's from here and he'll probably change things up and go for a big bag. And you've got Vida, who's one of the best smallmouth fishermen anywhere, and Scott makes the Top 10 here every time. That's some pretty tough competition."
3rd: Vida's Vision Limited
The wind and overcast skies prevented Vida from seeing most of his bed-fish, so he targeted post-spawners today instead. He caught "about 20" keepers, and the biggest was a 3 1/2-pounder.
"They were all cookie-cutters," he said. "I only caught one of them sight-fishing because I just couldn't see the beds.
"I've been running the same basic 10 miles of bank all week. I've got three or four key areas in there."
He hopes to see the sun tomorrow.
"I'll have to wait and let the wind and the sun tell me what to do," he said. "I want to get back to sight-fishing. These are deeper fish, and I can't pinpoint them without the sun. They're 10 or 11 feet deep."
His goal is at least 17 pounds. "I'll take whatever comes into the boat, but I think I'll need at least that to have a shot."
Keith Williams has some quality largemouths pegged down on the north side of the lake.
5th: Williams on Green Ones
Williams is catching largemouth, but he's traveling in the opposite direction of Hibdon and Adams to get to them. He said there's still plenty left.
"There's so much cover up there that nobody could catch them all," he said. "There's flats and points and different kinds of weeds that you know they're in."
He said he wasted about an hour and a half today in an attempt to catch released fish. He won't do that tomorrow.
"I'm going to go up there and throw baits that catch big ones, and just put my trolling motor down and try to catch five. I'll try to get 16 or 17 pounds, but I don't know if it'll work out."
8th: Martin a Little Light
After day 2, Martin said his goal for each of the final 2 days was 17 pounds. He was a little more than 3 pounds shy of that today.
"I came in a little short of what I really wanted to catch," he said. "I gambled a little bit, because I believe that to win, you've got to expand your water a little.
"If there's ever a day to take some chances, it's on day 3. You can't do it on day 4, because there is no day 5. Nobody can win it on day 3."
He had all of his weight by 9:00 and then made a trip to Missisquoi Bay. He had an idea he might catch a big largemouth – a species he'd vowed to avoid.
It wasn't a productive foray. "That just goes to show that I'm not going to catch any of those stupid things," he said.
He might have to take one more crack at a green one – he found a 5-pounder guarding fry when he was looking for a 4-pound smallmouth he'd spotted earlier.
"I actually had it on for a split-second and it pulled free. I worked on it a little longer, but then I had to leave. My marker is still there in the grass, so first thing tomorrow I'll try to catch that fish.
"I'm 3 pounds behind, and that fish could make up a lot of the deficit quickly."
After that, he might move south to try for some spawning smallmouths he located in practice.
"I have no clue if they're still there or if people have been fishing for them. If they're all there, I could have 18 or 19 pounds of smallmouths, but I really doubt they're all still there."
10th: Lytle's Costly Mistake
Lytle said his accounting error might have been due to a bit of overexcitement after catching a 3 1/4-pounder late in the day. He forgot to cross his smallest fish off of his tally sheet, and thus forgot to drop it overboard
"There are a lot of chances for us to have something go wrong, and to have it be one of the human-controlled variables is disappointing," he said. "It won't happen again – I can guarantee that.
"There's so much that goes through your head out there and so many decisions that have to be made. I just got flustered and didn't cross one out. My mind just wasn't where it needed to be."
He'd had a solid day to that point, having caught largemouths from both deep and shallow water. "I was thinking like the fish pretty well."
At least the incident didn't rob him of his sense of humor.
"The stress of this tournament is off," he said. "All the other guys have to worry about where they're going to finish, but I know I'm going to finish 10th."
He'll stay away from Ticonderogo tomorrow. "I'm hoping Dion really hammers the field, because then I won't feel so bad."
Notable
> Day 3 stats – 10 anglers, 9 limits, 1 zero.
> Hibdon said he'll head south again tomorrow no matter what the weather does. "If the wind blows real hard, that just means I'll drive a little slower. I can't win anywhere else, and if I finish 2nd, you guys can write it up on BassFan and nobody'll remember it 10 minutes later. I've won tournaments before, and 2nd place really doesn't appeal to me."
> Hibdon didn't have any 1-ounce jigs, so he procured some from 84th-place finisher Mike Hawkes of Texas.
> This is Keith Williams' third FLW Tour Top 10 and father Jerry has six, but they'd never before achieved the feat in the same event.
> One of Martin's best bites of the day was on his weight instead of his bait. "I was Carolina-rigging on one spot and I was reeling in, and I saw a fish chasing my weight. It was 4 or 5 pounds – just huge. I let it sink, thinking it would get the bait, and when I lifted up it would be tight, but it just kept going after the weight. It did that two or three times, then it swam off."
Weather Forecast
Here's the Weather Channel forecast for the final day of the tournament.
> Sat, June 24 – Partly Cloudy – 75°/57°
- Wind: From the N/NE at 6 mph
Day 3 Standings
1. Dion Hibdon -- Stover, Mo -- 5, 16-14
2. Tracy Adams -- Wilkesboro, NC -- 5, 16-12
3. Kevin Vida -- Clare, Mi -- 5, 15-13
4. Thomas LaVictoire -- West Rutland, Vt -- 5, 15-05
5. Keith Williams -- Conway, Ar -- 5, 15-04
6. Scott Dobson -- Clarkston, Mi -- 5, 14-12
7. Shinichi Fukae -- Mineola, Tx -- 5, 14-07
8. Scott Martin -- Clewiston, Fl -- 5, 13-11
9. Jerry Williams -- Conway, Ar -- 5, 11-15
10. Curt Lytle -- Zuni, Va -- 5, 0-00
