Tim Horton knew as well as anybody that largemouths usually win at Lake Champlain this time of year. So that's what he looked for, and that's what he found. In fact, he found much better quality green fish than anyone else, and stomped the Champlain Bassmaster Elite Series field by almost 13 pounds.
It was his third tour-level win, and his first since 2001.
He sat in 2nd place after the first day of competition, but then took over the lead by nearly 7 pounds on day 2, and left everyone else eating his wake as he widened his lead every day.
He only fished an hour the final day, then returned to the dock with over 19 pounds in his livewell and proceeded to eat pizza and sign autographs and just take it easy for 6 hours until he weighed in.
It was almost automatic on that final day. Here's how he put it all together.
Practice
Most of the first day of practice, Horton fished the grass at Ticonderoga with at least half the field. He found a spot or two where he thought he could catch 15 pound a day, but nothing truly special.
He noted he was disappointed with the condition of the grass – not much was topped out or matted over, and the edges weren't well-defined.
After only 3 hours there, he felt disheartened. Then, as he was idling out of what he described as a shallow spawning bay, he discovered the mother lode.
"Around 8:30 a.m. the first day I was ready to leave (the south end of the lake)," he said. "The grass looked bad compared to Ticonderoga last year. As I idled out of this bay I saw a rockpile on my Lowrance 113 (sonar).
"I turned around and made a cast and found the lode. I knew then I had to commit to going down there every day, since it's too far to make that run and then go and fish anywhere else as well. So (the rest of practice) I looked around for other areas as backup."
Contrary to the first practice day, which was stormy, "The wind laid down the next 2 days and the area started to turn on," he added.
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 21-02
> Day 2: 5, 24-12
> Day 3: 5, 18-08
> Day 4: 5, 19-04
> Total = 20, 83-10
Horton found himself a quarter-pound behind Steve Kennedy after the day 1 weigh-in. They were the only two to bring in limits over the 20-pound mark. But after that, it was all Horton, as Kennedy's limits shrank every day thereafter.
"I caught them three ways," Horton said. "My best place was a rockpile in the mouth of a spawning bay – out in the middle. I started on it every morning, throwing a Booyah jig. It wouldn't even get to the bottom before they'd hit it.
"I had 20 pounds in the first five casts the first day. Then I culled up (by) flipping matted milfoil with a 1-ounce weight on a YUM Vibra King tube.
"My other pattern was throwing a Booyah jig on rocks mixed in around sparse grass," he added. "If I felt the rocks or shells in it, I was real confident I'd get a bite."
He stuck 20 pounds on five casts the next day with the jig at the rockpile, then culled out each of those in the grass. But that was the end of his grass-bite in that area. The rest of the week, he caught nothing better than 3 pounds from that grass spot.
Horton hammered a rockpile with a Booyah jig, and noted the hook was key – he only lost one jig-fish all week.
"Day 3 was my toughest day, but I don't know why," he noted. "It took me an hour and a half to get a limit at the rockpile. I had about 17 pounds when I left. Then I went flipping with the tube, got a 4-02, and that was it.
"But the big thing was that at the end of the day, I went back to the rockpile. The jig wasn't working, so I tied on a No. 6 (Xcalibur) Fat Free Shad in citrus shad, and caught three or four in a row. They were just 2-pounders, but it got the whole school going."
That told him what to do the next morning.
"On the last day I got one on the jig, then no more for a while, so I brought out the crank and it was just cast after cast," he said. "It was tenfold the place I won on at the Potomac. It was really special. I caught 30 fish in the last 40 minutes of the hour I fished."
When he caught one near 5 pounds and figured his limit was close to 20 pounds again, he decided not to risk any misfortune and called it quits. He took a leisurely drive back to the launch and tied up just after 10 a.m. to wait for his fellow competitors to come in.
Winning Pattern Notes
"When you get clicking and have that confidence that they were on that hard bottom, you know just what to do," Horton said. "So when the jig would get caught in the shells, I knew to really slow down and work it good."
When the fish quit smoking the jig, his experience with summer cranking kicked in. "I wanted a larger bait profile, but didn't want it to get down in the rocks," he noted. "It was only 7 feet deep on the rockpile, so I used heavy line so the Fat Free Shad wouldn't run as deep, and I held the rodtip high."
Winning Gear Notes
> Crankbait gear: 7' medium-action All Star cranking rod, Pflueger President casting reel, 20-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon line, No. 6 Bomber Fat Free Shad (citrus shad).
> Jig gear: 6'10" All Star SJ1 rod, same reel, 17-pound XPS fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Booyah football-head jig (black/brown), YUM Craw Papi trailer (green-pumpkin).
> Tube gear: 7'6" All Star flipping rod, Pflueger Supreme casting reel, 65-pound Bass Pro Shops Magibraid line, 1-ounce Xcalibur tungsten weight, 5/0 Xcalibur wide-gap hook, YUM Vibra King tube (watermelon/pro-blue, which is a special-order color).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "Finding that rockpile mostly, and being able to conserve those fish. I didn't have to stay there and cull up. Also, I had a Tracker Tundra (deep-V walleye boat) ready in case the weather got bad. Some guys didn't commit to Ticonderoga because the long run can get rough, but just knowing I had the boat at the hotel gave me confidence to come back every day."
> Performance edge – "I'd say it was the hook on the Booyah jig. I lost only one fish all week."
Notable
> The win moved Horton up 10 spots to 5th in the Elite Series Angler of the Year race. He trails leader Skeet Reese by 268 points.
