Jess, if you care to share, what kind of bait did you switch over too? I would imagine something that makes noise like a spinnerbait, crankbait or rattletrap?

I'm off to the BFL on Champlain! It's out of Ticonderoga and I'm going to fish it blind. I've never fished a BFL before, so I'm interested to see how it's run compared to the other levels of FLW Outdoors. I'll go straight from the BFL in Ty up to Plattsburgh to start practice for the Stren. I figured at the least I could use the tournament as a practice day and possibly make some money in the process. We'll see how it goes!

Where to begin on the BFL out of Ticonderoga. I called the tournament director to see if I could go out on the lake once I had checked in. He said I could, but you could call in and register over the phone so I didn't have to get to the meeting until 7:30. I got into Ti at 5 and went out onto the lake for an hour just to see what it looked like. In all the times I've been to Champlain, I've only ever been down to Ti 3 times. I checked out some areas that Art had done well in and only got 2 bites. I was concerned that I couldn't catch a limit down there and started contemplating making 60mi run up to Plattsburgh. I got off the water and headed to the meeting. Densik was there with Leonce and we started talking about how the fishing was. He was running up North to fish. As he was talking about running up North a light went off in my head; the BASS open was going on and I could go up there and fish the off-limits. There would surely be fish up on the sea wall outside the Marina. Dennis looked at me sort of stunned and said that was where he was fishing. I told him I wouldn't fish there if he didn't want me to. He told me to come on, that there was enough room for the both of us. I slept in my truck that night and found it difficult to sleep thinking about all the giant smallies I was going to catch off that wall. We ran all the way up to the wall and there were 4 boats on it. I later found out that it was not off limits for the open. People had been hammering it for 2 days. I caught one small keeper and lost one over 4; of course! The wind kicked up a little and I started to worry about getting back; I had never made the run before and everything was making me nervous. I didn't know if I had enough gas to make it back, but I tried without getting gas anyway. I made it back with both tanks on dead empty. I finished out the final 2 hours throwing a frog in some mats. I threw my 1 keeper back and headed for Plattsburgh. I've gone over the day in my head a million times. I should have done things differently. If I had it to do all over, I would have run up to the sea wall, fished for awhile, gotten gas and run to areas I knew in the nothern end and then headed back after I had 16lbs or so. I wish I had that day to do over. I learned allot in that BFL, and as poorly as I did, I'm happy I fished it.

that smallie is huge! hopefully jess she will be there when you go back!

After finding that wad of smallmouth the second day of practice I was a little more at ease and decided to run over into the Inland Sea and practice the whole day there. I started out fishing some Smallie spots that I'd done good on in the past, but there was nothing doing. After about 3 hours of nearly no bites, I decided to run over into St. Albans bay and look for some largemouth. I started fishing down the shore that I caught them so good on last year; the shore where I got pulled over and lost an hour of my fishing time thanks to the wonderful officers from the Vermont Marine Patrol. The matted grass was nowhere to be found and the grass on a whole was sparce at best. I continued down the bank throwing a spinnerbait. I came to a dock and threw the blade down the side and WHACK! the fight was on. A largie well over 4 had smashed it and was trying to break me off on the dock supports. I wrestled him out with no problem thanks to my 15lb Trilene Fluorocarbon. Of course if that had been during the tournament, the line would undoubtedly have broken.

The best part about this dock wasn't that it had a giant living on it, but that 3 other largies over 4 were trying to eat the spinnerbait out of his mouth as I was fighting him. Jackpot! It was the only dock within a hundred yards, and the grass that was usually there was gone; they had no place to go but under that dock. I was once again winning practice, which always makes me nervous. I continued down the bank and into a backwater that looked more like the Potomac than Champlain.

I got out my frog and skinny dipper. My first cast with the skinny dipper produced one over 3. Nice! I continued in further and ended up fishing probably a half mile of the stuff. The fish really weren't very big in there, but I did have one close to 6lbs follow the frog all the way out to the edge of the mat. It was fun catching them on a frog even if they weren't that big.

I headed down the lake to some humps to look for smallie again. The spot was a disappointment, but did produce 3 over 3lbs; it can be sooooo much better though. It was nearing the end of the day and I decided to stop off at one area on my way back in. It was a largemouth spot really shallow and up against some cattails. The water was crystal clear and about 1-2' deep. There were some mats made up of broken cattails on the surface that looked really good. My first pitch up into a mat with my chiggger craw sent a jolt up my arm. I reared back, set the hook, and out flew one close to 5lbs; they don’t have much of a chance when you’re fishing with 25lb fluorocarbon. I unhooked him and tossed him back. 3' away in the very next mat I caught a 3+. Another 2 feet away I shook one off, and on, and on, and on for 100 yards. It was the most insane flipping bite I've ever had; with the exception of my practice at Potomac earlier this year. There was a fish in just about every mat (which were mere feet apart). I had found the mother load!