Weather, High Water To Be Major Factors In Flw Open On Lake Champlain
There is one thing that can be said about tournament fishing in 2011: The weather has played a major role all year long – from bitter cold to blazing hot, low water to flooding – with normal patterns pretty much thrown out the window.
Anglers have been left to their own resources to find ways to deal with the extremes created by unusual weather patterns this year – and the upcoming FLW Tour Open on Lake Champlain will be no different.
“I think this tournament on Lake Champlain is going to be different than in past years,” said Brian Travis of Conover, N.C., who is ranked 24th in points in the Open Series. “In the last three years that we have been there this is the latest we have been. And I am a little concerned about the water level. This year they had the biggest flood ever up there in May and with Hurricane Irene going up through that area it is a little over two feet high.”
With the flooding pushing the water level up on the banks, Travis said he believes largemouths will play a larger role than normal in the tournament. Typically the smallmouth bite prevails on the northern end of the lake while largemouths are more prevalent on the southern end.
“It’s going to be hard for me to stay away from down south. Usually this time of year when there is a grass mat out there is a shallow water bite down there. But with the water being so high I don’t know how that is going to come into play,” Travis said.
Travis said he plans to divide his three practice days into two searching for smallmouth and one concentrating on largemouths.
“I’ll probably smallmouth fish two days and then go down south and fish for largemouths one day, and then base my game plan on that.”
But, he noted, running south can be very risky if the weather plays a role next week.
“It’s an hour and 15-minute run on flat water, but it’s two hours at least if the wind gets up,” he said, “but it can be worth it because there are some big bags to be caught down there.”
Actually, he said, both strategies can be extremely productive on Lake Champlain.
“The northern end of the lake can be really good, too. That is the thing about Lake Champlain – it is loaded with fish and there can be some big bags caught.”
That high water is intriguing, he said, both for largemouths and smallmouths.
“They should be shallow. With the high water you would think they would be up on the banks a little bit,” he said. “We’ll see. I flipped smallies at Table Rock and Pickwick, so maybe I can flip smallies at Champlain. I caught smallmouth in less that two feet of water at both those lakes, so maybe it will be the same as it was at Table Rock.”
Travis said he caught 3- to 4-pound smallmouth bass flipping bushes at Table Rock and he caught them flipping docks at Pickwick.
“It has been a kind of weird year,” he noted.
His goal next week, he said, is to move up to the top five in points and qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup next year.
“It will be back on Lake Lanier and I like fishing down there,” he said.
But for now he is concentrating on Lake Champlain.
“At Lake Champlain every year it comes down to just a matter of ounces whether you cut a check or not because there are so many 3- to 3 1/2-pound fish in the lake. You have to find those fish that are just a little bit bigger and sometimes that is hard to do.”
Travis said he has had a really good year fishing the Open Series this year and his relationship with Frog Tape, hie primary sponsor, had also been very good.
“It’s still selling like crazy,. I am in the middle of a major remodel at my house and I am really putting it to work,” he said. “Frog Tape also did a fishing trip promotion with ACE Hardware and I took those guys who won out last week at Lake Norman. We had a blast and caught a bunch of fish – and John Byrne videotaped it for AnglersChannel.com.”
FLW Tour Open
Sept. 15-18, 2011
Lake Champlain
Plattsburgh Boat Basin
