Elite series Lake Champlain

[F14A-B]

Yep it’s all the time, always during weigh in.. need to fire some folks. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Wow, that was awesome, way to go Ed!!!!   Dreams do come true!  

[F14A-B]

Yay! The old dude wins 😂🤣😂

[Team9nine]

38 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Wow, that was awesome, way to go Ed!!!!   Dreams do come true!  

 

37 minutes ago, alonerankin2 said:

Yay! The old dude wins 😂🤣😂

 

Stopped a blue trophy from going to a Johnston bro - I'm good with it 

[F14A-B]

5 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

 

Stopped a blue trophy from going to a Johnston bro - I'm good with it 

You ain’t kidding 🤣😂🤣

[TnRiver46]

44 minutes ago, alonerankin2 said:

Yay! The old dude wins 😂🤣😂

Second 54 yr old to win this year

 

i thought “kids” dominated the tourney trails with their vidya games ??! 😂 

[F14A-B]

1 minute ago, TnRiver46 said:

Second 54 yr old to win this year

 

i thought “kids” dominated the tourney trails with their vidya games ??! 😂 

Well they have pretty much all year, this tournament wasn’t so different, Johnston, Gee, pretty much the entirety the top ten. But hats off to Ed, he was close on Harris? Then coming off a two tournament miss because of kidney stones. Pretty amazing, top 3 separated by 1 oz each place. That’s pretty crazy. 
 

So whose AOY leader today? Johnston? Hamner?

[TnRiver46]

30 minutes ago, alonerankin2 said:

Well they have pretty much all year, this tournament wasn’t so different, Johnston, Gee, pretty much the entirety the top ten. But hats off to Ed, he was close on Harris? Then coming off a two tournament miss because of kidney stones. Pretty amazing, top 3 separated by 1 oz each place. That’s pretty crazy. 
 

So whose AOY leader today? Johnston? Hamner?

Not really, they only have 9 tournaments and 54 yr olds have won 2 haha. Then you’ve got Cory Johnston Patrick walters and taku. The youngest winner would be McKinney, not sure how old John garret is but he’s definitely young. Kyoya is probably around 25. Seems to be 5-3 with veterans having the advantage 

[F14A-B]

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Not really, they only have 9 tournaments and 54 yr olds have won 2 haha. Then you’ve got Cory Johnston Patrick walters and taku. The youngest winner would be McKinney, not sure how old John garret is. Kyoya is probably around 25. Seems to be 4-3 with veterans having the slight advantage 

Right. I mean to say that FFS has still been pretty dominant thruout the season and it certainly will be on the St. Lawrence. I’m still in the OG era but man, having FFS would have been pretty awesome when I had my big boat. Watching Scott Martin find those bedding bass on his home lake. That made me a believer in it. You can’t see the submerged and dying hydrilla thru tannic water nor the beds, I know I lived there for several years. But it’s just the now, (FFS) and the future. It’s change & it always happens. 

[TnRiver46]

Ah, gotcha . I’d say bout half n half so far on the FFS. Didn’t play much at wheeler and everyone said of St. John’s “back to old school fishing” Smith and Toledo were heavy on the FFS, fork had some of both. Champlain had lots of froggin and jiggin, didn’t watch a lot of Harris chain 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

In terms of winning techniques this year:

 

Toledo Bend:  Scoping a minnow

Lake Fork:  Scoping a minnow and jerkbait

Classic at Grand Lake:  Scoping a jerkbait and jig

Harris Chain:  Mega360 and crankbait/hair jig

St. Johns:  90% sight fishing 10% flipping grass 

Lake Murray:  Scoping a fluke 

Lake Wheeler:  GPS/Mapping and a Jackhammer 

Smith Lake:  Scoping a Neko Rig and Dropshot 

Lake Champlain:  Scoping a jig 

 

3/9 winning techniques this year could have been done without the aid of FFS.  

 

 

[TnRiver46]

Excellent breakdown by Alex, we know he watched them all 

[TnRiver46]

Wait a minute, wasn’t taku scoping a crab or was it fuzzy dice?? 😂 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

16 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Wait a minute, wasn’t taku scoping a crab or was it fuzzy dice?? 😂 

Yeah he was scoping a Neko Rigged Nories Flip Ko Gill 3.6" Creature Bait | Tackle Warehouse

 

Then drop shotting a fuzzy dice OSP Saikoro Dice Rubber Max Salt Soft Bait | Tackle Warehouse (I believe he was using a size larger than the ones available in the US though)

 

And lastly he weighed in a fish or two on a spy bait Nories Wrapping Minnow Spy Bait | Tackle Warehouse

 

The last month I've been fishing "hairy" baits and that Nories Flip Ko Gill based on his win, major inspiration.    I never would have fished the Jackall Drift Fry without seeing Fujita win on it last year at Champlain.    

 

ETA:  I call this my Taku bait 😁

 

 

[gim]

2 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

3/9 winning techniques this year could have been done without the aid of FFS.  

Good breakdown and summary.

 

One event left and I’ll go out on a limb and say it will be scoping offshore structure with a vertical finesse presentation.

 

So in todays highest level of bass fishing, it is still at least possible to win a single event without scoping all the time depending on location and time of year.

 

In order to be competitive during the entire season though, it’s not possible without scoping.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by some of the tactics on Champlain. Especially Feider’s monster day 1 bag in the slop.

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Yeah that sounds about right, you can win a single event without a scope, but you're not going to be AOY winner without one.  To that point, if you're not Jon Cox you're not going to have a HOF career going forward without A+ level scoping abilities.  

 

Agreed on Feider......best catch of the week was his 5lber on the frog at the end of first day for me.  

[F14A-B]

38 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Yeah that sounds about right, you can win a single event without a scope, but you're not going to be AOY winner without one.  To that point, if you're not Jon Cox you're not going to have a HOF career going forward without A+ level scoping abilities.  

 

Agreed on Feider......best catch of the week was his 5lber on the frog at the end of first day for me.  

Who’s leading AOY?

[Dan N]

I’m a fan of Cox, but he’s never won an elite event. Not sure he has a HOF career. Great to see him do good

[AlabamaSpothunter]

It's still Hamner's to lose

 

[F14A-B]

6 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

It's still Hamner's to lose

 

Wow, Trey blew it.. I guess he’s learned a hard lesson. Appreciate it, you posting this. 

[Dan N]

I very much respect guys winning an Open, but to me, it’s not winning an Elite tournament. I mean no disrespect. 

[gim]

There is a longer video posted of Logan's incident on youtube now.  I attached a link below.  Also, at the end on the phone did he say "my motor broke off" ?

 

 

[F14A-B]

50 minutes ago, gimruis said:

There is a longer video posted of Logan's incident on youtube now.  I attached a link below.  Also, at the end on the phone did he say "my motor broke off" ?

 

 

Yes, that is what he said. Something is up here, either the motors are overpowered or the boat can’t handle the power/torque. I don’t know what’s up 

[GReb]

10 minutes ago, alonerankin2 said:

Yes, that is what he said. Something is up here, either the motors are overpowered or the boat can’t handle the power/torque. I don’t know what’s up 

I don’t see anything alarming from the video. It’s scary but he didn’t do anything wrong. Just a freak deal to run over a floating object in the middle of a lake like Champlain. You can see the hull rise over it. 

[gim]

He said he hit a floating dock too.  Kind of odd, there's no visible impact from hitting anything, or noise.  Maybe he's just saying that to cover up his questionable boat driving?  To me it just looks like he's going too fast for the conditions.  I mean they did post pone a day because of rough water.

 

At least he was wearing his PFD and kill switch.