PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — It’s a tale of two anglers. Bryant Smith said he was more uncomfortable than he’d ever felt, and Bryan Schmitt was “feeling pretty good” before the start of the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain.
After Day 2, Smith is in third place, only 1 pound, 2 ounces behind leader Kyoya Fujita, and Schmitt is in 19th place, 5-13 behind Fujita.
For Schmitt it’s especially puzzling. Lake Champlain is his favorite lake, and he’s won here twice, including the 2021 Elite Series event. During the three-day practice period before the tournament, Schmitt was convinced largemouth bass would be a factor in a winning plan. He has changed his mind.
“It’s going to be won on all smallmouth,” Schmitt said. “I bet you a million dollars.”
If Schmitt can relocate the largemouth bass he found in practice, he could make up some ground. However, he’d not encouraged by what he’s seen the last two days.
“I tried to run some largemouth today,” Schmitt said. “I caught one big one and the rest were not big. I weighed in four largemouth and one smallmouth. We’re going to hunker down on smallmouth (Sunday) and try to hit as big a bag as we can, then we’re going to hit two largemouth spots. There’s a chance to catch a couple of big, big largemouth if everything goes right – five-something, maybe a six.
“If (Sunday) goes right, I’ll have something to say. But something changed with my largemouth, and I don’t know what. Some of them have left, and some smallmouth have actually showed up, and they’re not big. If I could re-connect with those largemouth, I’d be alright. But I don’t know where they went.”
Smith was asked if he was starting to feel more comfortable at Lake Champlain after bagging 22-1 on Day 1 and 22-0 on Day 2.
“No,” he laughed initially, before explaining, “I know what I’m doing now, so that’s good. I’ve got confidence in it. I know what to look for. The whole thing is just running into the right groups of fish. It got a lot tougher today. They were definitely smarter today. On top of that, the biggest group I found yesterday, they were gone. I think the wind blew the bait away, so the fish left too.”
That’s the thing you hear from every angler in this tournament – the nomadic nature of smallmouth bass makes nothing certain from one day to the next. Find the schools of baitfish, and you’ll find the smallmouth bass.
“I’m just going to keep the trolling motor on high and try to find them again,” Smith said. “You need the bait. That’s the most important thing. You just have to have the baitfish there because they’re not relating to the actual spot.”
Every angler polled was looking forward to a Sunday weather forecast of bright sun and light wind after an overcast, occasionally rainy Saturday.
“I’m excited about that,” Smith said. “I think a lot of them were on the bottom today, relating more to the bottom. I think the sun actually gets the baitfish up too. Smallmouth like the sun. You’ve just got to get them to see (your lure), and they’ll do the rest. The sun will definitely help that.”
It might also help Schmitt find those elusive largemouth he was counting on.
