Tournament Recap #2 July 15-17

My second tournament of the year took me to an FLW event on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh New York. I was invited to this event by a friend and fellow tournament angler Charles Sim. This was my first real big event I had ever fished and I spent alot of time prepping for the event by reading about previous tournies and going over maps for weeks before. I spent one day pre-fishing by myself while waiting for Charles to arrive and I got onto to decent fish mid way through the day. Even though I was fishing the event as a co-angler I felt I needed to have a good grasp of how the fish were relating to structure and what baits and techniques were effective. I met up with Charles on the Sunday night before the event and we got a game plan together for the rest of the week. We spent Monday to Wednesday fishing various areas of the lake mostly in the north and central sections and had some decent fish everyday caught mostly on Jerkbaits, Senkos, and Tubes. I felt good about what I had learned about the lake and had a ton of confidence heading into the first day of the event. On day one I was paired with a great angler by the name of Mike Wolfenden from Warwick Rhode Island. The day was flat calm and very hot with temps in the 80's at the 6am blastoff. Mike ran north from Plattsburgh to an area I had pre-fished with Charles earlier in the week so I felt good about knowing the area. I managed two good fish in the first hour with one of them being over 4lbs. We ran to another area at about 8 am. and I managed to finish my limit of quality fish quickly and I knew I had a good bag. I had slightly over 16 lbs. but Mike only had 2 small keepers so he decided to run approx. 40 miles to an area he had alot of confidence in. From that point on I only managed to upgrade one fish but I knew I would be in good shape come weigh-in. Mike in the mean time put on a clinic using a dropshotted 4 inch senko and he upgraded to a good bag of around 18lbs. We went  to the weigh-in for 2:30 and the FLW puts on one the best run weigh-ins I have ever seen. They put 276 anglers through in just over 2 hours and I ended the day with 16lbs 3 ozs. good enough for 10th place on the co-angler side after day one. All my fish came on 2 baits that day one being a custom poured Bassmagnet Lures tube and the other being a black with blue flake senko. They were fished on Shimano Crucial rods matched with Shimano Symetre reels spooled with 20lb Spectrex braid and a 10 lb P-Line floro leader.  Mike ended with 18 lbs 9ozs to put him in 18th place on the Angler side and Charles had a tough day but still managed 15lbs 6ozs. Day 2 saw the weather change for the worse with high winds, clouds and thunderstorms most of the day. I was paired with Angler Dan Welch from West Virginia and he was in 26th after day one but was on good fish in the north end of the lake. At blast-off the wind was howling and the lake had 5 foot rollers at 6am and Dan decided not to run north for safety reasons. We took shelter behind an island and I managed 2 small keepers on a Lucky Craft jerkbait but hadn't been able to get anything going before noon. Then Dan moved to an area not far from the launch and caught 2 quick fish on a topwater so I tied on a Pop'N'Image to see if I could get a few. That is when my whole day turned around. In 3 casts I caught 3 smallmouth that weighed over 10 lbs between them and I knew then I had a decent limit. Then as fast as that bite started it died. Dan nor myself could manage anymore on the topwater so I started deadsticking a Senko and managed to upgrade one of my small keepers from earlier. I didn't weigh any of my fish that day so I wasn't sure what I had but I knew I was in pretty good shape. We headed to the weigh-in for 2:30 and I was really excited. I took my fish on stage and the announcer did a little interview with me before weighing my fish which made me anxious and nervous at the same time. When they hit the weigh-in button it read 15 lbs even to put me in 4th place and in line to make the top 10 cut for day 3. All my baits were used with Braided P-line Spectrex line with a P-Line floro leader just like the previous day. I fished them on my Crucial rods with a Symetre and a Stradic MG reel.  At the end of the day 2 weigh-in I had to wait until the very end to find out if I made the cut and I was ecstatic when they called me up in 4th place for the tourney.My day 2 partner Dan only weighed 8 lbs which knocked him way down the standings but even after that he was nice enough to go pick up my truck and bring it back to the weigh-in area because I had to stay for a meeting to discuss the next day's procedures and to get all my FLW sponsor clothing which you have to wear on the final day. Dan was a great partner for the day and a great person that I hope to have the chance to fish with again. I found out I would be paired with Professional Angler Dave Wolak for day 3. Charles had already packed up and was on his way home after finishing 49th so I had to try and find a hotel because we had already checked out not really thinking either of us was going to make the cut. I find a room back at the hotel we spent all week at and I started prepping gear.Dave mentioned we were going to fish smallies for a while and then largies for the rest of the day. I rigged up 6 rods and tried to get some sleep but I was too wound up. After about 3 hours sleep I was on my way to the Day 3 blast-off for our 5:30 am start time. It was still blowing but Dave was running a Ranger Z521 with a new Yamaha 250hp SHO that made the 4 foot rollers seem like ripples and we got to our first spot in no time. We stopped to fish smallmouth but the current wasn't moving the right way and they just weren't there. We moved a short distance to fish largemouth and that's when Dave started putting on the clinic.We were fishing a weed flat in 8-10 fow that was a mix of milfoil and hydrilla. I'm not real comfortable fishing that kind of cover but I tried my hardest and managed a OK limit but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. Dave caught a pile of fish and had a good limit but he wasn't confident he had enough to win. We headed in for the weigh-in and we were greeted by a huge crowd that had me pretty nervous to get up in front of. They weighed us in by Day 2 order of finish from 10th to first so that meant I was 6th to weigh. I got up when it was my turn and I was told I needed 13 and change to take over 1st but I knew I didn't have it. I weighed 10lbs 10 ozs. which kept me in 4th place overall. I was given about a 2 minute interview on stage that allowed me to talk about my tournament, my sponsors and say hello to anyone at home who may have been watching on-line. I found out once I got home that my parents, sister, girlfriend and her parents were all watching it live and said I did pretty good at my first interview. Dave weighed 15+lbs but he couldn't manage to move up either and finished 4th also. It was an amazing experience to fish with someone who does it for a living. There is not one single wasted minute in there day and one thing that surprised me was how simple they keep there tackle and lure selection. Once they are confident in something they really believe they can catch fish with it no matter when or where they are fishing. I learned more in 8 hours fishing with Dave than I had learned in the last 5 years of tournament fishing and it will help me in the future. I then had a 6 hour drive home to recap my tournament and my experience and I realized I did as good as I could. I didn't lose any fish that cost me anything, I fished with some of the best anglers in the United States and held my own and I made some great new friends along the way. I was2 lbs away from winning $10000 but I knew I had done the best I could. I can't say enough about how supportive Charles was through the whole pre-fish and tournament and it was a joy to get to spend a week fishing with one of the best fisherman in Canada. If anyone has a chance to fish an FLW event as a co-angler jump at it. They put on an amazing show that is very well run and they take care of all the anglers like they are family. I am looking forward to doing some more events in the future and hopefully Charles will still share a room and a pre-fish with me as long as I promise to stay away from the chinese buffet. That's a story I'll save for another day!!!!