Lake Champlain showed out for the SPRO Bassmaster Elite Series, and it forced the field to play a completely different game than we’ve seen lately.
In the past few years, Lake Champlain has been all about scoping for schooled up smallies offshore. But with forward-facing sonar left off the boat for this leg of the season (a coin flip determined which events would be allowed to use FFS at the beginning of the season), the top pros had to put the screens away and get back to their roots. Anglers still had to choose between green and brown bass… either pitching into thick, shallow vegetation for largemouth or dragging finesse gear across offshore structure for smallmouth, but for the final 10, it was TIGHT.
On the final day, I think something like 8 of the final 10 anglers had an estimated 77 pounds and change with less than an hour until weigh-in. We virtually had no idea who was going to win, which isn’t always the case. There were also AOY implications, Rookie of the Year implications… it was a total dogfight on one of America’s best bass fisheries, and we saw a number of northern anglers put on a clinic.
Here is a complete breakdown of the exact setups and baits the top 10 finishers used to conquer Lake Champlain.
This post contains links through the Tackle Warehouse Affiliate Program. While all products are independently selected by our expert Riff Outdoors team, if you use these links to make a purchase, we may earn a commission.
10. Carl Jocumsen: 72-14
Top Lures: Rapala CrushCity Knuckle Bug.
The Strategy: Jocumsen ran all the way down to Ticonderoga and kept a flipping stick in his hands for most of the event. He focused his efforts around prominent weedlines and isolated patches of heavy grass to pull out quality fish. He rigged the new Crush City Knuckle Bug on a VMC Heavy Duty Worm Hook paired with a 3/4-ounce VMC Tungsten Weight.
Shop the Crush City Knuckle Bug at Tackle Warehouse – $6.99
9. Lee Livesay: 74-1
Top Lures: 6th Sense Dogma walking bait, 6th Sense Bodega Craw, and 6th Sense Flush.
The Strategy: Livesay brought a three-pronged approach to cover every level of the water column, relying heavily on a topwater walker that actually helped him secure a Top 10 finish on this exact same lake back in 2021. He also flipped a 6th Sense Bodega Craw, and utilized a soft jerk bait on a weightless wide gap hook.
Shop the 6th Sense Bodega at Tackle Warehouse – $6.99
8. Beau Browning: 77-1
Top Lures: 1/2-ounce Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO, a Z-Man prototype craw, and a Z-Man Fuzzy NuggetZ.
The Strategy: To successfully pick apart the varied depths and bottom contours of Champlain’s grass beds, Browning utilized a versatile mix of moving, dragging, and finesse presentations. He covered water with a Chatterbait, dragged an unreleased Z-Man craw on a Carolina rig, and then used a Z-Man Fuzzy NuggetZ dice bait for more finesse presentations.
Shop the Z-Man ChatterBait Elite EVO at Tackle Warehouse – $9.99
7. Cory Johnston: 77-12
Top Lures: 6th Sense Party Minnow and 6th Sense Abstract.
The Strategy: The Canadian locked a couple of finesse setups in his hands, bouncing back and forth between a tiny swimbait profile and an urchin-style bait. He rigged the Party Minnow on a No. 2 BKK prototype hook with a 1/4-ounce drop-shot weight, and paired the Abstract urchin with an 1/8-ounce drop-shot weight.
Shop the 6th Sense Abstract at Tackle Warehouse – $14.99
6. Brandon Lester: 78-2
Top Lures: 6.5-inch LIVETARGET Finesse Worm and a 19mm urchin bait.
The Strategy: Lester also relied on an urchin-style bait, pairing it with a traditional finesse worm setup to secure his top-10 spot on the leaderboard. He rigged the LIVETARGET worm on a 4/0 Mustad Grip-Pin Edge Soft Plastics Hook with a 3/16-ounce weight.
Shop the LIVETARGET Finesse Worm at Tackle Warehouse – $3.00
5. Drew Cook: 79-0
Top Lures: SPRO Wacky Snack and SPRO Little John MD 50 crankbait.
The Strategy: Cook continued his hot streak with a wacky rig, while mixing in a shallow-running crankbait to quickly cover water. The Wacky Snack was fished weightless on a No. 2 Gamakatsu B10S Stinger Hook.
Shop the SPRO Wacky Snack at Tackle Warehouse – $7.49
4. Caleb Sumrall: 79-1
Top Lures: 1/2-ounce Missile Baits Ike’s Mini Flip and 3/4-ounce SPRO CJ Flip.
The Strategy: Sumrall found the juice around a railroad bridge and camped out there all week. He flipped a 1/2 ounce Missile Baits Ike’s Mini Flip as well as a 3/4 ounce SPRO CJ Flip, both with a Missile Baits D Bomb trailer.
Shop the Missile Baits Ike’s Mini Flip at Tackle Warehouse – $6.19
3. Seth Feider: 79-12
Top Lures: Z-Man Big TRD.
The Strategy: While he weighed a mixed bag of largemouth and smallmouth earlier in the event, Feider went all-in on the brown bass for Championship Sunday. He did his final-day damage by pitching a flip shot rig straight into the deep grass, rigging the Big TRD on a 1/0 VMC NK Finesse Neko Hook with a 3/8-ounce WOO! Tungsten Drop Shot Weight.
Shop the Z-Man Big TRD at Tackle Warehouse – $5.49
2. Chris Johnston: 80-7
Top Lures: Hideup Coike Fullcast and a 4-inch stick worm.
The Strategy: Johnston played the classic Champlain game perfectly, utilizing a strategy that many others did… he just did it better. The plan was to secure a solid limit of deep smallmouth early before hunting the shallows for big largemouth to upgrade his overall bag. For the kickers, he pitched the Coike Fullcast on a frog hook with an 1/8-ounce weight. He finessed the smallies with a 4-inch stick worm fished both as a weightless wacky rig and a drop-shot.
Shop the Hideup Coike Fullcast at Tackle Warehouse – $20.49
1. Bryan Schmitt: 81-7
Top Lures: SPRO Bronzeye Poppin’ Frog, SPRO RkCRAWLER 55, and Missile Baits Magic Worm.
The Strategy: Schmitt put on an absolute clinic to take home the blue trophy. He methodically climbed the standings every single day (weighing 19-11, 19-7, a massive 23-8, and finally 18-13) by targeting isolated rocky hard spots surrounded by grass. To trigger those bites, he threw a topwater frog, a crankbait, and the Missile Baits Magic Worm on a drop-shot with a 3/0 hook and 1/4 ounce weight.
Shop the Missile Baits Magic Worm at Tackle Warehouse – $10.99
