PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Sept. 17, 2011) – David Wolak of Wake Forest, N.C., caught a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 13 ounces Saturday to capture the lead at the FLW Tour bass fishing tournament on Lake Champlain. With a three-day catch of 15 bass weighing 61-9, he now holds a 2-pound, 8-ounce lead in the tournament going into the final day of competition.
“I am fishing my favorite style, I’m good at it and I enjoy doing it,” said Wolak who is known as the mixologist. “I love fishing tournaments where you can catch both large-and smallmouth bass. I grew up doing this and really have a knack for it
“Glenn (Browne) was right when he said the first thing you need to fish on Champlain is Band Aids. Look at my hands they are all tore up. But that is what Lake Champlain is all about, putting in a lot of hard work and capitalizing on the good bites.
“I am going for broke tomorrow. I laid off some of my fish today but tomorrow I am going to fish real hard and see what happens. I have fished in a lot of great tournaments on Champlain and I am really looking forward to getting out there tomorrow.”
Wolak has four of his nine FLW Outdoors top-10 finishes on Lake Champlain, but has yet to win here. He indicated that he will be fishing for smallmouth for about the first two hours to try and get a steady pace going and then switch over to look for largemouth. Wolak indicated that the largemouths are way to iffy and very volatile on Lake Champlain for him to feel comfortable targeting first.
Today Wolak was drop-shotting Jackall Super Cross Tailshad for his smallmouth and was using Jackall Sasuteki Craw to catch his largemouth.
Weather conditions for the anglers tomorrow are predicted to be the same as they were today, sunny with highs in the low to mid 60s.
Gary Yamamoto of Palestine, Texas, advanced to the final round of 10 pros in the No. 2 spot with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 59-1.
Yamamoto continued his assault on Lake Champlain using Senkos in shallow water.
Rounding out the top 10 pros and advancing to the final day of competition are:
3rd: Daryl Biron, South Windsor, Conn., 15 bass, 59-1
4th: Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., 15 bass, 56-4
5th: Scott Canterbury, Springville, Ala., 15 bass, 55-8
6th: J Todd Tucker, Moultrie, Ga., 15 bass, 52-11
7th: Kyle Mabrey, McCalla, Ala., 15 bass, 52-11
8th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 15 bass, 52-6
9th: Brian Bylotas, Olyphant, Pa., 15 bass, 52-5
10th: Bryan Schmitt, Deale, Md., 15 bass, 52-2
Finishing in 11th through 20th are:
11th: Joe Lucarelli, Center Harbor, N.H., 15 bass, 50-8, $11,079
12th: Thanh Le, Lake Havasu City, Ariz., 15 bass, 49-14, $11,079
13th: Michael Iaconelli, Pittsgrove, N.J., 15 bass, 49-13, $11,079
14th: Dion Hibdon, Sunrise Beach, Mo., 15 bass, 49-9, $11,079
15th: Shinichi Fukae, Palestine, Texas, 15 bass, 48-14, $11,079
16th: Jim Moynagh, Carver, Minn., 15 bass, 48-9, $11, 129
17th: Jason Cordiale, Orinda, Calif., 15 bass, 48-6, $10,629
18th: Greg Hackney, Gonzales, La., 15 bass, 46-12, $10,629
19th: Dave Lefebre, Union City, Pa., 15 bass, 46-4, $10,629
20th: Steve Kennedy, Auburn, Ala., 15 bass, 42-7, $10,629
Overall there were 100 bass weighing 317 pounds, 10 ounces caught by 20 pros Saturday. The catch included 20 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing for a top award of up to $125,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup. The top five anglers in the point standings from the four FLW Tour Open tournaments will qualify.
Casey Martin of Huntsville, Ala., won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 Saturday with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 49 pounds, 9 ounces followed by Christopher Hall of Clarks Summit, Pa., in second place with 15 bass weighing 45-11 worth $6,715.
“This is an amazing feeling,” said first time champion Martin. “I have come so close to winning so many times but could never seal the deal until today. I just spent the last three days fishing with the best anglers in the world. There is no better way to learn the sport of bass fishing than to go out as a co-angler and fish with the best.
“I fished with Jason Christie yesterday and learned so much about flipping in the grass,” Martin went on to say. “Today I was with Gary Yamamoto, that guy was like a vacuum, but what a great experience.
“Trying to fish behind Gary was a bit challenging. I was throwing a Zoom Speed Craw in about five feet of water and was fortunate enough to catch five pretty decent fish. It was really tough today. I didn’t have a lot of bites. I started out catching a small limit pretty quickly but then the bite died and I didn’t catch anything for hours. Finally in the late afternoon I was able to cull three fish, I was very fortunate.”
Martin, who was laid off about a year ago from his engineering job, took the year off and spent it touring with FLW pro Craig Dowling. He has a job interview scheduled for next Tue., but said after todays win that he just wanted to keep on fishing instead. Martin fished with Nick Gainey on day 1, Jason Christie on day 2 and Gary Yamamoto today.
Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are:
3rd: Greg Scott, Dearborn, Mich., 15 bass, 42-14, $4,465
4th: Richard Schumacher, Newton, Conn., 15 bass, 38-7, $3,565
5th: Frank Divis Sr., Fayetteville, Ark. 15 bass, 37-6, $2,665
6th: Philip Jarabeck, Lynchburg, Va., 15 bass, 37-4, $2,215
7th: Mark Banks, East Aurora, N.Y., 13 bass, 36-3, 1,765
8th Jeff Gengler, Fort Collins, Colo., 15 bass, 35-9, $1,585
9th: Carl Hunter, Snellville, Ga., 12 bass, 35-0, $1,495
10th: William Wood, West Palm Beach, Fla., 15 bass, 35-0, $1,405
Overall there were 74 bass weighing 163 pounds caught by 20 co-anglers Saturday. The catch included 9 five-bass limits.
Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $25,000 this week plus valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup. The top five co-anglers in the point standings from the four FLW Tour Open tournaments will qualify.
The top 10 pros will take off at 6:30 Sunday morning from Street Landing located at 5 Dock Street in Plattsburgh. Sunday’s final weigh-in will be held at Walmart located at 25 Consumer Square in Plattsburgh beginning at 4 p.m.