PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 1, 2015) – Glenn Browne of Ocala, Florida, weighed a five-bass limit totaling 18 pounds, 7 ounces Saturday to win the Rayovac FLW Series Northern Division tournament on the Lake Champlain with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 63 pounds, 8 ounces. For his victory, Browne earned $34,097 and a new Ranger Z518C with a 200-horsepower Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor.
“It feels really good and very vindicating to get the win this week,” said Browne, who pushed his career earnings to more than $900,000 in FLW competition. “My ultimate goal this season was to re-qualify for the FLW Tour and this will certainly help that cause.”
Browne earned the win by making the long run south to the Ticonderoga area each day, concentrating on covering a lot of water while fishing the bank.
“Running and gunning was the key for me this week,” Browne said. “The water levels are pretty high right now, so I figured it had moved the fish up shallow. I was mostly fishing the bank – mats, reeds, trees – any cover that I could find near the bank.”
Browne said that he caught more than 20 fish each day on the first two days of competition, but only seven on the third and final day.
“I was about 15 to 20 miles into the run to Ti this morning when I hit a wave and my boat lost all power,” Browne said. “I was in trouble. Luckily, I’ve been rooming with Dave Lefebre all week. I called Tournament Director Ron Lappin to confirm that I could borrow Dave’s boat to finish out my day. Once Ron said yes, Dave jumped in his boat and came to me and we swapped boats. Dave stayed with my boat while I ran his boat back to the takeoff and re-went through boat check. Then I made the run back down to Ti. It all happened so quickly – despite the troubles I was still fishing by 8:30 a.m. I can’t thank everybody enough for their help.”
Browne said that the majority of his fish throughout the week came by flipping a black and blue jig with a black and blue Zoom Salty Chunk, but he did catch a 5-pounder the first day on a frog. The top 10 pros on the Lake Champlain were:
1st: Glenn Browne, Ocala, Fla., 15 bass, 63-8, $34,097 + Ranger Z518C with 200-horsepower outboard
2nd: Otis Darnell, Linden, Va., 15 bass, 53-12, $13,213
3rd: Joe Lucarelli, Center Harbor, N.H., 15 bass, 52-11, $10,229
4th: David Cioppa, Hopkinton, Mass., 15 bass, 52-10, $8,524
5th: Brock Mosley, Collinsville, Miss., 15 bass, 52-7, $7,672
6th: Gerald Spohrer, Gonzales, La., 15 bass, 52-1, $6,819
7th: Derick Olson, Honey Brook, Pa., 15 bass, 51-2, $5,967
8th: Ryan Smith, Galloway, N.J., 15 bass, 50-15, $5,115
9th: Keystone Light pro Chad Grigsby, Maple Grove, Minn., 15 bass, 49-15, $4,262
10th: Daniel Murphy, Wharton, N.J., 15 bass, 47-15, $3,410
Murphy caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the pro division Friday – a fish weighing 6 pounds, 4 ounces – that earned him the day’s Big Bass award of $232. Scott Shafer of Glenville, New York, won the co-angler division and a Ranger Z117C with an Evinrude or Mercury outboard motor, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50 pounds even. The top 10 co-anglers on Lake Champlain were:
1st: Scott Shafer, Glenville, N.Y., 10 bass, 50-0, Ranger Z117C with 90-horsepower outboard
2nd: Alec Morrison, Peru, N.Y., 10 bass, 48-13, $4,296
3rd: Joe Poms, Paramus, N.J., 10 bass, 46-14, $3,437
4th: Bryan New, Belmont, N.C., 10 bass, 46-8, $3,007
5th: Jeff Zeisner, Arva, Ontario, Canada, 10 bass, 41-13, $2,578
6th: John Watts, Flushing, Mich., 10 bass, 39-11, $2,148
7th: Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, 14 bass, 38-9, $1,719
8th: David Martinez, Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, 13 bass, 34-9, $1,504
9th: Shawn O’Malley, Oswego, Ill., 10 bass, 32-11, $1,289
10th: Michael Sweeney, Plymouth, Mass., 10 bass, 31-1, $1,074
The Rayovac FLW Series consists of five divisions – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western. Each division consists of three tournaments and competitors will be vying for valuable points in each division that could earn them the opportunity to fish in the no-entry-fee Rayovac FLW Series Championship. The 2015 Rayovac FLW Series Championship is being held Oct. 29-31 on the Ohio River in Paducah, Kentucky.