Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
This place is incredible. I left Arkansas mid-morning on Thursday. After a couple of stops for a nap, I came through Syracuse around lunchtime on Friday. Here’s the funny part: I was so amped up about this trip I stopped a couple of hours short of Massena to fish Lake Ontario outside of the tournament boundaries. My first ever New York fish was a smallmouth weighing 3.54. Pretty decent start! I caught a few more and rolled on into Massena that night. The next day, Dad and I fished below the dam at Massena—also outside of tournament boundaries. The action was a little slower, but fun nonetheless.
After a couple of “play” days to get acclimated, it was time to start practice. As you know, I have to write this before practice is over. Here’s what I have learned so far.
This place is full of 3- to 3 1/2-pound fish. There is an enormous amount of current, and the playing field is huge!
I believe it’s roughly 90 miles from take-off to the mouth of the lake. Then we can go quite a long way into the lake before we reach our cutoff line. I believe you will see more people make an abnormally long run this week than we have seen in NPFL history. There will be fish caught throughout this system, but I believe the winning fish will come from someone making the gamble and going to the lake.
I also believe we will see the highest check cut we have ever experienced in NPFL history. I’m not sure what the current record is but I’d guess around 15 pounds a day. They will blow that away this week. I expect an average of 19 a day to get paid and a ridiculously high amount to win. It’s possible that Jason Christie’s NPFL all time weight record of 82-12 is in danger. That’s mind blowing considering we are talking about smallmouth this week.
As always, check in later in the week and watch it go down. Maybe we can be in the top five and get a live camera in the boat on Thursday or Friday!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
