Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Stop 5 at the St Lawrence River is over. If I could describe the week in one word it would be “Eww.” Not because it was a bad fishery. In fact, it is one of the top fisheries in the country. The weights are proof of that. The reason I label this event as such is solely based on my performance and the events surrounding my tournament.
Before I start, let me be clear. Nearly all the events that happened throughout the week were self-inflicted. I take the blame for those. No one gets the blame on unexplained equipment failure or random bad luck. If all those things never happened, I still wasn’t catching the caliber fish needed to have a good event.
I had a long day on Day 1 and was excited to see what was in store. In practice, I had a decent day on the upper third of our playing field from Massena to Ogdensburg. I opted to spend Day 1 in that stretch. Early on I caught two keepers that totaled 4 pounds. I threw them back. Smallmouth can be finicky in the livewell, and I didn’t want to risk them dying and not be able to cull them later. I knew it would take a 4-pound average just to get a check, and I thought I would catch a ton of keepers.
It was a terrible decision on my part. I caught a pair of 5 1/4-pound fish—my biggest smallmouth ever—and a 13-inch fish to weigh in three for just shy of 12 pounds. It was embarrassing.
On Day 2, I made the decision I was going to Lake Ontario … where the tournament would almost certainly be won. I had spent two practice days out there with very little success. It was an extremely long run, but I knew that was my best chance of salvaging points. Unfortunately, about 30 miles into the trip I hit a wave and somehow shorted out a battery. I was dead in the water.
I want to give a huge thank you to Jerry from Bass Cat for coming to my rescue and getting me going again. However, the situation cost me about two hours, and I knew there was no way to make the run to the lake with a 3:00 p.m. check-in time back in Massena. I fished my way back towards the ramp catching a small limit only to be penalized two pounds for arriving two minutes late to check in. With the freighter ship waves and recreational traffic, I just didn’t give myself enough time. It was another embarrassing situation!
Day 3 was another early check-in, but I made the long run anyway. It was 202 miles round trip. When I finally got to the lake and caught my first keeper, it summed up my whole week. I unhooked the fish, and it shook out of my hand, bounced across the carpet and fell back into the lake. It was just not my week! I only managed two fish and one of those fish died, unfortunately, and I was penalized for that.
As they say, sometimes you’re the window and sometimes you’re the bug. I was definitely the bug this time. Despite multiple boneheaded mistakes and everything else that happened one thing was obvious. I never figured it out. I was never around enough of the right fish. That cost me dearly. I fell from 52nd to 70th in the points, successfully ending any chance to qualify for the championship through points. My only hope now is to utilize the “win and you’re in” rule stating that if you win an event you qualify for the Championship regardless of AOY points.
There’s one opportunity left to capitalize on that at Logan Martin Lake in Alabama in September. I’ll be making the trip to do some pre-fish scouting ahead of time. Hopefully that will be my tournament.
Dad and I did go back to the lake on Saturday after the tournament and each caught our personal best smallmouth as part of a bag that weighed 21.21. Though it accomplished nothing, it made me feel a little better. These northern smallmouths are unlike anything I’ve ever chased. There’s still a huge learning curve I need to work on before next year.
Thanks for listening to my woes. Until next week, go catch a fish!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
