Syracuse.com - Salt City Bassmasters mix it up on Chaumont Bay

[HuntingNY-News]

Some impressive smallmouth bass were landed.

Submitted photoBrandon Schwoeppe holds up some impressive smallmouth bass. He won the boater division.

The following is a press release from the Salt City Bassmasters fishing club:

On Sept. 6, a total of 32 SCBM members competed in a tournament on Chaumont Bay. The 16 boat field blasted at 7 a.m. from the town ramp and returned at 3 p.m. for the weigh in. The tournament was sponsored by Brian Eisch of Advocare.

Boater Division:

Brandon Schwoeppe finished in first place weighing in 20.40 lbs. Schwoeppe areas of rock and weed mixed in 5 feet of water. He caught them on 5- inch wacky Senkos (watermelon w/gold flake), melon pepper colored tender tubes, and lucky craft RC 1.5 crankbaits (copper green color). Most of his fish came in the last 4 hours of the tournament day. All the fish he caught were smallmouth.

Pat Grady Finished in second place weighing in 19.44 lbs. His bag also contained the boater division Lunker which weighed in at 5.13 lbs. Most of Grady’s fish came on a Rhapsody Maestro drop shot rod paired with a Shimano Stradic 2500 spooled with ten pound powerpro braid and eight pound BPS flourocardbon in 22 to 42. Other fish came on variety of baits such spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, kietech jigs, and a senko. He caught about 20 fish on the day, with only one fish being less than two and a half pounds.

Ralph Alexander finished in third place weighing in 18.37 lbs. On Sunday there was no wind in the a.m. so Alexander made his way to some old stuff and the smallies were in. The fishing was slow and steady and it took a couple of hours for him to get a limit in the boat. Alexander was throwing a lipless crank to cover water and then a tube or poor boy goby on a football head. He went for largemouth and got a 3.5 pounder on a jig. In the process of culling Alexander realized the smallmouth in his area weighed more than he thought and he had a chance for 20 lbs or so if he could have got one or two more good ones in the boat.

Submitted photoCurtis Waterman won the co-angler division.

Co-Angler Division:

Curtis Waterman finished in first place weighing in 17.02 lbs. Waterman fished a 10 inch Junebug Powerbait worm. The key was a small 1/8oz screw on weight. He would cast to the thick weeds and crawl the bait to the edge and then let it fall of the edge to the bottom. Sometimes the bass would hit on the drop and sometimes he would move it slowly back to the boat twitching it over the weeds as it got stopped by the weeds. Once it fell off that weed and fell to the bottom the bass would take it. His early morning 4 lbs smallmouth hit a KVD Sexy shad "red eye" bait and as soon as it hit the water the fish was on.

Tom Pavlot finished second weighing in 16.35 lbs. Pavlot stayed in the bay and fished from 4 to 10 feet of water with a rock and weed bottom, but mostly scattered weed. Pavlot caught most of his fish on 2 baits. A 5 inch watermelon/Green Pumpkin Senko on a 1/8 oz Shakey head and a ½ oz war eagle screaming eagle spinnerbait in white with copper blades when the wind picked up. He did catch a few Largemouth flipping a Reaction innovations Sweet beaver in Mossy Mud with a 1/2 oz tungsten weight. All his fish were landed on Nereus Rods and Quantum Reels.

Dereck Bigford finished in third place weighing in 15.50 lbs. His bag also included the co-angler division Lunker which weighed 5.64 lbs. Bigford fished drop shot and spinnerbaits in 4 to 18 feet of water.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog