Bryan Labelle of Hinesburg, Vermont, brought five bass to the stage Saturday weighing 21 pounds, 10 ounces to win the Northern Division Toyota Series event at Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y., earning the top payout of $86,500. Labelle’s three-day total of 15 bass weighing 61-11 earned him the victory by a narrow 2-ounce margin over Kyle Hall of Granbury, Texas, who finished first at the MLF Pro Circuit event on Lake Champlain last week.
“It’s awesome, undoubtedly,” an excited Labelle said. “I didn’t expect it. I didn’t think I was on that caliber of fish in practice, but it worked out.”
While others have made headlines with smallmouth in recent years, Labelle never hesitated on his plan for the week, going for a classic Champlain mixed bag every day.
Day 1 saw him bring four largemouth to the scale. Day 2, he brought just one, and on the final day, three green ones made the cut.
Of course, his start to Day 2 would be the envy of any smallmouth specialist on the lake.
“I had 20 pounds, 1 ounce in 25 minutes on Day 2, and I said ‘I gotta go largemouth fishing,’” Labelle said. “So I did, but I only upgraded a little bit.
“I’m new to the forward-facing sonar. I’m a knucklehead when it comes to it,” he joked. “Learning it, it’s easier than what I thought. I guess I didn’t understand it. I was seeing a few fish, but I wasn’t seeing what these guys are. But on Day 2, I understood it very well. It was unbelievable, and undoubtedly it helped the win.”
Still, Labelle put quality largemouth in play every day, and he did it mostly in grass and on deeper rock, not the docks Champlain is so known for.
“The largemouth are not that good this year, they’re really not,” he shared. “I had a couple deals in Missisquoi early that I got some real big fish on, but that dried up and it became very tough. I thought it was going to be a good largemouth year, but I think it’s gone downhill. Forward-facing sonar I think is going to take some pressure off them, and that’ll be a good thing.
“I tried some docks. I tried to mix in a few, but they’re just not on the docks good. I’ve got some rocks a little bit deeper that really helped, and grass. The grass really wasn’t all that good. I didn’t get a lot of big bites – I feel like I got lucky with the fish I caught.”
For baits, Labelle said he caught fish on his trusty 1/2-ounce Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury Flippin’ Jig, plus a dropshot with either a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flatnose Minnow in white or a perch-colored Jackall Crosstail Shad.
Here are the final totals for the Top 10:
1st: Bryan Labelle, Hinesburg, Vt., 15 bass, 61-11, $86,500
2nd: Kyle Hall, Granbury, Texas, 15 bass, 61-09, $20,000
3rd: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 15 bass, 60-07, $14,250
4th: Brett Carnright, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 13 bass, 60-05, $12,250
5th: Wayne Vaughan, Chester, Va., 15 bass, 59-12, $11,250
6th: Joseph Thompson, Coatesville, Pa., 15 bass, 59-06, $9,125
7th: Stephen Estes, Auburn, N.H., 15 bass, 59-06, $7,900
8th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 15 bass, 58-15, $6,900
9th: Kyle Gelles, Pingree, Idaho, 15 bass, 58-03, $5,900
10th: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 15 bass, 57-14, $4,500
