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fishing for the 2022 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE Presented by Mercury . Today , the competitors are not only fishing for the coolest trophy in professional bass fishing – an actual wrestling championship belt – but are also on the hunt for a $ 200,000 top prize , a significant jump from the haul VanDam was hunting down in his first pro event all those years ago .
According to VanDam , the winner ’ s purse isn ’ t the only major change anglers have seen on the St . Lawrence over the years . The fishery itself is a completely different animal .
“ I ’ ve had a lot of great tournaments there , and it has changed immensely over the years ,” he says . “ It used to be dominated by largemouth .”
Becoming a Smallmouth Smorgasbord
In 2017 , VanDam won the tournament that marked his 300th professional bass fishing tournament with B . A . S . S . Suffice to say the four-time Bassmaster Classic champion , threetime MLF Cup winner and eight-time Angler of the Year has racked up his
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PHOTO BY JODY WHITE |
Ryan Davidson examines an invasive goby from the St . Lawrence River . |
fair share of experience on the St . Lawrence along the way .
Just one year after his nerve-racking introduction to the sport , biologists detected the first invasive zebra mussels in the St . Lawrence . By 1997 , they also began finding the first invasive gobies – a one-two punch that has altered the tournament landscape on several fabled northern fisheries .
Combined , the mussels and gobies transformed the St . Lawrence into a river system perfectly suited to growing monster smallmouth . And while VanDam says quality largemouth can still be found in the river , it ’ s now a fishery where the best anglers need to put 27 pounds in the boat each day to compete for big wins in a five-fish event .
In 2017 , VanDam tallied 90-3 over four days to take home the win . Last year , Chris Johnston needed 77-15 over three days to top his brother Cory in the most recent Major League Fishing event held on the river out of Massena , New York , the penultimate event of the Toyota Series Northern Division schedule .
To achieve similar results in a totally different format ( TITLE anglers will employ the catch , weigh , immediate-
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Virginia pro Cody Pike targeted big smallmouth to win Stop 6 of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit on the St . Lawrence River in 2021 . |
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PHOTO BY CHARLES WALDORF |