Spencer Shuffield found big smallmouth on the St . Lawrence River , and weighed bags over 20 pounds each day he fished at the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit TITLE .
PHOTO BY SEAN OSTRUSZKA and in many of those , I had the winning fish on and lost it . There were usually dumb mistakes , like not retying . All of those memories haunted me .”
Shuffield has taken home winner trophies aplenty in his MLF career – three Phoenix Bass Fishing League victories around his home in Hot Springs , Arkansas , and a co-angler triumph on the Pro Circuit in 2010 on Ft . Loudoun / Tellico Lakes , Tennessee – but the TITLE win was by far the biggest win of his career .
And a massive weight lifted off his shoulders .
“ To get my first tour-level win ( at the TITLE ) was so incredible ,” Shuffield says . “ I can check it off my list . A win of this magnitude is like winning five events , in my opinion . Championship wins and AOY titles are the wins that boost your career .”
Exceeding Expectations
Heading into the August TITLE on the St . Lawrence , Shuffield readily admits that he didn ’ t see it as an event he could win , based solely on the demands of the fishery . He was content with showing up , catching what he could and taking the guaranteed $ 10,000 check that all competitors received . But a fateful decision during practice was the key to his big win .
“ I love smallmouth , but the St . Lawrence River is a place where you have to wreck them every day to compete ,” Shuffield explains . “ I thought there was no way I could keep up , because knowledge of the fishery is so important , and I don ’ t know the river as well as many of the guys .
“ To be honest , I planned to stay close to the ramp and save the $ 350 a day of fuel it takes to run way down the river . But I had just finished third at the Toyota Series on Champlain , so I had some momentum and extra money after cashing a good check .”
Shuffield started closer to Lake Ontario on the first day of practice , launching out of Clayton .
“ I felt like I could figure something out and caught some good fish , but still planned to fish closer to the ramp in Massena ,” he says . “ I planned to launch out of Ogdensburg the second day , dropped a pin on a ramp , got in my truck , and headed there . I got 20 minutes down the road toward that ramp and decided to turn around and give it another day out of Clayton .”
That decision led Shuffield to the eventual TITLE-winning area , a stretch on the Canadian side of the river that featured two massive flats with isolated boulders .
The Winning Area
Shuffield scoured two large flats on his second practice day and caught a handful of quality bass , but what he noticed in the shallow water was what keyed him into what would eventually produce his winning fish .
“ These two flats were ginormous , and I started seeing tons of empty beds ,” he explains . “ I could tell that they were old beds and knew the fish had to move somewhere from there , so I moved out deeper . There was a 35- foot chute between the two flats that boats could run through and grass ran out to 18 feet of water .”
Once he reached the end of the grass , Shuffield turned to his Garmin LiveScope forward-facing sonar and
42 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2022