PHOTO BY JODY WHITE |
PHOTO BY CHARLES WALDORF |
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one largemouth bite , Connell turned his attention to smallmouth – a savvy change , as his first stop produced a 6-pound brown fish and another five or six fish on his Lowrance ActiveTarget screen .
Connell went all in on smallies to the tune of 88-5 his first day of competition , 82-2 in the Knockout Round and 96-12 in the Championship Round , which gave him a whopping 16-pound win over Jacob Wheeler . Connell ’ s smallie gear was straightforward : a Googan Baits Drag N Drop in green pumpkin and another small shad-colored bait on a drop-shot .
4 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . NORTHERN DIVISION PRESENTED BY BOATLOGIX Lake Champlain Aug . 9 – 11
Local hammer Bryan Labelle is a well-known smallie smasher on Champlain , though he ’ s been hunting
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down a Toyota Series trophy on his home lake for the past 10-plus years ( since moving to the front of the boat in 2012 ), always making a point to fish the pinnacle of the Northern Series Division schedule . Prior to this year , his best finish was a runner-up in 2012 , tacking on a third-place showing last year .
This time around , Labelle thought he might be headed for another good-but-not-good-enough finish , admitting he didn ’ t think he was on the right quality to make a hard charge . Instead , the Hinesburg , Vermont , stick rallied from eighth to first with a final-day bag of 21 pounds , 10 ounces – the largest stringer of the event – to edge out Pro Circuit pro Kyle Hall ( who had just won on Champlain a week prior ) by just 2 ounces . Even more fitting : The thirdplace finisher of the event , Spencer Shuffield , would go on to win the Tackle Warehouse TITLE little more than a week later , surely making Labelle ’ s victory all the more special .
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What makes Labelle ’ s success on Champlain so impressive is what his vast knowledge and experience on the fishery provides . Despite running very little in the way of advanced electronics – a pair of 9-inch screens – Labelle outgunned anglers wielding arsenals of giant forward-facing sonar-enabled graphs to put together mixed bags all three days ( weighing in eight largemouth throughout the event ) fishing grass and deep rock .
5 . TACKLE WAREHOUSE PRO CIRCUIT TACKLE WAREHOUSE TITLE PRESENTED BY MERCURY St . Lawrence River Aug . 16 – 21
Though he hails from Hot Springs , Arkansas , Spencer Shuffield may as well go ahead and consider himself an expert on northern fisheries . When the Pro Circuit heads north and smallies are on the docket , few pros are more lethal with a
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spinning rod in hand and a forwardfacing sonar in view .
Since returning to the pro ranks in 2020 ( after a five-year hiatus ), Shuffield has amassed five Top 10s in regular-season Pro Circuit competition and three more on the Toyota Series , not to mention his sixth-place finish at Sturgeon Bay in the inaugural Tackle Warehouse TITLE in 2020 . He ’ s been an absolute force , finishing second , 29th and third , respectively , in the AOY points race since returning in 2020 .
It wasn ’ t a matter of “ if ” but “ when ” for Shuffield , and he answered the question with aplomb at the St . Lawrence , finishing Group A Qualifying Round Day 1 in fifth . From there , all he did was sack up 23-3 to finish the Qualifying Round in first two days later to punch his ticket to the Championship Round and finish the final frame with 22-12 to seal the deal by 12 ounces over Dakota Ebare to claim the $ 200,000 top prize and the Tackle Warehouse TITLE belt .
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