The Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain was a fish catching fest. After Day 1 of competition, if an angler caught just over 15 pounds, they would be in 80th place. Yes, you read that correctly. Lake Champlain showed out in a big way.
With the entire field catching them as good as they did, it made picking a Rapala Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing team extremely tricky. An angler on your team could have had a good day by usual standards and been in the bottom 20% of the field. Typically, that’s not the case in most Elite Series events.
As expected, both smallmouth and largemouth played at Lake Champlain. Many anglers utilized patterns fishing for both species depending on the weather.
Haven’t created a Fantasy Fishing account yet? No problem! Sign up and play for free at BassmasterFantasy.com. Players win prizes at each specific event, and there are prizes for overall winners at the end of the season as well. You can still play the final event of the season even if you missed out on the earlier events.
The overall winner of at Lake Champlain was “bassinboy3” who selected four of the five picks that would have made up the perfect roster. Overall Rank: No. 1, Total Points 1,359.
BUCKET A: Seth Feider
BUCKET B: Austin Felix
BUCKET C: Bryan Schmitt
BUCKET D: Micah Frazier
BUCKET E: Destin DeMarion
The perfect Fantasy Fishing team for Lake Champlain would have been:
BUCKET A: Seth Feider
BUCKET B: Austin Felix
BUCKET C: Bryan Schmitt
BUCKET D: Randy Sullivan
BUCKET E: Destin DeMarion
Total: 1,410
BUCKET A: FEIDER
If there’s one thing you can just about guarantee about an Elite Series event on Lake Champlain, it’s that Seth Feider will be in the Top 10 when it’s all said and done. The current AOY leader feels right at home on Champlain even if it’s over 20 hours from his house. Feider scored 285 points and was the highest selected angler in Bucket A at 37.7%.
Second best selection: Ironically, the second-best selection in Bucket A is Feider’s closest competitor in the AOY race, Patrick Walters. The South Carolina pro utilized his forward-facing sonar to notch a Top 10 finish. Walters scored 272 points and was only selected by 1.6% of Fantasy players.
Lowest scoring angler: Surprisingly, Scott Martin wasn’t able to get it done at Lake Champlain. The South Florida pro has historically done extremely well on the Northern New York fishery, but not this time around. Martin only scored 101 points and was selected by 8.4% of players.
BUCKET B: FELIX
Much like Seth Feider, Austin Felix feels right at home on Lake Champlain. As mentioned on Bassmaster LIVE, many of the fisheries in Minnesota fish just like Champlain. Felix scored 280 points for the 21% of players who selected him. He was the highest selected angler in Bucket B.
Second best selection: Although there were seven anglers in Bucket B who finished higher in the standings than Buddy Gross, he was the second-best selection with the bonus points he received for leading after Day 1. The Georgia native scored 260 points and was selected by 1% of players.
Lowest scoring angler: Imagine picking an angler who averaged 15 pounds a day and picking the lowest scoring angler in Bucket B. That’s exactly what happened if you selected Louisiana’s Tyler Rivet. The third year Elite was selected by 0.2% of players and scored 109 points.
BUCKET C: SCHMITT
Bryan Schmitt won his first blue trophy at Lake Champlain, a body of water that he has had much success on in years past. The Maryland native needed a good finish at Champlain to stay above the cut line for staying in the Elite Series next season and he took care of business in a big way. Schmitt scored 315 points and was selected by 9.1% of players.
Second best selection: Not only was Bucket C home to the winner of the event, but also the second-place finisher, Keith Combs. The Texas pro has had an uncharacteristically tough season, but got back on track on Lake Champlain. Combs scored 295 points and was selected by 1.2% of players.
Lowest scoring angler: Louisiana’s Derek Hudnall wasn’t able to make it back to weigh-in on Day 2 of competition due to extremely rough water and wasn’t able to officially weigh his catch. Due to this unfortunate circumstance, Hudnall only scored 87 points for the 0.3% that selected him.
BUCKET D: SULLIVAN
Overall, Bucket D was probably the most difficult bucket to select from. With that said, Randy Sullivan was the highest scoring angler and was only selected by 0.2% of players. The Texan scored 251 points and finished the event just outside the Top 10 in 13th place.
Second best selection: Randy Pierson was the second-best selection in Bucket D, and was also only selected by 0.2% of Fantasy players. The two lowest selected anglers were the two best picks. That doesn’t happen very often. The Californian scored 237 points.
Lowest scoring angler: Quentin Cappo wasn’t able to crack the code on Lake Champlain. The Louisiana pro was only able to score 85 points for the 0.4% of players who selected him.
BUCKET E: DEMARION
If you were part of the 20.9% who selected Destin DeMarion in Bucket E, then you would have chosen correctly. The Pennsylvania pro mixed in largemouth and smallmouth to notch his first Top 10 of the season. DeMarion scored 276 points.
Second best selection: Garrett Paquette was the highest selected angler in Bucket E at 29.7% but was ended up being the second-best selection. The Michigan pro scored 243 points.
Lowest scoring angler: Harvey Horne wasn’t able to get it going at Lake Champlain. Horne scored 93 points for the 1.8% of players who selected him.
