Glenn Browne's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear

Lake Champlain is located more than 1,300 north of Glenn Browne's residence in Ocala, Fla., but he's found success in recent years by fishing it like he's right at home. The former FLW Tour and Bassmaster Elite Series pro turned in some ugly finishes early in his career at the renowned venue that sits on the New York-Vermont border. But once he determined that he needed to forget all about the latitude of the place and fish his own strengths, those bombs went away and were replaced by solid money showings. "I had to quit fishing for smallmouth in the tournaments," he said. "It was like, 'Hey dummy, (the southern part of Champlain) is a lot like Florida, so fish like you do at home and catch their (butts). "It's pretty simple, really." He dominated last week's Northern Rayovac Series stop at Champlain, amassing 63 1/2 pounds over 3 days to win by a margin of nearly 10 pounds. He took over the lead on day 2 with his second straight 22 1/2-pound stringer and his 18-07 haul was the biggest of the final day. Browne had discovered quality smallmouth action at Champlain on multiple previous visits. The problem was that it wouldn't hold up. "I could catch them okay in practice, but I could never stay on them," he said. All of his strong showings in recent years had come via the largemouth route, and on most of those occasions he exploited the Ticonderoga area at the southern tip of the lake. He went down there on both of his first 2 practice days this time and quickly dialed in his program. Due to the frigid winter and spring experienced by the northern part of the country, the bass are far behind their usual seasonal progression. He found a lot of fish - big ones - in the extreme shallows. "None of the fish I weighed in came from more than 2 feet of water."

Competition:

Unlike in a 150-boat Tour event in which perhaps a third of the field will make the long run to "Ti," far fewer competitors opt to travel that far in triple-A derbies. Browne estimated that he was joined by no more than a dozen others, and none of them were fishing as tight to the bank as he was. "I caught some from the reeds, some from the matted stuff and some from trees," he said. "It was a grind-it-out thing - anything on the bank that looked good, I'd fish it. "They were just little isolated deals where I'd make one or two flips and I'd either get a bite or I wouldn't. A lot of it was real marginal stuff because even though the water was high, it was dropping, and you had to find the short stretches that had a little bit of extra water. The best thing was that nobody else was doing that - they were all out in the grass beds." His day-1 starting spot gave him four fish in the span of five flips that combined to weigh almost 15 pounds, but he never caught another fish from that location. He picked up a 5-pounder on a frog on the first day as he was moving between areas, and it was the only one he took to the scale that didn't enter his boat on the end of a flipping stick.

Day 2 was pretty similar, although his number of keeper fish fell from 25 to 20. His sack was just an ounce lighter than the previous day's haul and he moved into the top slot. He lost a good portion of day 3 due to a mechanical issue - he eventually learned that the problem was in the wiring harness. He was about 20 miles south of the launch in Plattsburgh, N.Y. when it occurred, and he immediately contacted road roommate Dave Lefebre, who launched his boat and delivered it to Browne. Browne was forced to return to Plattsburgh and go through the boat-check process for a second time before heading out for Ti once again. He estimated that the ordeal cost him 2 1/2 or 3 hours of fishing time, but that wasn't a huge problem because his best action occurred later in the day. "The bite got strong when the sun was good and high, and I figured if I could get 3 or 4 hours I could catch a decent bag of fish." He ended up getting nine bites and catching seven keepers, and the five he brought back to Plattsburgh were more than enough to clinch the win.

Winning Gear:

Flipping gear: 7'11" heavy-action Lew's Custom Speed Stick rod, Team Lew's Lite casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 65-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 1-ounce homemade jig (black/blue), Zoom Big Salty Chunk trailer (black/blue). Although the water was mostly clear, he didn't think the color of the bait was critical. "I think I could've gone with green-pumpkin or whatever. It was mostly a reaction bite with those fish so shallow. The frog that produced the 5-pounder on day 1 was a SPRO Bronzeye.

Main factor: "I was real confident because flipping is my deal and I was doing something that nobody else was keying on."

Performance edge: "That (Evinrude) G2 is the most impressive motor I've ever run. The first 2 days I could run down there and back without getting gas, and I could never do that before. It's unbelievably powerful and it's great on fuel."

Champlain Rayovac Winning Pattern BassFan 8/6/15 (John Johnson)

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