How Ed Loughran got his first Elite win at Champlain

Ed’s your new hero non-tech peeps! He did use FFS a little (not for minnow-feeding), but caught ’em mostly on a jig, ChatterBait and topwater. Ed also basically tried NOT to win – he was staying out of everyone’s way because after his medical exemption he didn’t want to mess anyone up (good IG vid about that by his former roomie Derek Hudnall here). Or maybe he’s just the king of sandbagging…😁

Here’s how he got ‘er done.

Going in and practice

> “On Champlain I like to try to get away from people, and a lot of the stuff I used to try to do that on has become popular. Between that and me not wanting to screw anyone up since I was just there trying to get a check, I wanted to try to find some different stuff.

> “I found that down-lake a ways…found some stuff up north, but it wasn’t great. I could catch maybe 17-18 lbs…but I didn’t know if that would be enough to get a check. Because that’s all I wanted to do – get a check while staying out of people’s way.

> “I found an area down-lake and instantly caught a couple 4-lb largemouth, then a little later in the day I hooked a 2.5-lb largemouth and there was a 5 right behind it. …same thing with smallmouth – I hooked a couple 3-lb smallmouth and there were a couple 4-lb smallmouth right behind them.

> “So it was an area where I saw some big fish…not a popular area of the lake so I’ll just run down there.

> “I had never been there before. I’d obviously fished Ticonderoga and Malletts Bay north. I had neglected that midsection of the lake…because it’s kind of just a straightaway except for a couple of bays. Where I was fishing several creeks were coming in and a couple islands…just good-looking stuff down there.”

Tournament

> “I ran down there the first day, caught what I had and kinda left. I didn’t want to beat it up too bad. I guess I probably should have stayed a little bit longer and caught another decent one. I had a 4-lb average and my smallest was 3.5.

> “I had 19-05 but I had a dead fish. The second fish I caught in the morning, about a 4-lb smallmouth, I hooked him deep. I just cut the hook and put him in the livewell…usually they’re totally fine but this one died…like within 5 or 10 minutes.

> “Given practice I thought I’d be in the 20s. That’s why I left…maybe I can find a big fish somewhere else. With the dead fish penalty, I was in 38th. I was like, Oh man, people crushed  ’em. The caught them a lot better than I thought they would, which happens all the time….

> “Day 2 I looked on Google Earth…there’s a little point kind of close to the ramp…maybe there’s a released fish or 2 over there. My 3rd cast I catch a 4-10 largemouth….

> “Then I ran down to those fish and caught several good ones. It was easy that day. They were eating a ChatterBait, they were eating my jig. I think I had the 2nd-biggest bag of the tournament and big fish that day or tied….

> “I just wanted to make sure I made the top 50 because I was in 38th. I moved up because people didn’t catch them as well. I moved up to 2nd and was like, Holy cow that’s outta control.

> “The next day…I guess I’ll go back down there. If I can just catch 18-19 lbs, I’ll stay in the top 10 and will be able to fish the final Monday. I wanted to do that because oddly enough I’ve made top 10 in all 3 [Monday-ending Elites] this year.

> “Maybe that’s the wrong mindset because I wasn’t thinking I would win this thing – because all my big fish were coming from a very small area, and I beat it up pretty bad on day 2.

> “I go out day 3 and…caught them pretty good. What was interesting was me and Jake, the cameraman, could see a mudline that was 50 yards away. An hour later it was 25 yards away, and I look up an hour later and it’s almost on top of my stuff.

> “I fished for [another] hour and didn’t catch anything…fished areas that were a little cleaner. [But then he went back and] caught a 4 and a 5-12. It’s all relative – it probably went from 3-4′ visibility to maybe a foot and half…they didn’t seem to care.”

He culled one more time with a jig off an island – a 3-07 for a 3-01 – and had 22 lbs:

> …went to the weigh-in and ended up moving up into 1st. At that point I didn’t think any fish were left in my area. It was much harder on day 3 because I had caught so many on these 3 little high spots.

> “…I wasn’t gonna bail on my area and go to the Inland Sea and catch 18 lbs of smallmouths, and the only place I knew to catch 20 was down [where he had been fishing]. That’s what I was doing and didn’t have many options.”

> Day 4: “I caught a couple small smallmouths right out of the gate, but the largemouths weren’t biting or weren’t there. …got my limit right there but it was all smallmouth. Then I piddled around for a while. …wanted to fish a spot I fished in practice…didn’t catch anything on it but I didn’t try my jig on it….

> “[On the way there he] saw a flat point that came off one of the high spots, and off the end was a small circle. …just taking a look at it [dropping his troller in] and just below my boat I see like a dozen fish. I get a dropshot out of my rod box and basically fling it back over my shoulder behind the motor, and the bait didn’t even make it to the bottom and caught one….

> “I whipped the boat around, got in the proper position…caught several of them right there – a 3-10, a 3.25 and a 3.5. I culled pretty much everything out…that was my weight: 16-14. …if I didn’t make that decision to stop and check it out as I was moving…I would have lost.

> “Then I went back to the largemouth area and beat on all 3 spots where I caught big largemouths and pummeled them for next couple hours. [No fish.] I felt I still need a 4.5-5 lber to win.

> “I figured I’d lost, screwed it up and blew it, but I was hoping to stay in the top 5. I’ve never gotten a top 5 [top 10s though].”

The spots

> “The largemouths were almost all around the chunk rock mixed with grass, anywhere from 4-7′ and they invariably would be around the boulders. The 3 high spots were similar but 1 was bigger and better.

> “The smallmouths would always be in the slightly deeper water, basically around the grass. They weren’t messing with the rocks too much, but I think that’s because the big largemouth were there.”

His main spot was a slow-tapering high spot:

> “…smallmouths were on one end [the deeper end]…slightly closer to the main lake.”

Baits

> “The bait that made it all happen was a compact jig. I was throwing the Missile Baits Mini Flip Jig in 1/2 and 3/8 in gp with a Missile Craw Father trailer (gp), but I lost them all in practice and the 1st day. So I just had to use one of my homemade jigs that’s kinda similar, the same gp color, and a Missile Baits Chunky D because I ran out of those Craw Fathers.”

> 7′ 6″ H Shimano Expride Rod, Shimano Chronarch MGL Reel (8:1), 20-lb Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon (“there’s a lot of zebra mussels on the rocks”).

> 1/2-oz Z-Man JackHammer (gp) with a 4.5″ Missile Spunk Shad (goby bite). “I think that’s a good perch imitation. It’s a good bait on Champlain and [in other] northern lakes.” 7′ 2″ MH Shimano Expride Rod, same reel, same line.

> “I caught a couple key fish on the SPRO Walking Haint in chrome – I like chrome, I’ve always thrown chrome. It’s the fist tournament I’ve thrown [that bait] but I really like it. I’ve always been a Spook guy.” 7′ 2″ MH Shimano Expride Rod, same reel, 50-lb PowerPro Super8Slick Braid.

Electronics

> “Even though I was fishing a little bit shallower, like 4-8′ generally, I did use my LiveScope a bit to see where the holes are in the grass, where the boulders were, where the grass doesn’t grow, little high spots, little rubble piles and stuff. You can see that a little bdtter with LiveScope…Garmin 8612….

> “When fishing grass especially, I really like the blue palette. It lets you see fish moving around in grass really easily.”

He said he didn’t cast to particular fish and didn’t see any of them eat his bait.

Shoutouts

> “It was great having my family here. It was the first Elite Series tournament after 6 years that they were able to make it to, so that was the neatest part of the whole thing.

> “My roommates are always great and supportive. John [Crews] is one of my sponsors, and Bryan Schmitt is always unbelievably helpful. It’s sad that Derek [Hudnall] isn’t rooming with us anymore….”