PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – Coming into the second event of the Toyota Series Northern Division event on Lake Champlain, Kyle Cortiana had a Major League Fishing résumé that included a dozen Top-10s across multiple levels of competition, including a second-place finish in 2018 that came down to a tie-breaker that didn’t go in his favor. Now, after amassing 64 pounds, 1 ounce of Champlain smallmouth over three days, Cortiana is finally a champion.
“To go against the best Northerners up here… this field was stacked with them,” he said. “It means a lot to me to not be at home (in Oklahoma), not have a homefield advantage, and be able to out-fish the most renowned and respected guys on their water. As an angler, you’re competitive and you want to know you got it, and that’s affirmation. (Bryan LaBelle) and (Brett) Carnright and Drew Gill – one of my good friends – affirmation everywhere I looked.”
It wasn’t just beating the top Northern pros or doing it during a tournament that proved to be an absolute slugfest full of 20-plus-pound bags and days of quite literally catching hundreds of bass. It was also knowing how proud he made his wife and traveling partner at every event, and his dad, whom he nearly lost a few years ago.
“To get it done and see the tears of joy from my wife, just to confirm how much she loves me and is happy for me to be doing what I’m doing, that means the world to me,” he said.
“My dad, I almost lost him a few years ago, right after his heart surgery. He came up here for the Pro Circuit in 2022 and I almost won one for him then. He just wanted me to win one before he dies, and I finally did. That’s how much it means to me.”
Home-pond hero LaBelle – a man known locally as one of the preeminent pros on Lake Champlain and who has a handful of previous wins under his belt on the fishery – led the event on both Days 1 and 2. It was his tournament to lose, but as is often echoed on tournament stages all over the country, when it’s your time, it’s your time. This time was for Cortiana. LaBelle weighed in just 19-13 on Day 3 and finished 1 pound shy of the win.
Ahead of LaBelle was Gill, perhaps the most talented and heralded up-and-comer in bass fishing who’s won on both the Bass Pro Tour and Tackle Warehouse Invitationals circuit already this season. Gill finished 11 ounces behind Cortiana.
This added up to close calls for Cortiana, particularly after losing multiple fish all three days that he says could have put all three bags in the 23-pound range.
But surviving those close calls came down to making the right calls, too. On Day 1, Cortiana ran north to probe dozens of waypoints he’d accumulated from all his time fishing Champlain in recent years. He had a good day, but it could have been much, much better if not for a fish that broke him off and went airborne by the boat for a little extra salt in the wound.
“It was the biggest smallmouth I’ve seen on this lake, period,” he said. “That one broke my heart.”
Even after weighing in 20 pounds that day, Cortiana decided to switch up his program on Day 2 and make a trip south, taking advantage of his early boat draw to get on a well-known community hole near Malletts Bay. With no one else around at that point, Cortiana set up shop with his Lowrance Active Target 2 and immediately found what he estimated to be “thousands of bass” and a ton of bait among the ripping current created by recent rains.
After catching some on a hair jig and a jerkbait on Day 1, Day 2 was all about the jighead minnow in a couple sizes (1/4- and 3/8-ounces) with a couple different colors of YUM Forward Facing Sonar Minnow. Cortiana wore them out and outlasted all his competition on that community hole to the tune of 22 pounds, 3 ounces.
At that point, it was a no-brainer to use his No. 4 boat draw to get back to that spot on Saturday – at least until he arrived there that morning.
“I got there and there was a huge mudline,” he said of his Day 2 spot that was nearly washed out with mud and debris from the week’s storms. “Being boat No. 4, I had to make a decision whether I wanted to leave because it was muddy or how I wanted to position my boat. I made the right decision.
“I picked the mudline side of it thinking that would create a unique feeding opportunity for the fish and I was right. I don’t know how many hundreds of fish I caught but it was unbelievable. There’s no way I can put them all in my YouTube video because no one will watch a three-hour YouTube video of a guy yanking on smallmouth and getting his drag buzzed.”
The mudline Cortiana chose to exploit was apparent even in photos, and while many anglers may have shied away from a spot like that, it was nothing compared to the other variables he had to combat there throughout the day.
“There were people who jumped off their boat and swam,” he said. “I was throwing by people who were swimming and they (the bass) were eating. I had locals that were hooking my line. I had boats parking where I was casting. It didn’t matter. Those fish were there to eat. They didn’t care.”
Cortiana caught some fish on a Carolina rig and umbrella rig, but it was mostly all about the jighead minnow. On Day 3, though, he needed to optimize his setup to catch his winning 21-14 bag, which came down to selecting the right bait color thanks to some careful observation.
“I had a couple different colors on deck, but I made that gold bait change after I saw a fish cough up a gold shiner,” he said. “When they would chase bait on the mudline, I would see these golden-color river shiners skip out of the water, so I made this bait change to gold, and they ate the tar out of it.”
He also credits his Lowrance electronics for a day that saw him catch hundreds of bass in one small area. Being able to dial in his settings differently across multiple days for various fishing conditions and a forward-facing sonar pointer of his dad’s design that’s being manufactured by DD26 Fishing for lining up his casts with the transducer on his Lowrance Ghost made a big difference.
“My dad built a pointer for the Lowrance Ghost,” he said. “It helps you know exactly where you’re casting. DD26 Fishing is making them and selling them. That pointer is so awesome if you run a Ghost. It lines that cast up perfectly.”
Though he hails from Oklahoma and nearly won on Fort Gibson in 2018, Cortiana has an affinity for Champlain. It’s a lake he loves and a lake at which he’s done well in the past. It’s now also the site of his first MLF victory.
“I love this place so much,” he said. “It’s not hard going to work daylight to dark when you get to play on this place. It’s hard to get on a school of fish and leave because you know how many you can catch when you find them. It’s just such a great place.”
Here's how the Top 10 finished:
1st: Kyle Cortiana, Broken Arrow, Okla., 15 bass, 64-1, $40,000
2nd: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 15 bass, 63-6, $15,500
3rd: Bryan LaBelle, Hinesburg, Vt., 15 bass, 63-1, $13,125
4th: Kurt Mitchell, Milford, Del., 15 bass, 61-13, $10,000
5th: Casey Smith, Victor, N.Y., 15 bass, 61-3, $9,000
6th: Jeremy Gordon, Rutledge, Tenn., 15 bass, 61-1, $8,000
7th: Thomas Lavictoire, Jr., West Rutland, Vt., 15 bass, 61-0, $7,000
8th: Brett Carnright, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 15 bass, 60-9, $6,000
9th: Ryan Latinville, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 15 bass, 60-6, $5,000
10th: Logan Dyar, Cleveland, Ala., 15 bass, 60-4, $4,000
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
