PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — Everything about Mark Burgess’ strategy for the B.A.S.S. Nation Qualifier at Lake Champlain was high risk, but the risk was well worth the reward as the Massachusetts angler claimed the victory with a three-day total of 62 pounds, 1 ounce.
A former Elite Series angler, Burgess caught bags of 17-6, 21-15 and then 22-12 on the final day to edge out Dan Tavilla by 15 ounces. Along with the victory, Burgess earned $8,793 and qualified for the 2024 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship at Grand Lake, putting him one step closer to achieving the dream of fishing the Bassmaster Classic.
“I’m amazed, really. When I signed up for this tournament, I knew (Garmin) LiveScope would play for smallmouth, and that’s not my deal. I was in my total comfort zone this week. I had a flipping stick almost the whole time with a little bit of ChatterBaiting and square-billing. I just made the right decisions each day.
“I’m so stoked. This is my best Bassmaster event ever.”
Burgess has been fishing Lake Champlain since the 1990s when he flew a plane over the Ticonderoga region of the lake to locate milfoil beds. This week, Burgess was about as far from Ticonderoga as he possibly could be, instead making a long run north toward the Canadian border.
Heavy rain before the event lifted the lake levels 2 feet higher than normal, and with dirtier water than usual to go along with it, Burgess decided to focus on the shallows and targeted a mix of laydowns, milfoil and docks.
It was one magic tree, however, that produced the majority of his bass. The specific laydown sits mostly on the bank, but the water has created a void where the bass sit to ambush prey, and Burgess used that to his advantage.
“It’s in a deep creek, but this tree is on the bank,” he explained. “The waves have washed out the area under the tree, so even though it looks like it’s in the mud, there’s a hollow spot under the tree. That’s where the fish lay, right on the edge of the drop.”
His best bait was a YUM Wooly Hawg Craw rigged on a 4/0 VMC heavy-duty flipping hook and a 3/8-ounce weight. In clearer water, he used a green pumpkin color and dyed the tails orange. Black neon was his choice of color in dirtier water.
He also caught several key fish on a ChatterBait and an old-school Lucky Craft RC 1.5 squarebill. All of the bass he brought to weigh-in were largemouth, but he did land several quality smallmouth, as well.
Not only did Burgess have to fight the wind and waves to reach his area, but he had to battle through a variety of mechanical issues all week. On the final day, his navigation lights at the bow of the boat malfunctioned, so his co-angler downloaded an app to his phone and then taped his phone to the trolling motor so they could take off on time.
After landing in 33rd after Day 1, Burgess knew he was within range of qualifying for the Nation Championship, but an impressive Day 2 bag anchored by a 6-4 largemouth lifted him into contention for the final day.
“Days 1 and 2 started really rough. I had two big fish pull off on the first day. I set my sights on 20th at that point and putting the biggest bag I could put together in the boat. The second day I didn’t have a fish until 9 a.m. I was starting to spin out a little bit but realized you don’t get these opportunities very often.”
After not catching a bass off the laydown to start Day 2, Burgess returned later in the morning and filled out his limit, including the 6-4 largemouth. Later in the day, he caught a 5-pounder off a set of docks he had only seen 2-pounders on in practice.
On the final day, the wind slowed down, and Burgess was able to move around much easier. He started on the magic laydown and filled out another quality limit before running to several other key pieces of cover and a row of docks to upgrade his bag.
“I went straight to the juice, and it was a good decision because another competitor, an absolute hammer on this lake, was basically fishing the same stuff. I got to it first. I was culling by the time he arrived. I had the start of a good bag there, around 19 pounds.”
After taking the Day 2 lead, Tavilla fell to second on the final day with a total of 61-2. He opened the tournament with 21-2 before landing 19-14 on the second day and 20-2 on Friday.
“I’ve fished against Mark since I started bass fishing in 2009,” Tavilla said. “He deserves this. He’s put the time in and has done it forever. He got the big largemouth for sure. I’m happy for him.”
The boater from Portsmouth, N.H., scoured the Inland Sea for pelagic smallmouth that were chasing groups of white and yellow perch as well as alewives in 25 to 40 feet of water outside of a boulder ridge. Using his forward-facing sonar, Tavilla pitched a 1/4-ounce tungsten ball-head jig rigged with a 5-inch Deps Sakamata Shad to the bait balls.
At the end of each day, Tavilla would fish for largemouth and landed two quality green fish using a ChatterBait.
The final day started well for Tavilla, but he could not find a 5-pounder to bolster his limit.
“It was fast and furious this morning, but the size wasn’t as consistent,” he said. “There were more 3-pounders today. I caught a 4-5 pretty early on and then I had to grind after that. The first two or three hours I probably caught 12 bass. I caught a bonus fish on a Carolina rig.”
With bags of 20-14, 18-9 and 20-9, University of Montevallo senior Jacob Swanson finished third with a three-day total of 60-0. The Framingham, Mass., angler split his time between smallmouth and largemouth. With his forward-facing sonar, Swanson found smallmouth chasing bait in 35 feet of water and used a Z-Man Scented Jerk ShadZ on either a 1/4- or 1/8-ounce jighead to catch those bass.
He searched for largemouth by tossing a 3/8-ounce jig paired with a Strike King Rage Menace trailer around docks and rock. As the tournament progressed, the largemouth bite became increasingly more reliable.
Day 1 leader Frankie Appaluccio landed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the Tournament, a 6-15 largemouth he caught the first day.
All 40 final day competitors (boaters and co-anglers) punched tickets to the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, scheduled for Nov. 6-8.
The winner of that event will earn the title of Nation’s Best and will earn an invite to the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series, plus a spot in the 2025 Classic. The second- and third-place finishers at the Nation Championship will also compete in the Classic.
