Abbott scores Strike King co-angler win at Champlain
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – In May, Woodruff, South Carolina, Strike King co-angler Cody Abbott graduated high school. This fall, he’ll join the Lander University fishing team. In between, he’s doing normal going-away-to-college stuff like winning bass boats.
Abbott, despite having never seen Lake Champlain in person until the official practice period leading up to the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Northern Division event, won the tournament going away, besting second-place co-angler Adam Montani by 6 pounds even – on the strength of three incredibly solid and consistent days.
Totaling 57 pounds, 8 ounces over three days, Abbott couldn’t have asked for a better tournament. He walked away with a brand-new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat thanks to 18-plus-pound stringers on Day 1 and 2 before outdoing himself on Championship Saturday with a 20-pound, 11-ounce bag – more than the weight of 22 of the 25 bags weighed in by boaters on the final day.
Day 1 set the tone for Abbott, who found himself in fifth heading into Friday.
“It’s pretty dang crazy, first of all,” he said. “I thought I would have been maybe in the Top 10 the first day with 18 pounds just because of how many fish we caught in practice. I ended up being in fifth.”
Then, on Day 2, things go crazier.
“My second day, (boater) Alexandre Jelev said ‘we’re going fishing for largemouth,’ and I was like, ‘either I’m going to catch 15 pounds and ride it out or I’ll end up catching a couple big ones and I’ll be all right,’” he said. “I went out there and I think I had a limit by 8 o’clock. I had like 16 pounds. I needed to catch one more big one and I’d definitely be set and fishing in first.
“I threw as far as I could and caught a 4-11 smallie. It was crazy just to catch that smallmouth out of the back of the boat.”
Cody Abbott blasted them on the final day. Photo by Jody White.
With that, Abbott ended the day in first with another 18-pound bag and was paired with boater leader Bryan LaBelle on Day 3. LaBelle, well known for being one of the preeminent bass anglers on Lake Champlain, proved to be an excellent boater for Abbott, putting him around a ton of quality fish.
“Whenever I got in the boat with Mr. LaBelle today, he was like, ‘we’re going largemouth fishing but we’re going to fish some smallmouth holes’ and I said, ‘I’m just going to go fishing. I don’t really care how today plays out but I’m going to have fun either way.’
“Off the first spot I had 14 pounds with four keepers and he put me on some boat docks and I ended up catching another 4-12 and I had right at I think 19 pounds.”
Abbott finished the day with 20-11, and while he didn’t end up needing that big of a bag or the fish that contributed to it, there was one memorable catch he’s not likely to forget.
“I skipped as far under the dock as I could and I’m not really paying attention… I set the hook and I’m like this a pretty good one,” he said. “I’m pulling him out and he wraps around the boat motor of a pontoon. Mr. LaBelle runs over there around it and I cannot get the line around the boat motor. I stick my rod in as far as I can and grab the line with the rod and I start hand-lining him in and Mr. LaBelle nets it.”
That 4-pounder may not have been necessary to secure the win, but it certainly calmed Abbott’s nerves. The rest of the day was smooth sailing, comparatively.
With the win, Abbott now has two top fives on his résumé in Toyota Series competition just this year (he finished fourth at Smith Lake in April). Not a bad way for the 18-year-old to build up momentum for a college fishing career that’s right on the horizon.
The post Abbott scores Strike King co-angler win at Champlain appeared first on Major League Fishing.
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