Mille Lacs Champions Tour Pro Am

Noah Schultz Take Top Five Finish at Champions Tour Pro-Am. Joel Willert and Dane Vocelka Round Out Top Fifteen Standings

Lake Mille Lacs, the ā€œBig Pond,ā€ home of some of the best smallmouth bass fishing in the country was the host for the second annual Champions Tour Pro-Am event. Fifty-seven Champions Tour Pro Anglers were paired up with Student Angler Organization (SAO) Am anglers where they were to fish together as a team to catch their best eight bass limit.

The teams blasted off from Izatys Resort and had a full day (7 am to 3 pm) of fishing in front of them, with a West, Northwest breeze blowing, the anglers could fish the entire Lake the whole day. With no lake split, or mid-day break, the Pros and Ams had to strategically decide where they wanted to begin.

Mille Lacs Champions Tour Pro Am
Smeltinator Underspin (Ralph's Smoke) / Eye-Candy Paddle Shad (Blue Back Shad)

Schultz used the Smeltinator Underspin to locate his smallmouth in practice. ā€œIn a lot of areas, I could throw the Underspin and cover a lot of water,ā€ said Noah. Schultz paired the Underspin with the Eye-Candy Paddle Shad. ā€œThe Paddle Shad I rigged up for practice, not only lasted all of practice, but the tournament as well. I canā€™t believe how durable it was.ā€

Mille Lacs Champions Tour Pro Am

During the tournament Schultz and Am partner, Ollie Neumann caught most of their smallmouth on Elite Series Marabou Jigs and a Nedster. Noah used the 3/32 oz black Marabou jig but switched it up to a brown once the bugs started hatching. ā€œLooking back, it sounds like I shouldā€™ve switched up to the 1/16 oz Marabou,ā€ said Noah.

The duo jumped out to an early lead after the first hour of fishing, with 19 lb 9 oz for six bass, and finished up the day in fourth place with 34 lb 13 oz, including a healthy 5 lb 10 oz kicker fish. The main difference in their day was fishing the lighter 1/8 oz Nedster head. ā€œThe fish seemed to really want the bait moving slow,ā€ said Noah.

Following up on his successful Champions Tour event on Lake Okoboji, Dane Vocelka caught 32 lb 11 oz of smallmouth bass to finish the Pro-Am in 12th place, with Am angler Quinn Gare.

Like many of the other anglers, Dane was fishing shallow flats that were adjacent to large spawning boulders. ā€œI through the Elite Series Marabou Jig in 1/16 oz, in both Black and Purple, and then the Brown one,ā€ said Dane. ā€œI just love the fluff and fall rate of our Marabou Jig.ā€

Right behind Dane, was Joel Willert who had just under 15 lbā€™s for three bass in the first thirty minutes of fishing. Willert and Am angler Avery Jarvi finished the day in 13th place with 32 lb 8 oz. Willert and Jarvi used the Nedster 3/16 oz with a TRD soft plastic to fishing boulders, both shallow and deep. ā€œI had productive boulders deep (18ā€™ to 20ā€™) and shallow (4ā€™ to 6),ā€ said Joel. ā€œIt really came down to covering water and getting your bait in front of the right smallmouth.ā€

The Champions Tour will hold its second regular season event of the year on Gull Lake on Tuesday, July 16th.

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