PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (Aug. 4, 2025) – Boater Jason Knapp of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, caught a five-bass limit weighing 23 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Lake Champlain. The tournament was the third event of the season for the BFL Northeast Division. Knapp earned $3,756 for his victory.
Knapp took the scenic route Saturday, running more than 65 miles south on Lake Champlain to secure the win. The Pennsylvania boater targeted shallow-water largemouth in overlooked areas, flipping and casting homemade jigs to isolated stretches of unpressured grass. Knapp focused on milfoil in 3 to 4 feet of water and mixed patches of arrowhead pads and reeds in as shallow as 1 to 2 feet.
“My initial plan was to fish for both smallmouth and largemouth shallow,” Knapp said. “But the largemouth bite down south was too good to leave. I don’t think I saw another boat all day, I had it to myself.”
Knapp relied on black 3/4- and 1-ounce homemade jigs, pairing them with a green-pumpkin Strike King Rage Craw trailer. He caught 10 to 12 fish throughout the day, including a few smallmouth early that were later culled out as he upgraded with quality largemouth from his key stretches.
“The key to victory was definitely finding fish that weren’t being pressured,” Knapp said. “I had a few small stretches of grass that were holding the right ones, and being that far away from the crowd made all the difference.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Jason Knapp, Uniontown, Pa., five bass, 23-14, $3,756
2nd: Noah Winslow, Naugatuck, Conn., five bass, 21-11, $1,878
3rd: Rob Cruvellier, Alburgh, Vt., five bass, 21-6, $1,253
4th: Jedediah Worthington, Morrisville, Vt., five bass, 21-2, $876
4th: Stephen Estes, Auburn, N.H., five bass, 21-1, $751
6th: Brody Campbell, Oxford, Ohio, five bass, 20-4, $689
7th: Josh Kauffman, Marysville, Pa., five bass, 20-2, $626
8th: Christopher Dam, Staatsburg, N.Y., five bass, 20-0, $563
9th: Tom Balachvili, Scarsdale, N.Y., five bass, 19-12, $501
10th: Ryan Latinville, Plattsburgh, N.Y., five bass, 19-9, $438
Frank Poirier of Prince George, Virginia, caught a bass that weighed 5 pounds, 13 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $490. Randall Given of Laurel, Delaware, won the co-angler division and $1,840 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 11 ounces.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Randall Given, Laurel, Del., three bass, 12-11, $1,840
2nd: Joseph Amberg Jr., Hawley, Pa., three bass, 11-11, $920
3rd: Jason Grey, Amherst, N.Y., three bass, 11-10, $612
4th: Brian Brockett, Pine Bush, N.Y., three bass, 11-7, $429
5th: Jared Leicht, Millville, N.J., three bass, 11-4, $353
5th: Logan Bloomfield, East Berlin, Pa., three bass, 11-4, $353
7th: Gerald Dam, Pine Plains, N.Y., three bass, 11-3, $307
8th: Leo Perez, Rosenhan, N.J., three bass, 11-2, $276
9th: Reshawn Lowe, York, Pa., three bass, 11-1, $245
10th: Timothy Rougier, Watertown, N.Y., three bass, 11-0, $215
Reshan Lowe of York, Pennsylvania, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $240, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 2 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
After three events, Josh Kauffman of Marysville, Pennsylvania, now leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 717 points, while Gerald Dam of Pine Plains, New York, leads the Fishing Clash Northeast Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 723 points.
The next event for BFL Northeast Division anglers will be held Aug. 23, at Oneida Lake out of Brewerton, New York.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-champlain-8425.html
BFL News Archive