The 2024 TBF NSF Division 15 practice on Lake Champlain in Ticonderoga NY began with clear skies, almost no wind and glass calm water. These conditions remained constant the entire event, something rarely ever seen on Lake Champlain. Practice days were good with numerous good largemouth and smallmouth bass reported being caught.
Saturday, Day 1 of the event, began with a 2 hour fog delay. Fishing in the Ticonderoga area, CT Boater Keith Cleary ended up at the top of the Day 1 leaderboard with 19.76 lbs of largemouth. CT Boater Dave Mathieu was close behind with 18.45 lbs of smallmouth. CT Non Boater Paul Bossardet topped the non boater side with 14.32 lbs of both largemouth and smallmouth. Finishing in a close second behind Bossardet was NJ Non Boater Tyler Schulte with 13.11 lbs.
Sunday, Day 2, started with a 3 hour fog delay that hurt anglers looking to make a long run north. CT’s Keith Cleary again found the fish weighing in the largest bag of the tournament, 20.77 lbs of largemouth bass. Close behind was NJ Boater Robert Stock with 18.91 lbs. On the Non Boater side NJ Non Boater Karl Lightner found the fish and weighed in 14.22 lbs of bass. Right behind Lightner was CT Non Boater Paul Bossardet with another strong finish of 12.70 lbs.
CT Boater Keith Cleary had the overall winning weight with a 2 day total of 40.53 lbs of largemouth bass. Cleary also had the Big Bag 20.77 lbs and Big Bass of the tournament with a 5.37 lb largemouth. In 2nd place was CT Boater Dave Mathieu with 34.96 lbs, 3rd was NJ Boater Ian Martins with 32.89, 4th NJ Boater Robert Stock with 32.27 lbs and in 5th place was CT Boater Sam Leary with 30.88 lbs.
On the Non Boater side CT’s Paul Bossardet took the win with 27.02 lbs. In 2nd place was CT’s Fred Perry with 21.15 lbs, 3rd NJ’s Tyler Schulte 21.02 lbs, 4th Nick Angiulo with 20.18 lbs and in 5th was NJ’s Charles Tuite with 18.47 lbs. Non Boater big bass, a 4.8 lb bass, was caught by NJ’s Frank McMahon.
State Pride was won by Team New Jersey.