Shpack Manhandles Manchaug

John Shpack dominated at Manchaug on Avid’s second visit here, and first during the peak summer boating season. His monster sack of 17.31 lbs. was in stark contrast to the paltry winning weights of recent tournaments held on this body of water.

Expectations were kept in check heading into the event given the lake’s recent output, the weather forecast of hot, humid blue-sky weather and crazy midsummer boat traffic. The weather, however, turned out to be on the anglers’s side for most of the day, with overcast and showers for much of the morning with little wind. This in turn kept the recreational boating to a minimum and the lake much more fisherman-friendly. Water temps were in the low 80s and the water quality was excellent. About midday the skies cleared and the breeze picked up, shutting down the bite and beckoning the weekend boaters. Most anglers reported very few afternoon bites.

Successful tactics included a morning topwater bite, chatterbait, and dropshotting. Most of the better fish caught came from 8-10-foot depths or greater.

Following John in second place was Dave Waugh, who weighed a limit of 5 largemouth at 12.05 that included the day’s lunker, a 5.67 lb. fish. In third was Jeff Jenness whose 4 largies tallied 5.68 lbs after a .5-pound penalty for 2 dead fish.

Next up is our first visit to Billington Sea on September 18.