The average bass angler has probably never heard of the Saranac Chain of Lakes. You won't see the lakes listed on the B.A.S.S. or FLW Tour tournament schedules, or on anyone's list of dream bass-fishing destinations. But for competitors in this year's Great Outdoor Games' bass fishing tournament, the Saranac Chain of Lakes offers all the structure, vegetation, and water types an angler needs.

"It has everything you could ever dream of as a fisherman," said Carl Svebek, one of 10 anglers who fished the Saranac Chain of Lakes in the 2000 Games. "There's rocks, milfoil, deep water, shallow water, stumps, structure, and the river usually has a steady current. It's the perfect setting for bass."

Because ice covers the lake for a good part of the year, the fishing season on the Saranac Chain is relatively relatively short and pressure is light.

Hopes & Worries
Although it offered a lot of hope for last year's competitors, the expectations were tempered with a lot of worry. "It was untested water. In fact it was so untested, the ESPN organizers didn't even know if we would catch a fish. So we didn't know what to expect," Svebek said. Even after the fishing proved excellent, the worries didn't end — competitors still didn't know what they needed put in the box in order to compete. "I didn't know if it would take 8 pounds to win, or 18 pounds," Svebek said. "I just knew I could catch fish in a lot of different ways."

Variety was definitely the theme for the tourney. Peter Thliveros won the gold medal flipping a tube jig in grass beds. Scott Martin won the silver medal fishing a Carolina rig and topwater bait around grass beds, while Randy Blaukat threw a jig to win the bronze. Other patterns were almost as fruitful. Steve Daniels, a jerkbait expert, caught limits each day on a jerkbait, Clark Wendlandt did the same on spinnerbaits and Randy Howell had similar results on a topwater plug. "Everyone was doing something different," Svebek said, who at one time lead the tournament fishing a wacky worm. "And everyone had success fishing to their strengths."

With a year to think about last year's performance, Svebek says he would do things differently if he had the chance. He would have spent more time pitching a jig or tube into the grass, mimicking the winning pattern. "I would do that, not because Peter won the tournament doing so, but because that was probably what you had to do to catch the bigger fish," Svebek says. "But that doesn't mean that was the only way to catch the bigger fish."

A Look Ahead
The diversity of the Saranac Chain of Lakes has the ability to produce in a lot of winning ways. Each of the eight lakes in the chain is different. Some are deep and clear, others have grass beds and a well-defined creek channel, still others have open water and plenty of bluffs. If that weren't enough to pique the interests of bass anglers, there are lakes with lock systems that allow anglers to move into the river system. "And everywhere you go, you can catch fish," Svebek said. "Last year I was catching 25 keepers a day. I couldn't get enough of it."

That will likely be the case for the anglers in this year's event as well. Svebek says the lake will play well into the hands of such noted jig fishing anglers as Denny Brauer and David Walker, and crankbait specialists like Rick Clunn and David Fritts, or Mike Wurm, a Carolina-rig expert. Each of these anglers has a chance to qualify for the event. And Svebek anticipates the lake will allow each of them to be a factor in the tournament.

"They could all win it fishing to their strengths," Svebek says. "That's what makes the ESPN Great Outdoor Games so unique--anybody can win it with what they do best. But the gold medalist will have to be doing what he does best better than anyone else."