Dad and I headed up north a few weeks ago to close up the house for the winter. Naturally, the allure of Lake Champlain was too much for us to resist, so we hauled the boat up to Port Henry to fish Bulwagga Bay.
The water was very cold (approximately 50 degrees here and there), so I was worried it might be tough to get bites. Luckily, the fish were hungry and we ran into them consistently along the western shore. While we made plenty of casts directly towards the rip rap, the largest and most consistent fishing was slightly further out in about 10′ of water.
The cut held fish as always, but they weren’t stacked up there like they are at times. Rather, we caught them along the entire shoreline.
I had started the day with three rods: a jerkbait, a spinnerbait, and a lipless crank. It soon became apparent that the lipless crank was the only thing fish wanted, so that is what we stuck with.
Dad with the big fish of the day, caught a bit out from the rip rap.
Here are the key facts about this fishing trip. Hopefully it helps one of you on your next adventure to Bulwagga Bay!
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022
Time: Midafternoon
Water Temps: 50 degrees surface
Weather: Slight chop with overcast clouds
Location: Bulwagga Bay, Western Shore near rip rap
Presentations: Red Rat-L-Trap
20 largemouth bass taken, largest approximately 3.5lbs
Notes: Most fish taken off shore slightly – approximately 10′ of water in submerged weeds.
Other Thoughts
As usual, Lake Champlain didn’t disappoint. While Bulwagga Bay isn’t necessarily on every bass fisherman’s radar, it has deep water along the western shore, and is near a great boat launch that works year round, even in drought. You might consider it if you’re in the area.
I’ve found this to be an absolutely crazy summer where I haven’t had much time to write. Work has been incredibly stressful lately given how understaffed we (like everyone, it seems) have been, and trying to hire some good people and retain many more. I’ve also gone completely bananas by what’s going on in the stock market and that has taken a good deal of my free time as well! The low water levels at Lake Champlain haven’t helped, either. Normally, I could get my boat to my dock through at least August but this year I couldn’t even bring it there in July. All this conspired to mean that there weren’t as many fishing adventures in 2021 as in years past, but I was able to get a quick ride north in this weekend to Bulwagga Bay with the wife and kids.
A Quick Jaunt to Bulwagga Bay
When I was last at Champlain in July, I had a hard time even launching my boat at the Crown Point boat launch. While I love my Lund Impact, it isn’t the easiest boat to launch in shallow water. Given the Lake Champlain water level reports were showing comparable levels for this trip, I decided to take the kids up to Bulwagga Bay instead.
Bulwagga Bay has been very good to me the past few years. I’ve had good luck trolling for pickerel in its southern, weed-choked shallows, and had great success throwing Rat-L-Traps along its western rip rap shore this year. I opted to stick to the latter with the kids as the very dry year has meant an abundance of shallow water weeds to contend with, and I figured the deeper water would give us the best chance.
As I was taking my daughter, I knew I’d only have a short time. She’s still very young (3) and isn’t quite as enamored with fishing as my son was. She enjoys it and asks to go frequently, but if the action isn’t hot and heavy she has a hard time staying focused for more than an hour or two. That meant focusing on presentations I knew would work. I tied on a white war eagle spinnerbait while I handed my son a drop shot with a live worm.
The Results:
My son beat me four fish to two and won the coveted prizes of “most fish,” “biggest fish,” “smallest fish,” and “most species.” In other words, he thrashed me on all accounts! While he was using nightcrawlers, he wasn’t just letting it sit there. Instead, he brought the worm back towards the boat with a a series of short hops. While the western shore of Bulwagga Bay is fairly deep, we were catching them close to shore in what is probably 3-4′ of water.
A yellow perch caught in Bulwagga Bay, Lake Champlain.
Surprisingly, that was the only yellow perch we caught. Even though my son was using nightcrawlers, all of his bites were big. This probably was due to our focusing on weed beds vs. the rocks directly, as there are a few spots in that bay where you are nearly guaranteed a feast of rock bass and other panfish.
A nice photo with the kids.
It certainly wasn’t the longest trip out there, but it was nice to take the kids up one last time. While fishing on Lake Champlain is great in the fall, it’ll get a bit too cold for them going forward and if I go, I’m going alone from here on to close out the year.
Useful Information
Granted this is a short post so here’s a few useful tidbits for anyone following and to help you with your own October trips to Bulwagga Bay.
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2021
Time: Roughly noon
Water Temps: 65 degrees at surface
Weather: Slight chop but mostly clear skies with a few whispy clouds
Location: Bulwagga Bay, Western Shore near rip rap
Presentations: White spinnerbaits (2 fish), drop shot with nightcrawler (4 fish)
5 largemouth bass taken, largest approximately 2 pounds.
Sorry for the short post but hopefully this helps someone.
I’ve been working with my son lately on persistence and keeping a positive attitude. He, like every normal six year old, is starting to notice that life doesn’t always work out exactly as planned, and it’s my job to help him figure out how to “keep calm and carry on.” He got a great lesson in why persistence pays off this past week when my father and I took my son on a fishing charter with my old friend Captain Mick Maynard of www.lakechamplainangler.com to try some vertical jigging for lake trout on Lake Champlain. Many things didn’t break our way until our grinding finally paid off and resulted in some of the best pictures of a smiling six-year-old a father could ever ask for, but it was a nail biter at first for sure.
The Objective
Our objective was simple – put my son on fish. He reeled his first fish in before he was two, so I knew he had a good chance of prevailing. All the same, I was pretty nervous. Lake trout are formidable opponents, and jigging for them is something I knew nothing about. Further, my boy has rapidly reached the point in his fishing career where he gets annoyed when he doesn’t catch a fish “all by himself.” That’s not to say he won’t happily run over to reel in any rod you hand him, but I knew I’d hear all about it if he didn’t hook up with one on his own.
I really wanted my son to have a good time out there, and hoped we could pull it off. All the same, going for lakers very much violates my maxim of “quantity over quality” when fishing with kids. I spent a good amount of time over the past several weeks coaching my son. We discussed how he couldn’t expect many bites, and he might not catch anything. I told him he couldn’t get frustrated or bored – we would have to keep plugging away.
Luckily, I could say for sure that Captain Mick would do his best for us. I’ve been fishing with him for over a decade and he checks every box when it comes to picking a good fishing charter. My son seemed reassured by this and I told him to trust Mickey and do exactly what he said. I hoped that he’d remember that and keep a good attitude despite being pulled out of bed at 3 a.m.
It was a sleepy start to the day!
Obstacle #1 – The Weather
We’ve been trying to get out jigging for lake trout with Captain Mick for a few years now. This is an open water sport on Lake Champlain, so you do need to pick your days. Unfortunately, we’ve had to either cancel a few trips the past few years or go to “Plan B” of a more shallow water attack given rough weather. Even on this trip, we had the dreaded, “The forecast isn’t good, but it’s your call” conversation the night before. Once again, I managed to pick the one day of the week that called for a deluge of rain. Even so, there wasn’t any indication of thunderstorms and the wind wasn’t supposed to be too bad, so we decided to go for it.
A double edged sword about fishing on Lake Champlain is that the weather reports are typically useless. You have to understand that the counties and towns are so vast up in the north country that even a guarantee of sunshine or rain is nothing of the sort. You can very easily find yourself in a situation where you’re either staring at rain far in the distance or being surprised by a microburst that rushes down from the Adirondacks before you can react.
It’s so unpredictable that I’ve taken to say that people don’t get to become meteorologists until they’ve killed at least three fishermen. Most times, Murphy’s Law dictates that this isn’t going to work out your way. I guess on July 8, 2021, someone up there was looking out for my son. While there was a bit more wind than forecast early, after a few hours in the wind piped down and we had perfect conditions for jigging.
Early in the morning and so far so good…
Obstacle #2 – Finding Lake Trout
The next obstacle we had to overcome was finding lake trout. When you’re fishing for them in the summer, you’re going out deep. On Champlain that meant heading far out into the main lake. The vastness of this habitat cannot be overstated, and fish are known to swim around! Unfortunately we didn’t find too many spots that held a huge number of fish so we were dropping down on little groups of 2-3 hoping to entice a bite. We spent a good amount of time moving around – the deep water equivalent of power fishing, I suppose, but aided by Mick’s extremely cool 15″ Humminbird fish finder. If my moon tickets ever take off, I’ll have to buy one!
Where to Find Lake Trout
I’m not going to give Mickey’s spots away, but I think it’s fair to at least explain what we were looking for so you can try and jig for lake trout yourself. Basically, it all boils down to structure, as with any other fish. You’re going to want a good topographical map that has detailed depth contours (here’s a link to a great topographical map of Lake Champlain). Depending on the time of year, lake trout will hold at different depths. We fished in 80 – 110 feet of water or so in early July. Earlier in the year (March, April) you can find them shallower as evidenced by those going after them in Bulwagga Bay. Later in the year, Mick tells me you need to go even deeper (120+ feet).
While depth is important, the contour lines are even more so. Basically, you’re looking for humps, reefs, points, or other interesting topography. It’s not really that different than analyzing a shoreline – you’re just doing so with structure that lies 100 feet under water. Structure that you’d be interested in fishing if seen on the surface will likely hold fish down below as well.
Once you get to these spots, you’re going to want to use your fish finder to zero in on fish. Specifically, you’re looking for fish cruising just off the bottom (1-3′) as these will be actively feeding. You’ll see them show up almost as “snakes” on the fish finder. They look like big fat strings of yellow and red just off the surface. Once you find them, try to hold over them and drop your lure straight down. This is much easier with a Minn Kota Terrova or other trolling motor with a spot-lock feature. If you are unfamiliar with this great product, check out my review on the Minn Kota Terrova.
When searching for Lake Trout, look for structure such as underwater points (A) or humps (B) in the right depth zone.
Obstacle #3 – Hooking, Fighting, and Landing Lake Trout
Once you find lake trout, you have to get them to bite. Again, I don’t want to give away Mick’s secrets as his livelihood depends on them, but I don’t think it’s shocking to tell you that you jig for lake trout with, well, jigs. We used a particular large soft plastic on them, though I suppose others would work as well. These are big fish and they are deep so you’re using heavy jig weights to reach the bottom quickly, and large lures to entice fish to bite.
As with most fishing, the trick to triggering bites was to add some erratic action to your lure. It’s really no different than a jerkbait, jig, or even twitching a spinnerbait as you burn it in. The erratic action mimics prey trying to escape and triggers a predatory response. The difficulty is that you’re fishing so far down that it takes forceful jolts of the rod to get the action you want. We tried to keep our lures just off the bottom and get them flaring out as best as possible. If your lure was too far off the bottom or laying directly on it, you weren’t going to get many bites.
Challenges when Jigging for Lake Trout
Our biggest challenge by far was hooking lake trout well enough that we could get them to the boat. While it wasn’t too difficult to solicit a bite, getting them to the boat was another story entirely. Point in fact, we lost our first SEVEN fish that hooked up with before we started to get the hang of things, and probably lost close to two dozen before the day was through. Our landing percentage was very similar to what you would expect when fishing with frogs.
There were several issues we had to contend with:
We were fishing at depths of 80 – 120 feet or more which made a solid hook set difficult;
Lake trout have very bony mouths and we were using large hooks on heavy jigs that have difficulty penetrating them;
We were all doing our best to put my kid on fish, which meant handing him the rod after we hooked up a fish.
The Hook Set
An authoritative hook set is critical, and at these depths that means using braided line and stout tackle. Captain Mick set us up with his Vexan Rods paired with Lews reels. These were spooled with braided line that seemed to be about 20lb test. We were using 17lb test fluorocarbon leaders though Mick mentioned that 20lb is also worth using. These combos allowed us to get a pretty good hook set into the fish, but only if you were paying close attention. If distracted and forced to set the hook awkwardly, it was a pretty good bet that fish was coming off.
Bony mouths require solid hooksets when jigging for lake trout.
Keeping Constant Pressure
Assuming you were able to drive the hook point into the fish’s boney mouth, the next challenge was keeping it there. Even the slightest slack in the line, it seemed, caused these fish to get away. It was extremely important to keep a constant bend in the rod and pressure on the fish to keep the hook pinned into its jaw.
This of course is easier said than done when trying to hand off a rod to a six-year-old. This is not a fish you can give a single inch! It took us several tries before we got it right. At least my boy got a good lesson in not giving up.
Persistence Pays Off
Eventually, we got the hang of things, “Murphy” took a coffee break, and we started landing fish. To say my kid had a blast was an understatement. To say the three adults in the boat were relieved would be the understatement of the year. As mentioned, we’d lost so many fish between us, and you never know how many chances you’re going to get — you need to convert. We were all ecstatic when we finally did.
If that isn’t the look of relief on a Captain’s face, I don’t know what is!
Once we beat the skunk, we had much better luck for the remainder of the day. So much so that we even managed to get a triple. That was something after how many fish we lost during the morning, but it’s a photo I’ll cherish for a long time – three generations and three lake trout in the boat. You never know how many more opportunities you’ll get to do this, and God blessed us with the chance.
Three generations fishing together – this is what it’s all about.
Other Fun – Lamprey Eels
Lake trout weren’t the only entertainment. My son also had a lot of fun playing with the lamprey eels that often came up with them. He’s your typical boy when it comes to handling critters. He spends many of his weekends prowling local ponds for crayfish, frogs, and turtles, so handling lampreys was no big deal for him. These provided an interesting distraction and something cool he could tell his mom about.
Let no man call my son squeamish.
The Kicker Fish
While my son did reel in several fish that others hooked, I am beyond thrilled to say that he hooked and fought several fish, including the largest of the day, all on his own. The biggest of the day went 32.5″, and 11lb 10 oz. It was considerably larger than most of the others we boated, and was nearly as tall as my boy!
He was extremely excited about this and couldn’t wait to go home and tell all of his friends. He’s even willing to show them the picture, “even though he’s smiling” in it 🙂
To me, this was the photo that sealed the deal as another great charter with Captain Mick and a wonderful memory with my boy that we’ll talk about for years to come. It also was a day that provided a valuable lesson in I’d say for a six-year-old, it’s not too shabby! Many thanks to Captain Mick for putting my son on fish and helping me put some great photos in the family album!
His smile says it all – this is a far bigger fish than any I caught when I was his age.
You know how “every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings?” Well, every time a fisherman dies, a meteorologist gets their veneers. That saying was reinforced on a recent fishing trip to Lake Champlain with my buddy, Andrew, when my trusty Lund Impact, “Penelope,” nearly did a backflip heading home from Bulwagga Bay. To say we were a little puckered by the experience would be an understatement, but hey, we made it back and with some great fishing pictures to boot!
The Gear
Andrew’s kids had stolen all of his rods so I loaned him two. One had a Rat-L-Trap on it, and the other a Rapala Shadow Rap. Andrew was throwing these in yellow perch while I used a cherry craw trap and a clown jerkbait. While we played with a Senko for a few minutes in a bay eventually and I caught one fish on a drop shot with a Berkley Gulp minnow, the Rat-L-Trap and Shadow Rap caught every other fish for us.
Friday, April 30, 2021 Lake Champlain Fishing Report
Andrew and I headed up to Champlain early Friday morning. It’s a four hour drive but it flew by with anticipation. Those of you who keep up with the blog know that Dad and I absolutely slayed the fish a few weeks earlier, so we were darn near giddy to make a cast. We hadn’t been in Crown Point for more than 30 minutes before everything was set and we were on the water.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s always a little difficult when you haven’t been to a lake for several weeks. You aren’t going to know exactly where the fish will be, so you have to make educated guesses. This time of year, that usually means the fish are going to be on rocks. All the same, given the crazy weather they’ve had up there this year, I wasn’t sure if that would hold true, or if fish would have pushed into the weedy shallow bays already as they often do in Mid to late May on Lake Champlain. We decided we’d give both a shot.
The Weather Conditions
Friday was a cold and miserable day with drizzling rain throughout it. By the end of it, apparently a hurricane blew through (joking but not really) right around the bridge. Saturday was warmer and sunnier. We weren’t able to fish on Sunday as I had to rush home to get my son off to hockey.
Most of the places we fished had water temps between 50-55 on Friday. On Saturday morning they’d chilled down considerably to 47 but were up to 56 in some areas by nightfall.
First Thing’s First: Rocky Points
We tried our luck first by fishing a few rocky points south of the Crown Point Bridge. We didn’t spend too much time on them because we were planning on Friday being the scouting day, but managed a couple of largemouth and pike. Nothing too crazy but at least we got the skunk out of the boat.
I wasn’t complaining!
On to Some Bays
We then went across the lake to some New York bays. They still didn’t have many weeds in them which is good, but on the other hand the water remains about two feet low. I couldn’t get my deep v back into them the way I usually do this time of year. We putted around a bit and caught a couple of fish, but this wasn’t anything to write a blog about. We also tried the bay just north of the mill but didn’t catch a thing. I normally call this “1000 Cast Bay” because it seems like it takes that long to hook into something sometimes, but when you do, there’s a good chance it’s a northern pike. Well, we weren’t hanging around much past 52 casts today before we headed for more rocks.
A nice largemouth pulled out of a bay. It was a little too cold, I think, for many to be in these waters just yet.
Up to Bulwagga Bay
After messing around south of the bridge for most of the afternoon, we decided to blast off towards Bulwagga Bay. The western shoreline is mostly rip rap for a huge stretch and so we figured we might have some luck. Also, it had been raining quite a bit that day and down south was pretty murky. Maybe the clearer water up north would be the ticket.
We worked our way down the shoreline drifting slowly and tossing jerkbaits and Rat-L-Traps. The action wasn’t as fierce as a few weeks ago, but we were averaging a couple of fish an hour, and they were all of good size. We didn’t catch a single fish that wouldn’t be a keeper if they were in season the entire time we were there. They were hitting on both lures but I’d have to give the nod to the jerkbaits this time around. I caught a northern pike just under the Vermont Master Angler qualifying fish length at 35″ that put up a fun fight. It was challenging getting it into the bass net but Andrew made it happen!
That’s the fish I drove four hours for! Also, note how calm the water is. LIES.
We also managed to get into the bass pretty good. Many were of decent size indeed – the type you wouldn’t be too upset about if you were in a fishing tournament.
A largemouth bass pulled out of Bulwagga Bay.
There were some points along the western shore were the action really heated up. I can’t spill every secret but from the looks of things the next day, the particular spot seems to be a well-known community hole that fishes a little faster than the rest of the rip rap. I’ll leave it at that and let you do your deductions! We found smallmouth and largemouth stacked up there and were catching enough to even have a double.
A nice double of bronze and green fish.
Other Explorations
Of note, we tried much of the rest of Bulwagga Bay too, but didn’t have the same success. There was nothing biting south in the shallow flat, which wasn’t really a surprise, but I was expecting some more action on the rocky northeastern shore. All that we managed was a large yellow perch. We didn’t mess around at all near the hazards this trip.
The Ride Home
Remember how I started this Lake Champlain fishing report complaining about weathermen? They nearly killed us. As you can see in the photos above, Bulwagga Bay was nothing but serene the whole time we were there. Unfortunately we didn’t notice that the winds were picking up considerably in the main lake until it was time to leave.
Now, I don’t want to be the guy that calls a wave a certain size when it really wasn’t. I didn’t have a tape measurer with me and couldn’t pry my white cold knuckles from the steering wheel even if I did. All I know is that we found ourselves in swelling water near the bridge the likes of which I haven’t seen. It was extremely rough swells extremely high in very narrow quarters – not fun. We got through it slowly, doing our best to quarter the waves in the narrow confines, but the boat went close enough to vertical a few times that I found myself looking DOWN at the motor to make sure the stern wasn’t getting swamped as I gunned it up a wave before chopping the throttle to slide down the other side.
In retrospect, the boat handled it well and we didn’t spear any waves or die so I suppose I did too, but it was extremely active driving until about the buoy south of the bridge when things finally calmed down a little bit. Anyway, if you’re new to boating consider reading this great thread on walleyecentral.com where a few Great Lakes captains discuss how they handle rough water. I’m glad I did at one point earlier in life or I wouldn’t have been able to put the knowledge to use and get us out of there.
Saturday, May 1, 2021 Lake Champlain Fishing Report
Having awoken from our nightmares of capsizing and drowning, Andrew and I decided to immediately go back to “the place that almost killed us.” It was a chilly start as the front that almost sunk the boat also brought the water temps down to around 47 degrees. Nonetheless, there were plenty of other boats out in Bulwagga Bay as the fleet was trolling for salmon.
I repeated a mistake that I’ve made several times. If there’s a particular spot you really want to fish, don’t drift to it, especially on a Saturday. If you try to do this, I guarantee another boat will pull up in front of you and sit on it for an hour. That’s exactly what happened to use, so the best action spot entertained others for much of the day. That’s OK – we had our turn with it Friday.
Rocky Points South of the Bridge
Given that we couldn’t do exactly what we wanted to, we decided to work our way south of the bridge applying the same pattern of focusing on rocks. We’d played the rocky point game the day before in the south but hadn’t committed to it like we were now. We blasted down and hit every single one of them until we found one that produced consistent fish. Again, most came on a jerkbait.
I’ve noticed an interesting phenomena over the years fishing the rocky points south of the bridge. For whatever reason, on any given fishing trip it seems like only a few will hold fish. Which one changes each trip! This observation held true this time as well. We caught absolutely nothing on most and then pulled up on one and had a fish every ten minutes or so.
A rocky point we fished. But was it the point that produced, or just a cool picture?
Testing the Vermont Side North of The Bridge
I haven’t spent a whole heap of time fishing north of the bridge on the Vermont side, but the shoreline looks incredible. Since Andrew’s the kind of guy who is down to try new things, we made a few drifts this way and tied into some good fish. Most of them were smallmouth but we managed some pike as well.
I had a very strong bite just north of hospital creek but it broke away before I could see it. Judging by the deep runs, I’m guessing it was a large northern.
Andrew’s Idiot Pike
So Drew caught a small northern pike that probably isn’t going to make it. We threw it back unharmed and it swam off happily enough, but the way we landed it convinced us it’s not playing with a full deck. Andrew caught it on a jerkbait which was properly hooked in its mouth, yet the pike, for whatever reason, came in upside down. If it was foul hooked, I’d get it. This fish was just unique. Maybe it was high from all the wastewater and farming chemicals Vermont dumps into the lake.
We let him go, but I don’t have much faith in this pike lasting much longer.
Calling it a Day With Some Nice Lake Champlain Smallmouth Bass
We finished up the day south of the bridge fishing any rocky shoreline that we could find. Andrew had a pair of gorgeous smallmouth bass, one of which I’ll show the shoreline for, and one of which I won’t! Again, these were all on jerkbaits (the Rapala Shadow Rap in yellow perch, to be precise).
A nice smallmouth on a rocky shore.
With my apologies to Drew, I’m not showing the shoreline on this one!
Until We Meet Again, Lake Champlain
It was another good trip for the books. I haven’t gone fishing with Andrew for years and it was great to have his company out on the water. He’s one heck of a fisherman and I hope we’ll have more reports posted soon. The water remains low but I’m sure there’ll be plenty of other good catches this year on Lake Champlain. Thank goodness I don’t have to go another year without it!
Thanks for reading, everyone! Glad we made it out alive to post this for you!
Those of you who have followed my blog know that I love fishing on Lake Champlain. Everyone should fish it at least once in their life. All the same, as America’s sixth largest lake, it may be a bit daunting the first time you visit. Below, you’ll find a collection of resources available to help you go fishing on Lake Champlain.
If I’m missing a resource or you’d like your website added to this list, please send me an email and I’d be glad to add it.
Since this will be a long article, here are some links to jump to what you want:
Some of the best places to find information about fishing Lake Champlain are fishing forums. In them, you’ll often find fishing reports for specific areas and times of year as well as recommendations on tactics and lures. I’ve found the below to either be active today, or at least archived with very good information from the past. If you know of a forum that is either active or has a useful history, please let me know.
Lake Champlain United Forums – Quite an established forum with 1000’s of topics to use as a resource for fishing Lake Champlain. There is a lot of information about most species the lake has, with a particularly active salmon/lake trout community. There’s also a nice “share a ride” forum that helps you find new friends to fish with.
Fishing Lake Champlain Forums – Another long-established forum with 1000’s of topics on fishing Lake Champlain. There are plenty of fishing reports and more specific information to be found, however the forum activity seems to have died down lately. No matter – there’s still a ton of archived posts to learn from and likely many people checking in from time to time if you happen to have a question.
VTBass Forums – There’s still a few guys who are active. The main draw of this forum is most of the folks concentrate on the southern end of the lake. Many launch from Larrabee’s (across from Ticonderoga) or further south at Benson’s Landing. I’ve found this to be a great resource for fishing that end of the lake.
Bass Resource’s Northeast Bass Fishing Sub-forum – This isn’t a forum devoted to Lake Champlain but as one of the larger bass fishing communities out there, you can find several posts about it if you dig around. This is also a good bet for finding some lakes near Champlain in case the south wind has made life unbearable!
Websites and Blogs
There are several anglers who either maintain or once maintained a website or blog devoted to fishing on Lake Champlain. Again, even the stuff that hasn’t been updated in awhile is a useful historical record. Ever keep a fishing journal? I’ll bet you were glad for anything you wrote, even if it was years past. Here are the websites and blogs that I’m familiar with, but as always, if I’m missing something, let me know.
Note that these are websites devoted to the lake – not websites that happen to have an article about the lake. You can find those in Periodicals further below.
Captain Howard Hammonds’ www.champlainbass.com isn’t updated as much as it used to be, but it still has a number of great fishing reports and articles from years past that you can refer to as a resource for your next visit to Lake Champlain.
New York Department of Environmental Conservation has significant resources about fishing Lake Champlain including shore access information, boat launches, and accessible angler sites. They also have an opportunity to participate in different studies such as a diary program for smelt, lake trout, and salmon anglers.
My website also has a section devoted to Lake Champlain fishing reports that you can access here.
Facebook Groups
As of writing, there are a number of Facebook groups available where you can quickly get information and see fishing reports. It may well be that these are now the new “fishing forums” of the future. There are many groups dedicated to this lake, but here are some of the more active/larger ones. If you’re trying to grow a group and want it included, please send me an email.
Lake Champlain Bass Fishing. Focuses on bass fishing though there are plenty of conversations that spring up about everything else the lake has to offer.
Fishing 802. Not strictly speaking exclusive to Lake Champlain, but plenty of this area code borders the lake. A very robust group with high membership and fishing reports/photos.
Lake Champlain Forecasts/Ice Reports. Another group that tries to help people understand what the weather actually is as opposed to what the weather channel says it is.
There are several anglers out there who are posting video resources of fishing Lake Champlain to YouTube. One nice thing about this is that often they’re hard-pressed to hide where they’re fishing! Many guys will go out of their way not to show background shots on photos that give away their honey holes. This is hard to do on video, so you might get extra clues!
While this media is ever expanding, here’s a few particularly useful videos that I’ve found. You just need to go into their channel to see what else they have. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to their channel. That will encourage them to keep posting more stuff that can help you!
Outdoor Passion has a large number of videos for fishing Lake Champlain, including this great video of jigging for Lake Trout with Captain Maynard. I have a charter booked to do just this in a couple of months and can’t wait!
Here’s another good video with Captain Matt Trombley, this time helping a video production team catch some northern pike. You’ll also note what I mean about videos not hiding the shoreline. There’s some pretty distinctive architecture on some of the lake houses!
Remember those things called books? I sure do. I still love reading (and writing) them! Books are the ultimate resource, so I’ve spent much time trying to find the different books that talk about fishing Lake Champlain. Unfortunately, there aren’t many to begin with, and some are out of print. At least you’ll know what you need to look for on e-Bay.
Lake Champlain Bass Fishing Guide by Don McKee – This book is out of print and extremely hard to find, so you might want to set up an e-Bay alert for it and “Buy it Now” as soon as it’s available. This graced my dad’s coffee table for years and I grew up reading through it. It claims to be “Book I” though I’ve yet to find any others. It covers the southern end of the lake, from Westport to Whitehall.
Bass Fishing 101: Lake Champlain by Dale D. Brown – There are still a select few websites offering this book today. I’d grab yours while you can (I just bought two more). This book covers the entirety of Lake Champlain from South Bay up to Canada and offers a paragraph or two worth of tips of pretty much every bay, cove, and creek along the way.
IF you can find this book, BUY it. Not only does it have fishing tips for the southern end of the lake, but it offers a fascinating look at what local businesses existed years ago. A true time capsule.
While not specifically written about Lake Champlain per say, most of the stories in my book, Fishing with Kids: A Parent’s Guide, take place on the lake, so there are a few hints for fishing it.
Maps and Fishing Spot Guides
There are a few companies that offer fishing maps for Lake Champlain. Here are the ones I’m aware of, as well as links to help you buy them. I’d recommend picking these up. They’re much more convenient for scouring over than a phone. Some are even waterproof so you can bring them on the boat.
Lake Champlain North Detailed Fishing Map – A waterproof map from Fishing Hot Spots that has good tips for people new to the lake. This and the next two maps are a handy resource for anyone planning a fishing trip to Lake Champlain, as it cuts down on a lot of the guesswork.
Lake Champlain South Detailed Fishing Map – The same deal as the first two, but this time for the southern end of the lake, including the vaunted Ticonderoga region.
Fishing charter captains are a living, breathing (sometimes talking) resource about fishing Lake Champlain. Here are the various folks offering fishing trips out on the Lake. If you are a charter captain on the lake and don’t see your name here, please email me and I’ll be sure to add you as well as a link to your website. I’m not leaving anyone out on purpose!
Captain Mick Maynard of www.lakechamplainangler.com (and, if you’re sick of hard water in winter, also of Florida’s Largemouthcentral.com). Captain Mick and I have been fishing together for over a decade now across several states. He’s a great charter captain and one I can’t speak highly enough of. We met when my wife and I were on our honeymoon and he took us out for a charter. We caught every from largemouth and smallmouth bass, northern pike, and even lake trout in eight hours! You can normally find him fishing out of Plattsburgh, NY though he’ll come south a bit for lake trout now and then.
My wife with a nice honeymoon smallmouth Captain Mick Maynard put us on.
Sure Strike Charters, LLC. Though I’ve never had the pleasure of fishing with Captains Brian or Paul Dunkling, their website is filled with testimonials from happy anglers who have. They seem to offer two types of boats, a larger one designed for trolling and a smaller boat for bass and pike trips. They’re based out of Shelbourne, VT, which is a nice town to visit and has plenty to do after the charter.
Captain Mike Tarasavage of iFishLakeChamplain.com is another captain I’ve yet to meet, but I’m familiar with his charters from years of following various Facebook feeds. I’ve only heard good things. Per his website, he will take you fishing for any species, but specializes in lake trout. He’s based out of Plattsburgh, NY.
Fish N Rigg Charters, operated by Captain Bill Gregorek might be a good option for someone with smaller kids/spouses who aren’t too crazy about “the elements.” He fishes off of a 31′ Silverton Flybridge equipped with its own head and plenty of room to get out of the weather. This is going to limit you to fishing for lake trout, salmon, and rainbow trout, but if that’s what you’re looking for, give the captain a call to book a trip based out of Charlotte, Vermont.
Captain Randy’s Relax-N-Reel Fishing Charters out of West Chazy, NY offers cold and warm water species fishing charters on Champlain as well as seasonal (read: winter) trips in south Florida. He has a few boats to choose from depending on what you’re fishing for and your creature comfort needs.
Captain Matt Trombley of 3rd Alarm Charters is a very popular choice. He’s quite active on various Facebook groups and has a strong following. Having honed his craft over thirty years of fishing Lake Champlain, Captain Trombley offers trolling, drift boat trips, casting trips, and ice fishing adventures. This service is based out of Vergennes, VT.
Cloud Nine Charters and its captain, Obe White, offers a unique twist to fishing charters on Lake Champlain. While you can get the standard lake trout and salmon excursion that several other guides offer, he also will take you up into Otter Creek and anchor to catch yellow perch, white perch, and walleye. I haven’t fished with him, but this is an intriguing option that seems like it might be great for kids.
Past Tournament Results
There’s often information you can glean from past tournament results. Either the results themselves have a bit of information tucked away, or at least they give you names to google to see if you can find a news hit with some information on how they won.
There’s so many tournaments on Lake Champlain that it would be an entire series of posts just to try and find them all. I am not Google – they can do that. There is, however, one incredibly great resource: Anglerschannel.com and their link to Lake Champlain. This is basically your one-stop shop for all major tournament information on the lake with numerous articles discussing how various pros did on their fishing tournament on Lake Champlain. Check it out!
Tackle Shops
Sometimes the best place to get information is a tackle shop. Here’s a few links to get you started finding them. Most of the shop owners are happy to act as a resource for fishing Lake Champlain IF you approach them with a question like, “What should I buy that’s working?” They want you to buy more!
I need to put in a little plug for Norm’s Bait and Tackle. Located just west of the Crown Point bridge in Crown Point, NY, Norm’s has everything you need for a good fishing trip. The staff is super helpful and friendly and they’re more than willing to let your kid peek over the fish tanks to see all their live bait. I’ve been going there for years and have never been disappointed with the selection or service. You can also buy fresh food there including fresh-caught yellow perch.
If you aren’t near Norm’s, take a look at the other bait shops around. Don’t be fooled – Plattsburgh has plenty of places you can get tackle too, but it’s mostly big box stores.
Other/Miscellaneous
Here are some other resources about fishing Lake Champlain that just didn’t quite fit anywhere else.
Major League Fishing’s 2019 Challenge Select took place on Lake Champlain. You can stream episodes from Amazon. If you’ve never watched a Major League Fishing event, it’s an interesting format. Given that it relies on total weight vs. top five fish, you get to see what the pros do when they’re fishing for quantity.
I hope you found this article useful. If you have a website featured please consider linking to this to help others find it. If you would like your website added, please send me an email and I’ll be happy to oblige. Also, consider joining FishingFather’s Facebook page so you can keep up-to-date on all new content.
If I were a lizard or some other cold-blooded critter, Lake Champlain would be the rock on which I’d bask. There’s something about fishing there that sets me at ease and warms me to the core. I’ve fished plenty of other places from Florida to Alaska, and while they all were fine, fishing in the north country is something special indeed. It doesn’t hurt that we live near one of the best fishing spots in Lake Champlain, either!
Dad and I returned to the lake this weekend after a long absence, thanks to COVID-19. We didn’t manage to fish more than an hour or two in all of 2020, but we returned with a vengeance. While we spent most of our time there opening up the house, we did manage to get out for several hours Saturday and enjoy a May-like day on April 10. The weather was perfect, the fish were biting, and I and found one of the best rat-l-trap colors out there. It’s a little gem they call “cherry craw,” but which I’m forever going to call “the Vader.” All this set us up for one of the more memorable trips in some time. After our long absence, it was almost like the lake was welcoming us back home.
A Special Kind of Day…
I was prepared for a long weekend of vacuuming bugs, trying to get the sulfur smell out of the water pipes, and not much else. Most years, April is the time for the salmon trollers and diehard anglers. When I make my way up there, even much later in the month, it’s usually a frigid day spent clawing for a few scarce bites, so I wasn’t expecting much.
This weekend flipped that script. Friday and Saturday were both in the mid-70’s. The water temps in several areas were pushing 56 to 57 degrees. The water was glass flat and calm. It was as though someone stole a day from May and plunked it on the calendar four weeks early.
Well, that changed things in a hurry. The bugs were vacuumed up in haste, the pipes probably still smell like sulfur, but the boat was gassed up and launched and off we went.
If you get a day this nice and calm on Lake Champlain in early April, you go fishing. End of story.
The Afternoon Bite
Dad and I got out on the water around noon. We figured this would be fine for this time of year — it would give the water a little time to warm up and the fish to get going. It paid off.
When it comes to Lake Champlain south of the Crown Point bridge, there’s always a question of which side to fish. While you can find diverse cover on both banks, the New York side, for the most part, tends to have wide, shallow, weedy bays. Vermont, on the other hand, finds the shoreline much closer to the drop off and significantly rockier. Largemouth bass are found on both sides routinely while most smallmouth are taken on the Vermont side in my experience. If you fish there all the time, you’re going to get pretty well keyed in on where to go, but since this was our first trip of the year, it was anyone’s guess.
After a short discussion, we decided that we’d start in New York and see if any fish were sunning themselves in the shallow bays. I had a Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap tied on while Dad was throwing a scatter rap. Most times of the year, the New York side would get too weed-chocked to use these, but as of now there weren’t many weeds in yet and we were able to get them through OK if we kept our rod tips higher.
Good Ol’ Chainsides for the First Bite
There was a little breeze coming from the south, so we motored up that way and drifted across what will become a grass flat in a few weeks. It was a little slow going at first until we came across some clearer water towards the north end of the bay. There, a few good-sized chain pickerel were lying in wait. We hooked up with three good fish to get the skunk out of the boat.
Not a bad chain pickerel to start off the season!
To Vermont!
Even though we caught a few chains on the New York side, they weren’t exactly lighting us up. We decided to head over to Vermont and start casting to rocky points. Again, we let the wind drift us down considerable shoreline. It’s the same area Dad used to take me fishing when I was a little kid. It feels good to repay the favor 30 years later and gets me a little sentimental at times. It’s interesting how the roles have reversed. Now I’m doing everything from boat control to taking care of tangles so he doesn’t jab himself with the hooks trying to free his own lures.
We stuck with the same lures, and here’s where that Rat-L-Trap really started to shine. Numerous largemouth and smallmouth bass were had, with the biggest smallie going 20″. They were fighting aggressively and it was all I could do to keep them from jumping.
This would qualify as a Master Angler fish but I only have the NY license. Maybe next time!
We got into maybe 12-15 fish on the Vermont side over the course of an hour or two. Most of them were decent size, some 3 – 4lbs, certainly, with a few fat enough that they might have been pushing 5lb (though that also could just be the long, COVID-compelled forced respite talking too)!
We stink at selfie’s.
Fishing with Friends
The action was consistent and no one was complaining, but Dad wanted to get back and do some chores (he hates vines and needs to cut them on sight), so I headed back to the dock. We swapped passengers there, as my friend and his son came out with me to catch up and catch fish.
We started off on the Vermont side and Jay’s son caught this beauty of a largemouth. It gave him a good fight and acrobatic show and you can tell from his smile, he was pleased. After fishing Vermont for a bit we thought we’d head back to New York and see if we could entice a cat or bowfin on a minnow, but they weren’t biting. The kid did land another good bass there though, so he was happy.
Smiles like this are the whole reason I made FishingFather.
The Evening Bite
When Jay and his son had to go home for dinner, Dad and I went back out on the glass-calm lake to stretch out every last inch of sunlight. I again tossed out the Rat-L-Trap (that I being very gingerly with, might I add–I retied nearly every fish as I only had one of that color) while Dad started using a Rapala Shadow Rap. These are great jerkbaits for early in the year especially. They seem to catch more fish than X-Raps, but the issue is they’re nowhere near as hardy. They have thin wire hooks that are annihilated by any good sized fish, and Dad had several.
Dad with a nice smallmouth bass.
The lake was special that day. Again, it was like a day in May tossed into the beginning of April – quite unheard of if you ask me, but I’ll take it. I know the big man in the sky has plenty of other issues to deal with far greater than me, but I swear, the times Dad and I have really needed a good fishing trip, he’s delivered. This trip reminded me quite a bit of one six years ago when Dad lost his mother, my grandmother. Everything seemed to align, the fish were eager to bite, and we managed to land all the big ones. We held out as long as we could before heading back in. Multiple bass of good size were landed before we called it a night.
Lake Champlain is my happy place, and this photo makes it easy to see why.
While I think every fisherman has a few Rat-L-Traps in their tackle box, I’ve never really committed to fishing one for an evening like I did last Saturday. I’m glad I did, though, as I was definitely getting more bites on them than Dad did on the scatter rap during the day (the shadow rap gave a good accounting for itself later on).
You know a guy is working out well for his sponsors when he’s convincing folks who haven’t fished with him for years to go buy all of their products. It has been a few years since I’ve fished with Captain Mick, but I’ve been following him on Facebook with envy seeing all the huge fish he’s bringing his charter clients daily. I know he’s been on the Pro Staff for Bill Lewis lures for a bit now, and I also know he doesn’t just endorse anything. It’s one thing for a professional tournament angler to pitch a product, but quite another for a charter guide who is responsible for putting all their clients, with varying skill sets, on fish. The charter captains aren’t going to push lures that don’t work, or they won’t be charter captains for long.
That’s my theory, anyway, so when Mick keeps posting lures he’s using on Facebook, I trust him that he’s actually using them and that they actually work. Seeing that he had a really good Friday, I picked up a couple of 1/2 oz Rat-L-Traps at Wal-Mart in Ti on the way up. I decided to go with cherry craw just because red lures seem to work well early in the season for me. I only thought to grab two because I figured I’d be throwing a jerkbait before too long.
A nice sized largemouth bass caught on this Rat-L-Trap
How to Fish a Rat-L-Trap
There’s no wrong way to fish a Rat-L-Trap. You can burn them back to the boat, work them back in on a series of snap jerks and flutter falls, or run them over the top of submerged weeds, “ticking” every one of them on the way back and hoping for a strike. This weekend, however, I went with a slow roll and banged it up against all sorts of rocks and cover trying to elicit a response. I figured it made sense to slow things down given the water temps weren’t even 60 degrees yet, nice though the day was.
Best Rat-L-Trap Colors?
Whatever one works, of course! As mentioned, I was throwing red this time around. In the past, when I’ve bought them I’ve tended to load up with some sort of silver baitfish look, or a yellow perch variation. Red is usually a pretty good color for lures early in the year as well as on overcast days, especially in murky water like so much of Lake Champlain is south of the bridge. If I was fishing in Bulwagga Bay, I likely would have gone with the perch or baitfish.
Captain Mick, you are an expensive friend to have.
Other Observations
The lake is LOW. Scary low. So scary low, that I’m concerned when I return with my family in a few more weeks, we might not be able to use our dock. Normally, it works just fine through August, when things start to get a little hairy. This year, however, it seems to be several feet lower than normal. It’s only at 96.55 feet. I’m sure some expert out there could tell me how close to record that is or isn’t. All I know is that this time of year, I’d expect the water to be up to at least two or maybe three of these blocks.
The water is way lower than I expected it. I’m usually fishing off the second one in May.
I sure hope the place gets some rain before we head back up there. While the town launch isn’t exactly far, it’s a pain with small kids and I’d certainly prefer to just dock the boat all week. There’s also the matter of wanting my daughter to get a chance to fish off our dock. It’s going to be hard to do that in 6″ of water!
Until Next Time…
It was a much-needed trip and I’m blessed God made the weather and fish so cooperating. It’s always hard to leave all the fish Lake Champlain alone again, though I’m sure they’ll have others to keep them company. I’m looking forward to returning, though I don’t know what this early break will mean for the spawn or season. If I were the fish, I’d be thinking about spawning now while there’s still some water in the lake, as the levels are quite concerning.
What a glorious view.
Well, there’s nothing that can be done about that, I suppose. I’ll just have to sit here and bide my time until I can return to Lake Champlain for another great fishing trip with Dad. Until then, I’ll just have to watch Facebook with envy while all the rest of you slay them!
Well, we’ve arrived back from Lake Champlain – another successful fishing trip with my kids in the books. I was a little concerned about the recent fishing pressure as the FLW tournament just wrapped up as we arrived, but they left plenty of fish behind as we caught 10 different species over 6 days and had an absolute blast.
My son and I were able to spend the majority of the week fishing as we were blessed with great weather. We didn’t feel a single rain drop until we packed up the car for the ride home. The air temperature was anywhere from 80-90 degrees. The water temperature was no lower than 73 degrees (and often substantially higher). There was very little wind on most days and never enough that I was concerned with safety. In fact, we often had to troll just to make our own breeze.
I followed my usual action plan for fishing with kids. We targeted panfish first and got a few in the livewell for my son to “check on” throughout the day. This was useful whenever he needed a break from fishing. Once we caught a few of those, we moved on to try and catch some larger fish. Since he is still little, that meant trolling spinnerbaits for pickerel and pike.
My son taking a break from fishing to check on some yellow perch and rock bass.
My boy had a good time on the 1st as he managed to land two 20″ largemouth. One was caught on a senko and the other on a spinnerbait. One’s tail was completely bloodied, indicating that it was still on the beds. This is a pretty late spawn for the area, but the water started off so high and cold this spring which may have delayed some fish.
On the 2nd, we doubled down on some trolling methods we explored back in May. We dragged 1/2 ounce Terminator Spinnerbaits in several weedy bays in search of pike and pickerel. If you think it’s a boring way to catch fish, you need to revisit your opinion! Learn how to do it by reading my article on trolling for chain pickerel!
On the 3rd, we were able to eat dinner early enough that we could head out for the evening bite. I told my son that we weren’t going for panfish – we were going for bass, and we were going to a very weedy bay where it would be very hard for him to cast on his own. He was fine with this and told me that he just wanted to net my fish, anyway.
We headed into a local bay and found largemouth bass just stacked around a creek mouth. I tried tossing a frog for them and had some success but I noticed the boat next to me kept catching fish on worms, so I brought out the senko rod and adjusted tactics (you always want to remember to let the fish tell you what they want instead of trying to force what you want). Once I made the change, it seemed like every cast brought another fish.
There weren’t any giants that night – they were all between 14″ – 17″, but the action was constant and my son had a ball netting all the fish. This was great for me too as it meant I finally had a chance to catch a few instead of always having to hand my rod over! By the end of the night, I had a great case of “Bass Thumb,” which is a very real concern when fishing Lake Champlain!
Bass Thumb: surefire sign of a great time.
This area proved far too popular to take my son to during the day as there were constantly bass boats parked on it. My kid wasn’t much of an early riser this week and being four, I didn’t want to risk any meltdowns by waking him too early. This meant that we had to abandon any chance of fishing prime real estate on such a busy vacation week, but no matter, panfish and pickerel were all we needed for a good family adventure.
We spent much of the 4th and 5th at Bulwagga Bay. The western shore is full of boulders and rip rap which concentrates panfish of all types. I have noticed several freshwater drum there over the years and was hoping that my son would tangle with one, but that wasn’t meant to be. All the same, he did hook a nice 18″ largemouth on his St. Croix panfish series ultralight “Birthday Rod” that I got him this year.
I was very proud of the way he fought this fish. Earlier in the week he had lost a fish by reeling while it was pulling drag and not letting the rod load up. He made good on that mistake this time by playing this bass well and listening intently to my coaching. Every time the drag screamed he would stop reeling and just let the fish take some line and bend the rod. When the drag stopped running, he would start to reel again. It was certainly his best fight of the trip and the most ably I’ve seen him fight a fish in his four years. It was quite the sight to see!
After having our fill of the panfish and bass on the western shore, we would head to the south of the bay and start trolling spinnerbaits back and forth, looking for pickerel. They didn’t disappoint, and nor did this walleye that surprised me in 7′ of 80 degree water!
Bulwagga Bay Walleye with the author missing a tooth courtesy of a ham sandwich gone rogue.
All in all, it was a great trip filled with some awesome memories. I can’t remember the last time Champlain was that calm for that long, and I’m grateful I was able to spend so much time on the water with my son.
If you’d like to make memories such as these with your kids, consider purchasing my book, Fishing with Kids: A Parent’s Guide. It features numerous tips on how you can help get your kids interested in fishing, and much of what I discuss uses Lake Champlain as an example. If you are trying to get your kids into this sport, or know someone who is, it’s worth a read, but you may also pick up a tip or two about the lake in general. Please consider purchasing it.
As Lake Champlain is vast, you also may want to hire a guide while you’re out fishing. Drop Captain Mickey Maynard a line – he’ll help you break down the lake in no time!
I hope all the dads out there had a happy and safe Father’s Day, preferably fishing with their kids!
There were some thunderstorms (or “boom boom clouds” as my son calls them) brewing, but he and I managed to sneak out to a couple local ponds for some panfish action. We didn’t catch anything of any size, but it’s not like he cares. To a kid, a fish is a fish is a fish and all you need to do to keep your children happy on their fishing trip is put them in front of quantity. Mission accomplished today!
While I was out there watching him cast and marveling at
just how good he’s gotten over the past few weeks, I had to think back to my
own childhood fishing with my dad on Lake Champlain.
He and his friend purchased a house up there back in the
mid-eighties when I was very young. They
got a good price, but only because it was a run-down camp that need a ton of
work. My old man and his buddy had both
worked the trades in their youth and so they did most of this job themselves.
Renovating the lake house took my dad away from home most
weekends and I remember missing him terribly.
In fact, one of my earliest memories is watching him pack up a suitcase
for another long weekend away, and doing my best to squirm into it and “hide”
so that he would accidentally take me with him.
I remember begging him to let me come along, but an active construction
site is no place for a small angler and he always told me no.
Then, one day, he didn’t.
I was six-years-old at the time and ecstatic – my dad was going to take
me on a fishing trip to Lake Champlain with him, all by myself! He bought me what
seemed like an enormous tackle box and let me rifle through all of this to put together
whatever lures I wanted, and he rigged up an Ugly Stik with a snap swivel on
it, just for me!
I remember driving up the four hours to Champlain
listening to Jimmy Buffet and Marty Robbins songs in-between a Yankees
game. We stopped for some burgers and ice
cream at an old greasy spoon long-since closed before continuing on to the
north country.
When we got there, he charged up the boat batteries while I poured over some older fishing books and VHS tapes and did my best to contain my excitement. My dad’s friend was also there fishing from his Ranger, and he told us all about some far away bay that was just loaded with bass on the beds and big northern pike.
Dad showing me a largemouth bass when I was little.
The next morning, we took off for our fishing trip in dad’s boat (which at the time was nice and new and not named “Sinky”) and headed for that bay. I remember the ride seemed to take forever – Lake Champlain is massive and even the southern end just opened up like the ocean to my smile eyes.
I still remember how calm the bay looked that morning. There was mist on the water and just the gentlest of breezes. There seemed to be reeds everywhere with deep, enticing pockets of water almost forming alleyways between them. Dad taught me how to cast a Timberking and keep the rod tip high enough for it to stay on top of the water and I delighted as fish after fish smashed and smacked at it. A pickerel here, a bass there, they all seemed like giants to a six-year-old.
We then threw spinnerbaits in-between the reeds. Dad told me to try my best to cast into the
different pockets and start reeling as soon as they touched the water. Each time I cast well he complimented and
encouraged me and made it seem like some crazy, unthinkable happenstance if no
fish struck after such a perfect cast.
The bites were fast and furious – it was the kind of
constant action that all father’s dream of for their kid’s first fishing trip. Each cast I made was a little more precise
and went a little further. I was so
proud of myself as I didn’t need my dad to hand me his rod all the time (even
though he still did religiously). Eventually,
I cast out a chartreuse spinnerbait with big, red painted eyes towards an alley
when – THUD! – some monster from the depths struck and gave me the fight of my
short life! Dad kept yelling, “Keep the rod tip high! Keep the rod tip high!”
as I struggled with this beast! At one point it jumped and I saw its long, silvery
form as it smashed back into the water with a giant splash. After what was probably less than a minute
real time, but ages to a six-year-old, dad netted my very first northern
pike. At 6lbs, it wasn’t any giant by
any means, but anyone who has fought one can imagine what it felt like to a
six-year-old fishing a flimsy ugly stick.
Yeah, I was hooked for life.
That first fishing trip with Dad sealed the deal. Dad and I have gone out together hundreds of times since then all across the country. We’ve seen the sun rise across Lake Champlain as the loons call, and Alligators scatter as our boat approached them in some Florida Canal. He and I have stood back astonished as Orca broke the surface near our lines in Alaska, and marveled as pike rocketed from the depths to strike a spinnerbait in Bantam Lake, Connecticut. We’ve caught thousands upon thousands of fish together, some truly massive. But none of those fish and none of those trips could ever quite match our first one together.
Yep, that was the trip that started it all and ignited my
passion. The fishing was great, but the
most memorable part of it all was it was the first time dad took me out all by
ourselves. It was the first time he
trusted me to cast all on my own and it was the first time that he took me out
looking for bigger game fish. It was my
first truly special moment with my old man, and the first time I realized why
this sport is so special.
I hope you all had an awesome day of fishing with your daughters and sons. If you would like to learn how to make your trips more memorable, consider purchasing my book, Fishing with Kids: A Parent’s Guide, as it is filled with useful tips for fishing with your kids. Lake Champlain is a great place to take them. Consider booking a charter with Captain Mickey Maynard for some awesome memories with your family! Make sure to check out my guide on the definitive resources for fishing Lake Champlain before you head there!
I took the family up to the southern end of Lake Champlain for the Memorial Day holiday. Fishing was pretty tough earlier in the week given a recent cold front and heavy rain on Tuesday. We were fishing near a creek mouth and found that the water temp in the immediate vicinity dropped as low as 57 degrees Wednesday. Further back from the mouth and into an adjacent bay the temps started climbing to 62 and finally around 64-65 furthest back in the bay.
I was with my son who was about to turn 4, so I was
targeting chain pickerel and panfish.
The trick to getting pickerel is to fancast weed beds in anywhere from
4-8’ of water with spinnerbaits. White
with willow leaf blades was the ticket this trip—very few were caught on
chartreuse and none on red, even on overcast days. They were pretty scattered throughout the
bay. Normally, the end near the creek
mouth is best but I think the cooler water was pushing them away. They aren’t like their pike cousins – they don’t
seem to seek the cooler water and prefer warmer temps.
Another tactic that we used with some success was
trolling with spinner baits along these same flats. I am new to the tactic and might have been
going too slow as I was only clocking about 1.5 mph. Many sources online seem to suggest that 2-4mph
would work better. It certainly might
have helped keep the weeds off the lures, anyway. Regardless of the slower speed, numerous fish
were caught with this method including the larger pickerel of the week.
For panfish, I took advantage of the bass spawn to locate
giant schools of blue gills and pumpkinseeds robbing the bass beds. They’re easy to spot this time of year as you
can see their shadows and even if you can’t, their location is pinpointed after
one of the guarding bass lunges at them, causing everything to scatter. They come back moments later, never giving
the parents a rest. These schools
produced good action and I like to think that we did the bass a favor as well
as every panfish that we picked off presumably was one less that could rob a nest.
The water was very high (over 100’ while we were there)
which meant that many areas that are normally marsh or even forest were accessible
and this is where we found many of the bass beds and with them, panfish schools. This made it a little tough for my son to
cast as we were surrounded by trees, but he was a good sport about allowing me
to make the casts and him to reel in the fish.
It’s still catch and release season for the black bass,
but I couldn’t resist throwing a wacky-rigged Senko out to a few of the beds to
see what we could catch. I still handed
the rod off to my son with whatever bit, the largest being just shy of 20”, but
with a very thick back. It was all my
son could do to lift it!
The high water allowed me to get further back into
several bays with my Lund than I have ever tried before, and it paid off. Although the 20” bass of approximately 4.5lb
was the largest, we also caught several in the 3lb range, which isn’t too bad
considering I spent very little time targeting them. Senkos produced nearly all the bass with a
scarce few coming from spinnerbaits.
Places that did not work at all were rocky points. Sometimes this early in the year you’ll find a large number of bass grouped up in these areas preparing to spawn but it wasn’t to be. On the other hand I only did try a few of them because I was fishing alone with my son and I didn’t want to bore him during the hunt. Unfortunately, it is impossible to scout or pre-fish as the only thing he wants to do when he gets there is start, and he won’t accept any delays! It’s hard to fault him for that!
Want to Take Your Kids Fishing on Lake Champlain?
As you have read, I had a great time with my son on Lake Champlain. If you’re interested in learning some tips about how to fish with your own children on the lake, go check out my definitive list of fishing resources for Lake Champlain. You’ll find tips on charter captains, fishing forums, and other places where you can learn how to make the most out of your time there.
Finally, you should definitely consider giving Captain Mickey Maynard a call and scheduling a charter. He fishes out of Plattsburgh, NY on Lake Champlain during the spring, summer and fall. You can find his website here.
. It features numerous tips on how you can help get your kids interested in fishing, and much of what I discuss uses Lake Champlain as an example. If you are trying to get your kids into this sport, or know someone who is, it’s worth a read, but you may also pick up a tip or two about the lake in general. Please consider purchasing it.
