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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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!
John Paxton
