Well, the second trip up to Crown Point, NY in 2023 is in the books. This was supposed to be a boys weekend with my buddy Andrew from past adventures, but the week worth of rain in the region forced him to call it off as he finally got the weather needed to get some work done locally. I considered taking my first solo trip in forever, but my son has had such a hard time with the divorce lately that I asked his mom if I could spring him from school early and drive him up with me. She said yes, and so we were off for another Adirondack Adventure together.
Thursday, May 4, 2023 – Crown Point
As mentioned, it had rained for several days prior and stopped as we arrived Thursday afternoon. The lake was higher than it was two weeks ago when I took Dad up. While this would bring an influx of cold and murky water, I was still glad to see it. I’m tired of the years of drought the lake has had. It will be nice to be able to use the dock in July this year!
Thursday and Friday featured the end of the front with fairly high north winds Thursday and still significant Friday afternoon. It was bad enough Thursday that I didn’t want to take Tristan north of the bridge, figuring if it was that dicey in Crown Point the bridge area would be a disaster.
Instead, we poked around the Crown Point area, not really having much luck until we made our way to the south side of an island that kept us out of the wind. When you’re fishing with kids, very often you’re fishing with worms, and that’s what we were using here. We got the skunk out of the boat with a number of panfish before Tristan tied into this nice sheepshead.
It’s a four hour ride up, so we called it pretty early on Thursday and sat down to watch a movie. We planned to hit up Bulwagga Bay Friday morning.
Friday, May 5, 2023
So the next morning, I made one of my bigger boneheaded mistakes of all time (guess I have a fishing mistakes blog post to update soon). I had my son get in the boat with his life jacket while I backed it down the launch. Unfortunately, being tired or just an idiot (and maybe a bit of both) I forgot to tie the boat to the trailer and poor Tristan took a little ride into Champlain by his lonesome. He handled it like a champ and with some coaching was able to paddle the boat to shore where I joined him. We laughed about it, and he spent the rest of the weekend razzing me (He claims he’ll continue to do this for life).
As planned, we headed up to Bulwagga Bay. Unlike the week before, the salmon fleet was nowhere to be found. The only company we had were two bass boats that blasted past us towards the back bay. We worked the western rip rap instead, but didn’t have much luck. The bay was as muddy as I’ve seen it, which might have something to do with it. I forgot the #1 rule of taking a kid fishing (get ANY fish in the boat as fast as possible) and quickly decided that we’d better head back to some proven areas in the south to fix that.
We continued to poke around drop shotting nightcrawlers and Tristan eventually hooked this nice bass. He was pretty happy though it didn’t come through in the photo. Perhaps he was still annoyed at me for the morning’s mistake!
Lunch in Crown Point, NY
After the chaos of the morning, and with the weather picking up again, we decided to hit up War Cannon Spirits for some nachos and soda. This is a new place, having opened recently in what used to be the local Agway. It has character, charm, and some damn good cream soda. I’m not much of a drinker so I can’t speak for their whiskey, but the nachos and especially pretzels are delicious. Frankly, there’s not a whole heck of a lot in the area as far as eateries with the old staples of Frenchy’s and Frenchman’s both disappearing, but this is worth the trip. I wish the owners the best of luck and hope it brings some business to the region.
The Evening Catfish Bite
It stayed windy for most of Friday and we decided not to go back out. Tristan wanted to see one of his friends who lives up there and eventually I’d pick him up and take them to the Windchill in Ti, but first we’d catch some “Polish” catfish. We called them this because what they wanted more than anything was Rosol’s kielbasa. If you ever make your way to New Britain, CT, pick up a few links. It’s great for you and cats love them too.
Saturday, May 6, 2023
We had a late night Saturday with Tristan’s friend and didn’t wake up all that early. No matter as this time of year you’re often better off in the late afternoon than in the early morning. We started the day plugging away near the house and catching a number of catfish on kielbasa as well as yellow perch (no more forgetting rule #1 for this guy). And yes, I tied the boat this time.
We were off and on the lake throughout the day taking breaks as needed. We stuck around locally rather than making any long runs since this trip was really more about putting Tristan on fish than catching monsters. All the same, he had some good ones.
The day had a high of 57 degrees or so and the water temperatures climbed to the high 50’s low 60’s in the bays we were fishing. I think a lot of the cooler rainwater had a chance to settle and sink so the bays started warming and the fish started getting active. We didn’t notice many spawning bass yet (just one nest DEEP in the flooded woods with the telltale sign of a parent chasing away panfish). However, clown colored x-raps fished around flooded timber was too much for many chain pickerel to pass up.
Towards evening, Tristan had luck with a cherry craw colored Rat-L-Trap. He caught several bass, the largest below. He was very proud as this was his first time using one of these lures. I’m sure all of you know the thrill of catching a bass on a “new” technique and his smile says it all. It was very hard getting him off the water to come home, and I could only convince him by promising an early start the next day.
Sunday, May 7, 2023
Since I promised, we headed out early Sunday, right to where we caught them the night before. The water had cooled by 4-5 degrees over night and we didn’t see many boils. We did manage to catch a few fish (two chain pickerel and a largemouth bass) and I managed to get what I feel is a pretty sweet photo below, but we had to get off the water soon so we could clean up and head out. Until next time, Lake Champlain!
Thanks for reading,
John Paxton
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