Lake Champlain 6/30-7/1

[Lard Almighty]

My dad, brother and I headed up to Lake Champlain for a weekend of bass and pike fishing. Different guide and different area than usual, so we weren't too sure what to expect. We launched from Plattsburgh both days. We wound up fishing during a big FLW tournament and saw a lot of pro boats parked at our hotel, as well as on the lake. (It's amazing who will sponsor a fisherman these days. Tell me, what does Hawaiian Punch have to do with bass fishing? )

Day one was high sun and wind, but it produced some solid action, though nothing spectacular. My brother was high hook on quantity and quality, landing two pike in the 30" range and a couple of decent largemouths up to about 3 pounds. He also caught the only smallmouth of the day. We all caught some decent fish, and my dad landed his PB pickerel. The best lures were tandem spinnerbaits and soft plastic flukes. I also dug a Johnson Silver Minnow out from the bottom of my tackle box, and that accounted for most of my fish for the day.

Day two was ideal conditions for most of the day; light wind and mostly cloudy. The fish, however, thought otherwise. To say fishing was slow would be an understatement. Our guide accounted for most of the fish boated, though my dad chimed in with a few decent pike. My brother and I couldn't buy a strike, landing two small pike and a few rock bass and white perch between us. Just a really tough day all around, which led to much grumbling on the 5.5 hour drive home.

Overall this fishing trip ranks near the bottom of trips I've taken in the last several years. The town of Plattsburgh is beat to hell, with the exception of the two downtown blocks that are kept pretty for the tourists. The food ranged from merely palatable to downright rancid; the best thing I ate all weekend was a pack of gummy worms from the convenience store next to the hotel. Speaking of the hotel, it looked like it had not been remodeled since the 1960s. There were cigarette burns in the comforters and the carpets, and my brother's room REEKED of cigar smoke. I shudder to think what I would have found had I taken a black light to the place. At least there were no roaches (that I saw).

Fishing was okay at best. Our guide was pretty experienced and he took us to likely spots, but the fish just weren't very cooperative. The section of the lake we concentrated on looked very fishy, with shallow weed beds and rock humps being our main targets. There were perch and rock bass everywhere, which struck at baits nearly as large as they were with reckless abandon. We saw some big bowfin cruising the shallows, some in the 7-8 pound range. There were also some huge freshwater drum around, but they wouldn't even look at our baits. We fished from a Polar Craft center console boat which was pretty roomy, but still a bit cramped with 4 people aboard. We probably won't be doing our Champlain trip this way next year.