Lake Champlain Pre Spawn Bonanza

[fishingmortgageman]

For the last 7 years I have made a May trip to northern Lake Champlain for smallmouth. Lake Champlain is big water and the weather up there is always a challenge. It usually is windy and the weather changes every couple of hours. I usually go for 3 or 4 days and usually I am lucky to fish 2 days. I have had some very good days, but it is very hard to find the weather pattern that will put the fish in the mood to bite.

This year the I finally got lucky. I headed north Monday and picked up my boat in Vermont and 8 hours later I was at the lake. We fished for 2 1/2 days and caught 200 plus fish. The beauty of Champlain, at this time of the year is the size of the fish. 5 fish were 14" or less, 160 fish were between 15-18", 25 fish were 19-20", and 12 fish were 21-22". These fish were all incredibly fat and healthy and ready to spawn. The heaviest was 5.75#s. Tuesday was a bright sunny day and the water warmed from 55 degrees to 58 at the end of the day. This must have been the trigger that started the fish migration. Wednesday was another bright sunny day and fish were everywhere. Every prime spawning area was loaded with fish cruising the 4' shallows. We saw hundreds and hundreds of them. Tuesday we caught most of our fish on jerkbaits but on Wednesday they loved the weightless senkos in the shallow water. The sun not only brought the smallmouth in but we also caught largemouth, perch, crappy, bluegill, pike, gar,bowfin, and musky. The musky inhaled a 12" smallmouth that I was reeling in. Thursday the big fish had come in and we had some cloud cover. It was again a jerkbait bite and I had 3 21" fish on 3 consecutive casts. This trip was a trip of a lifetime and is proof that if you put in your time on the water you will eventually reap the benefits.

[ChaosStarter]

I was just about to post my own summary of the lake from the 10th through the 17th. I'll try and get all the pictures up tonight. We caught around 500 fish in the week we were there and there were barely any small ones. We're going up the same exact time next year for the 4th year in a row. It was incredable. I absolutely love that lake.

[birddog]

Is there lodging in the area? preferably lakefront with a dock?

[Skunk City]

Pics?

[fishingmortgageman]

I did not bring a camera, but my buddy took a few on his cell. I am not tech savy enough to put them up, but I could email you some if you gave me your email.

[ChaosStarter]

Originally Posted by birddog

Is there lodging in the area? preferably lakefront with a dock?

If you're looking in northern Vermont, look at Henry's or Holiday Harbor Lodge. We use Holiday Harbor. Run by a real nice guy named Bruce and his wife. Tell him Dan Pittman from NJ sent ya if you book.

[mcfish82]

I've been up to Champlain twice. Stayed at Campbell's bay. There is 15 lakefront cabins with a dock/bait store on premises. It's a family run place that has been in the Campbell family for generations. It's on the northernmost area of Champlain in the missisiquoi bay. You could see the Canadian shoreline from your cabin. Beautiful area to fish. We hammered pike n lmb on both trips and went home with several 5 gallon bags of bullhead fillets. Caught bullheads non stop at night while drinking some beers at our dock. I'd love to get back up there again.

[AndyS]

Heard all good stuff from that body of water, glad you nailed it !!!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Great report from a phenomanol fishery. Sounds like you were pretty busy catching. Good stuff! I love it up there!

[ALS Mako]

way to go Eric. glad to hear you had a great trip.