Lake Champlain

This post is a compilation of trips to Lake Champlain in Vermont, fishing open-water in the month of May.  The Lake Champlain fishery has changed dramatically in my life, and not for the better, but it is still top notch in my book.
The month of May is a pre-spawn period for small-mouth bass, post spawn Northern Pike, and essentially a variety of potential other species to catch.  This period offers fast action with bass stacking up on shallow rocky points and rock/silt/sand transition areas, big fat fish, and it's catch and release only for most species since it occurs before the third Saturday in June.   

Josh with a healthy Pike

May is probably my favorite month to fish this lake.  It's magic, and I didn't discover how good this month was  until I fished it with my Paul Smith's College buddy Adam in 2008 just before final exams.  We had a blast fishing from kayaks with jigs and rigged plastic worms, literally being towed around by huge bronzebacks.  That evening's pictures can only be seen in my memories and most likely Adam's too.  We had made the trip from Saranac Lake, NY to Lake Champlain's inland sea which is the northeastern portion of the lake.  Within fifteen minutes we had gotten out of the car, unlocked the house, grabbed the barn key, packed up two kayaks with PFDs, rods, and some tackle and hit the water to fish from 4:30 to just past dark.  The fishing was non-stop with fat-bellied small-mouth bass taking any jig or small suspending crank-baits we could offer.  The next day was not as fast action as the night before but certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Day 2 of this same '08 trip, my brother Josh came up to fish with us, bringing a truck to put our boat in the water allowing all of us to fish together.  We set our course for a different section of the lake and found the Pike above and a decent smallie to the left.
Our course of action after fishing south of where Adam and I had started would be to hit the same spot from the first night Adam and I had fished from the yaks.  Adam, actually could not wait until the next day, so as spent as he was from fishing 14 hours on the boat, grabbed a kayak and went searching for bass as big as he had the night before.  He would not be disappointed and connected with a 5.50lb small-mouth fat with eggs.  He CPRed the fish, Catch, Photo, Release, and came back with a revived sense of life on Lake Champlain.

Funny how things work out, you find yourself in the same place at the same time the following year?  Must be finals week 09', my roommate Jack and I drove over early and got 9 holes of golf in before the rest of the crew would show-up.  Golf is not my thing, it was actually the second time I've ever played.  Strangely I do not think I remember the scores, I must have lost the score card in the woods next to all the balls in there.  Anyways, we fished the evening bite and indeed the fish were there.  Pictured left, is a silhouette of a small-mouth bass on a stained-glass flat Lake Champlain.

Not breaking from tradition, the best part of these trips is being with friends and laughing so hard your cheeks hurt for days.  The shot to the left is a night exposure of 30 seconds to capture the available light remaining in the sky.  The blurring you see is due to the waves moving the camera around during these 30 seconds, but I still consider this pic on of my favorites.  I can't remember what we were talking about but I am certain it was funny, or maybe it was just time to go in and find some beers.  Either way, we still had two days in VT and not a care in the world.

The next day began with the Jay show.  Here's how that program went:  Jay and I got up, everyone else was still sleeping off the night before, and Jay caught all of the fish...

Take 1

Take 2

Take 3, you can tell by that gigantic hole in his jeans.

Ok, The Jay Show is over!

But that was it for the day, the wind started rolling in 3footers as we tried to make one last drift.  But, we decided to call it before beaching the boat would sink us.  And within an hour the Lake would look like a montauk surf during a Nor'Easter.

Same water as before, just not as nice.

Actual note I wrote at the end of this day read:  Items in parenthesis were not written, used only for clarity.

Dear Champ, (Lake Champlain Sea-Monster)
Could you please not have such ridiculously huge waves
and ear-ringing wind tomorrow?
I have final exams, and need to catch fish.
Thanks for your understanding,
-Matt (Throws bottle note into sea)

Ok, maybe in the return note I had to sell my sole (pun) to the Devil.
(crickets)

That Champ, not to be outdone by Nessy, is the best.  In the picture above you can see Champ obviously eating a boat and it's contents in the background as I had directed the curious fishermen to check out that furry island point to the northeast.  And, as you can see the seas were good and calm, and naturally the bite was on.... double!

Sometimes being friends with the right people/sea-monsters is worth much more than what the weathermen tell you is supposed to happen for two days straight.  Champ and I go way back, and my brother Josh knows him well too, so naturally I had to phone a friend.  At the same time the favor card can't be overused, and must be returned with a favor, but it certainly works to your benefit.  The sea -monster would trail me the remainder of the day looking for scraps as return payment for the weather delay.  So I had to be on my game.  Jigs, rigged worms, and suspending jerk baits were in order to fulfill the request.

Released to Champ.

Released to Champ

Fish so hungry, they would eat people.

Released to Champ.

May 2010, the group of fishermen I had amassed in '09 had dwindled due to graduation, family visiting etc.  I made the trip with my friend Benny to show him the ropes on Champlain.  Here are some of the pictures from that trip:

I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I'M SMILING LIKE THIS.

Ben with a nice Pike

Being ready for changes from year to year means everything towards a successful trip.  This year had significantly cooler water temps than the 2 previous years.  The small mouth bass were still situated in deeper water and had not yet moved to the shallows, whereas the pike were set up in the shallows ready to eat.  This accounted for a weekend full of pike and only a handful of bass caught in the warmest of bays and coves.  The other two years, same weekend the water temperatures were around 63 degrees in the bays and 60-58 in main lake areas.  This trip was 52 in the main lake and only 54-56 in the bays and coves.  The key to success in these cooler temps proved to be a slower retrieve, with a long pause using suspending baits.  That being said, two weeks later would provide a better opportunity for bass as the water temps climb over the 55 degree mark.

The next post will be of the fall period, in the mean time good luck and enjoy your 4th of July.  I will be out for a couple weeks, this weekend I'm getting married and will be outside the lower 48 until mid-July.

Thanks for reading, Matt.