Lake Champlain Vacation Fishing Report

Name: Lake Champlain Vacation
Rating: 5

5 Rating based on 10 Reviews

Every year around the end of July my wife and I take a vacation. This year we ended up taking our newborn son to Burlington VT, on the shores of Lake Champlain. We drove up with the Tracker in tow, and made it through the Green Mountains without drama.

Thursday I booked a trip with a local guide, to get a sense of the place and hopefully catch some decent fish. I met up with the guy up near the Canadian border and we drove down to launch out of St Albans Bay.

We started out fishing weed lines in 10ish feet of water, catching some cookie cutter smallies and a few small pike. While doing this, we drifted over pods of bait in 18-24 feet, so we did another drift down the shore dragging carolina rigs with a Zoom craw on it. The guide sets the hook on a heavy 2, and as he is fighting it I hook up with what feels like a truck. I end up with a personal best smallie right around 4 pounds, which ended up being lunker for the day as we repeat those two patterns in a few more spots. I ended up with the 4, a 3, a couple 2s and a mix of 1s and dinks. Nice day out! It's quite amazing what a good smallie feels like, even on heavier tackle.

Saturday I ended up taking out my boat on Mallets Bay. I've been having some issues starting the motor, so I was a bit nervous being on big water. I ended up spending a lot of time fishing dead shorelines and deep water before making a run to Mallets Creek where I found some weed beds. The day only yielded a couple of keepers on a brush hog, with a 2 1/2 LM as the biggest.

Sunday I started out the day in front of the creek, with the weather overcast. I got a heavy 1 on a buzzjet while trying out various topwater. I tie on a popper, and toss out a nice long cast. One pop, and the thing gets hammered! After a nice fight I net another 2 1/2 largemouth which ended up being the big bass of the day. I had close to a dozen fish from barely keeper size up to the 2.

While fishing along some shallow weeds, I spot a fish in about 2 feet of water. It's hard to tell what it is, but I pitch out a jig and it gets hit immediately. A solid hookset later I am getting a good fight out of whatever it is, rolling and making runs. After getting it in the net, it turns out to be a Bowfin, my first ever. Good times!

I wrap up the day fishing the docks around the launch, which fails to yield any bass at all over the two days. I did hook into a nice sized pike on the brush hog that took me several minutes to land. Every time I got it close to the boat, it would make another brutal run peeling off line. I can understand why people fish for them!

All in all a nice vacation. I would definitely go back, but I would spend time trying to fish the main lake. I regret not giving it a shot as I had decent weather without a lot of wind. The confidence has to be there in your equipment though, and it wasn't until after the trip. I had no problems whatsoever with the boat while there, so I'm feeling like those issues are behind me.