I went out Saturday morning on Lake Champlain with a buddy. We fished for about 7 hours starting around 9am. The water temps on the broad lake were right around 50 and slightly warmer in the shallows coming in at 52. Throughout the course of the day the water temp went up significantly. As we were getting off the water we were seeing temps in the shallows pushing 59. As for the fishing, it was slow. We were looking for crappie but seemed to only have success finding yellow perch!
Our strategy for the day was to fish backwaters and coves in order to stay out of the wind. After fishing for a while, it was apparent that we weren’t going to have great success fishing skinny water for crappie. We were fishing 4-7′ of water somewhat sheltered from the wind. Although we were catching some decent perch over the 10″ mark we figured we would move on and stay in search mode. We fished channels, rocks, brush, and docks for a good portion of the day. They all held fish but nothing that had us hooked.
The best method of fishing we found was to drift over dense weedbeds and vertically fish the open pockets. As we drifted, we could watch bait and at times crappie chasing the schools. We caught a few crappie in the weeds as well as some more jumbo perch. For the amount of time we spent drifting, it wasn’t worth staying too long… On our last drift through for the day I was lifting my bait out of the water and a sizable gar rolled on it at the surface. Quickly, I dropped the bait back down and it came back immediately. I set the hook but unfortunately, on the first run my line snapped. Fun way to end the day regardless!
We caught pickerel, white and yellow perch, bluegill, smallmouth bass and crappie. Even though it wasn’t a super productive day, it sure beats sitting around home! I also got to expand my knowledge of Lake Champlain and fish some new waters that I had never been on.
D & B Ice Adventures 