First time fishing Champlain

[B-g-k]

Hi all,
I booked a house in Chazy on the lake for this upcoming Saturday for a week. I'll be bringing my 17 foot Lowe which I primarily use for stripers on the Hudson. I have 4 downriggers, a decent FF and a fishhawk x4. From looking at the navionics map I'll be staying North of Monty bay. It appears that in that area there are depths up to 100 feet to the east. Is this area known to hold Lakers and/or salmon? I'm hoping to try to jig some lakers. Also, I plan on picking up 2 leadcore set ups this week and run 2 riggers with cheaters and then the 2 LC rigs. Is this area worth my time? Am I better off trailering farther south to target these species? I have a decent amount of 1-3 oz bucktails and an okay collection of stingers, plasma spoons and a few others. Any tips would be greatly appreciated to try and cut down the learning curve.

[Reelax]

Any sandy humps on the broad lake between the 60 and 90 ft deep near deeper water should hold lakers this time of year. When you see them on the bottom in yr graph setup and jig if it's calm. I am not that experienced on the part of the lake you refer to but salmon can be found In 80+ fow just about anywhere. Find the thermo cline and set you riggers at and just above hat depth. Lead core needs to be 5-10 colors this time of year and hasn't fired as much as rigger this season for me.

Last big salmon we did was a 54 ft over 105.

Good luck! And let us know how you do.

[C-Hawk]

You could motor down from Chazy on a good day and fish the Vermont side from Colchester Reef to the ferry. If you are on the New York side, check the long flat east of Valcour

[C-Hawk]

Snug Harbor Marina in Peru might be the closest access to where we've been catching a lot of Lakers this year.

[B-g-k]

Thanks for the advice so far. I appreciate it.

[Vtmopar]

Lakers all over that area. North and south of the west side of Isle Lamotte.
Good luck.
Great smallmouth area also.

[B-g-k]

Having a rough go at it so far. Caught a bunch of bass, panfish and bowfin. No dice on lakers or salmon. How humbling it is.

[C-Hawk]

Put your ball in the mud

[hard knox]

Just my two cents but i would work top edges of rocky drop offs to deep water do to temp break is around 65 feet and lakers will be spawning soon and are relating to the rocks more so then mud flats find temp break were it hits bottom and thats were your feeding fish will be.That being said you will mark a tone of fish in deep water but they can be very hard to catch you are better of working the fish that are in the temp brake were it hits bottom and use your stinger spoons they have been keyed in on very large bait 5 to 6 inch long in black and silver or blue /silver .Run riggers tight to bottom 1.5 to 2.5 mph dont bother with cheaters just a pain when catching alot of fish use your lead core to target salmon slightly higher in water column with slightly smaller spoons with a floro leader 10 to 15 lb . Keep working at it till you find out what they want Saturday i tried about 20 spoons before getting them dieled in then boated around 20 fish in 3 hours it pays to work at it dont wash they same spoon for long !GOOD LUCK

[B-g-k]

I really appreciate the advice. It's always humbling when you enter an unfamiliar fishery. I haven't been able to put too many hours in yet with the weather being poor today, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. I think I need to venture farther south. I haven't marked many fish other than a decent pile of them under a bait ball in 110 FOW, but they could've been drum too?