Lake Champlain United - Forums

The trolling I do on Champlain is pulling deep-divers behind my kayak for smallmouths and pike in and around Burlington. That had never given me a problem before, but today I got overwhelmed with fleas. I had to give up after two passes and switch to just casting.

Wow jigging lakers thru a hole!!! You guys have got it goin! Thanks for the update Steve... how far north does the ice go?? Not sure if I'm correct or not but this pic from Feb 4 looks like it's just south of Barber point? The weather.gov Lake Champlain ice view isn't updated very often these days....

It's not Champlain but I've been out twice now on Colchester Pond. There was 4-6 inches of good ice everywhere I checked today, which was out to 8 or 10 feet or water. I got a few pike, too, so that was a bonus. https://i.postimg.cc/zvtD38Kc/IMG-0061.jpg My first fish of 2021. It's also nice to see ...

I am not an expert but a lot of people have been saying the Lakers are spawning and the fry survive. I would like to know if Vt. Fish and Wildlife or NYSDEC has confirmed this. No doubt there may be a few but if this is the case somehow the Lake Trout fry have found a way to survive the thyamine de...

I drove out to Colchester Pond this afternoon and it's iced over, though it looked like it probably just locked up last night. I certainly wasn't going to venture out to test the thickness. That said if the forecast holds and most of this snow stays south like it's supposed to, it might be fishable ...

Past Hatchery Brook fall salmonoid returns: 2019 - 672 salmon, 23 browns, 9 steelhead 2018 - 350 salmon, 42 browns, 12 steelhead 2017 - 164 salmon, 41 browns, 5 steelhead 2016 - 374 salmon, 85 browns, 1 steelhead 2015 - 1494 salmon, 15 browns, 1 steelhead 2014 - 724 salmon, 13 browns, 20 steelhead 2...

One thing I've always wanted to ask the biologists in charge is why they continue to stock browns and steelhead in Champlain. I know they say it's to "increase fishing opportunities", but what do those species offer that landlocks don't beside the small spring steelhead runs in places like...

I don't know that "lake" records are kept. The Vermont state record lake trout is north of 35 lbs. I think this fish beats any LCI entry, as they keep Father Day Tournament records. It's a beast. But I'm left wondering why we aren't getting bigger fish. All fish officially entered in the ...

I caught a 14-inch smallmouth tonight on the Burlington shoreline with a 2-inch chunk taken out of its back right in front of the dorsal fin. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture, but the wound was clean and round so it wasn't a boat strike or an osprey attack, and it wasn't entirely healed s...

What is a ned rig ? It's a 2.5-inch plastic worm fished on a very small, flat-headed jig. The ZMan Finesse TRD is the original plastic but there are others out now; they're basically like a Senko cut in half. Jigs head range from 1/6 to 1/15th ounce, I think, and I usually use 1/10th. This is one o...

I don't have a wet suit, so I waited rather impatiently for most of the spring for the water to warm up to get my kayak out. With the temperature finally at (or at least close to) 50, I got on the water for the first time Sunday afternoon. With the water still cool, I figured there was a chance of p...

Has anyone seen any more data? They posted updates to https://vtfishandwildlife.com/winooski- ... ft-updates for two weeks at the start of the season but nothing since mid October.

The Army Corps of Engineers is preparing to do repairs/upgrades.

https://www.wcax.com/content/news/Army- ... 95181.html

In case others were wondering, I emailed the local NOAA people today to inquire about most of the Lake Champlain weather stations being offline. Here's what they said: Last week we got notice that UVM, who owns and maintains the Colchester Reef, Diamond Island, and Burton Island stations were undert...

I fished for a bit at the Salmon Hole on the Winooski yesterday, and it looks like they don't even have the lift open yet. The water is about as low as I've ever seen it there and I didn't see any signs of salmon or trout. The only fish biting were tiny smallmouths.