Lake Champlain United - Forums

I started fishing lake champlain this year figuring when the fleas come ill go back to lake george.. Fished on george. North end couple times this week. Im from ticonderoga. The fish are just not there.Fishing sucks compared to champlain. So looks like i will have to go back to champlain. SO MY QUESTION IS WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT THE FLEAS AND WHAT DO U CHAMPLAINERS DO TO COPE WITH THEM? I fish trout and salmon.
THANKS

Fleas just suck honestly. They stick to your line and ball up at the eye of your rod to the point you can’t reel any more. Add about 100ft of 30 pound to your reel (if you don’t want to re-spool the entire thing) and it will help a lot. They cannot stick to heavier line like 30pound because of the diameter. Good luck out there let us know how you do!

I fished just north of Burlington Saturday, got into some lakers and the fleas are present now. Looked like spiny ones, not the fishhook ones.
They stuck to the braid, but not the lead core.
Wasn't terrible, but it will worsen as the temps on the water surface increase.

Fished coles this past Saturday up to barbers picked fleas not good this early in the year. Time to switch rods for heavier lined ones.

The fleas are sort of like the consistency of wet cotton balls or something. Only slimy as well, and you can't pull them off without a lot of work, or maybe a knife. Then you might cut your line.

They're no fun at all.

You can avoid them with 30-40 lb mono like Tom said for a hundred feet or so on your rod, but that size line sucks to work with, and causes tons of blowback when fishing deep. But, a must have when they're bad.

You'll encounter them sooner or later unfortunately.

Do fleas stick on 50 lb braid?

Fleas like braid