Lake Champlain United - Forums

My friend and I will be doing our annual two-day sail in Lake Champlain the weekend after next and, for the first time, we're going to try fishing. We bought a three-day license for our trip and I'm hoping we have some success and make it a regular thing. I'm a fishing noob who has read plenty but has had embarrassingly little success when it comes to actually catching anything. Can someone give us some tips on maximizing our chances for catching some fish that we can cook up? Bass or trout would be awesome but, honestly, I'd be happy to catch panfish or really anything.

For gear, I have two Ugly Stiks--one is a 7' medium-heavy and one is a shorter (5' 5"?) light or ultra-light and an assortment of common bass lures (plastic worms, spinnerbait, weedless frogs). He doesn't have any downriggers or anything like that.

His boat is moored in Shelburne Bay and we usually sail out to the Brothers and over to Willsboro Bay. This year, he was talking about heading a little more south, to Partridge Harbor, but we're still open to other ideas.

Any suggestions on areas (specific areas or just types of areas) we should head to, what lures we should consider getting, what techniques would work? Should I pick up another heavier rod, or will we be able to manage with those two?

Johnny, if you're looking for bass, stay in the Shelburne bay and if throwing lures, try to stay near shorelines and look for features that hold fish like weeds or the old mooring for the oil barges.
Try vertical jigging for lake trout around the humps out past the mouth of the bay towards Juniper all the way over to the brothers.
Good luck & tight lines!

Thanks mudchuck! Appreciate it!

Hi John -

Mike (Cas) Brendan's friend that you're sailing with. I was going to post this AM on here for you to see what you can get for tips in that area bass/pan fishing. I think you'll be headed towards Converse and points south?

Good tips above, hopefully you'll get some advice on other areas headed south. I'll show you/Brendan some of the humps on the charts that he's referring to.

Thanks Mike! Yeah, our tentative plan is to head south.