Lake Champlain Cold Water Fishing is Terrible

[pfu]

This has to be the worst year ever. I have tried everything and went back to basics, fished all times of the day, and fish in the boat are minimal. Forum not active so assume I can’t be alone in this statement. Can find bait balls and fish on the graph but no takers. Today we joked about a perch as it would be better than nothing.

Is it me and my crew or is it just lame? Amount of fuel makes the proce per pound unheard of!

[fishingmachine]

unfortunately,I have nothing good to say about the salmon bite,however, the lakers are very cooperative,as are the yellow perch

[spinner]

Alanya Is having a terrific year catching fish.

[Vtmopar]

Sorry to read that.
Bass fishing has been great, walleye slow start but getting better.
Only been salmon fishing a few times, that was in the spring did ok nothing big.
Wont waste my time going for lakers in champlain, I fish the NEK lakes for those.

[fishy1]

lakers are very active and the salmon bite isnt bad just lots of shakers. lots of reports on facebook and pics. charter captains are doing very well.

[fishy1]

Alayna Is having a terrific year catching fish.

[C-Hawk]

Saturday afternoon water temps were 55 at 25 ' up in the islands after Fridays hard north blow. Sunday temps were 55 at 60' after strong south wind. I can't remember such wild swings in temperature as this year. Last weekend with the hot weather, temp was at 75 in places. I think Burlington area is more prone to steady water temps, as it is more in the middle of the "bathtub effect"

[60Fishman]

Do to lack of fishing time I really only fish for lakers. During three trips in May and early June I was doing nothing to speak of. I keep a pretty good diary of water temps, weather, lures used etc. Two and a half weeks ago I trolled for three hours in spots and depths that should have worked, without a bite and very few marks. I then went to a spot I usually go to in August and caught six in about an hour and half. Last Tuesday morning in the heat wave with my son, who was visiting from Indiana, we caught 13 in three hours, we stopped fishing at 9:30 as the heat was just brutal in my black boat. I was fishing a good 20 feet deeper than I would have expected based on water temp and time of year. No ten pounders but several between 7 and 9 lbs. I guess my little bit of advice if you are after lakers is to try and go a little deeper. I was between 85 and 95 feet last week, a couple were deeper than 100 feet. Some of the fish were absolute footballs, which I am convinced is because they were gorging on half dead alewives back in late May.

[ThreeBuoys]

I don't consider myself a Laker fisherman, but I think you are right.
Catching something is better than nothing. I played with the Lakers last week.
This is another one of those years where you have to think out of the box.
Yesterday I found temp at 55-60 feet and that is where I placed the primary lure.
I was running sliders as well so they were running half that depth in 65 degree water.
The Salmon were hitting the sliders. Just proves you need to try different things even though you have been told they like colder water.

[tamiron]

I don't consider myself a Laker fisherman, but I think you are right.
Catching something is better than nothing. I played with the Lakers last week.
This is another one of those years where you have to think out of the box.
Yesterday I found temp at 55-60 feet and that is where I placed the primary lure.
I was running sliders as well so they were running half that depth in 65 degree water.
The Salmon were hitting the sliders. Just proves you need to try different things even though you have been told they like colder water.

Great Point!

[Skylander]

Technology has spoiled us, remember when we used to like being on the water all day trying to catch a fish and it was better than working? Now, we know the temp, speed and if there is bait under us and we get all wound up if we don't catch a fish in an hour of trying - so we pick up and jump around tried and true waypoints all day long.
I fished for 45 minutes the other day looking for a salmon, but only found a 21" smallmouth that would go 4 lbs., in 75 FOW down 49. Although it was a bass it jumped for me 3 times and ran from the boat twice. It was a good fight from a healthy fish. If your having terrible results try something drastically different.

[meangreen1]

The salmon are out there... Lately the winds have messed with the locations of the salmon. North winds have made for slower bites and the better bites for me have been with a south wind. South winds have made the NY side of the lake pretty good as well as trolling right down the middle of the lake. My son and I have been catching salmon 70-100’ down over 100-250’ of water but strangely enough we still get them on sliders/cheaters which should put them in the 35-50’ range. But on the calm days we still see them jump and boil on the water so there are still fish on top.. the warmer weather have made the purple/black with pink back color in stingers as well as a couple other brands as long as they are in the same color scheme and the blue rainbow trout honeybee has been working very well too. Early season bright colors have been working still but I notice more lakers on them than salmon

[pfu]

After two weeks of being away, I jumped back into the boat to give it another try. Went out by myself after work and went 8/12 on lakers in 2.5 hours. Tough doing everything on my own but it allowed me to do what I wanted (and needed) to get fish in the boat. Used two lures, both with pink and blue with black spots in a 4” length. All fish were caught between 90-100’ and two of the smaller ones (3-4#) all jumped like salmon way behind the boat. Had me confused for a minute. Biggest was 12# but lost a bigger one trying to net. Two lost fish were broken lines.

Overall felt much better and ready to give it a try agin!

Thanks for everyone’s post in this track but also everywhere else. Remains a wealth of information and at time inspiration.

[digitroll (ron)]

Lakers have been on fire the last few weeks. Not our target species. Just what I have been seeing on Facebook and a few nice Steelies/Browns/Salmon/Walleye. You have to put your time in to get em. The Surestrike boat has been doing very well on their Facebook posts. I have been out twice in the last 5 weeks due to family obligations. Facebook seems to be where the posts have been if your looking for results. The last 10 days have seen some nice fish taken! Should be called "Fish Book"

[Wdrnr]

Not the case down south. We made a mid morning run to Converse on Thursday . Calm seas and beautiful weather. But,,,, we fished down to Thompson’s across the abyss to split rock and down the NY shore to NW bay across from Basin harbor. Break was anywhere from 45-65 ft. Small pods of bait and even less fish eating them. One giant perch and a smallish laker. Little traffic and just a few fishin down that way. The mid summer blues. Good thing the cape stripers are in the rips........