I am a new member that has been following your forums for about a year. I was encouraged to share fishing reports/experience by a couple of your fellow posters…. So here goes.
I headed to the Crown Point Bridge at 5:30 (Sunday, 5/16) to get started shore fishing, which is mostly what I do. Do you ever wonder if you are the first person at the spot because you picked the wrong spot that day and everyone else knows the place to be?
Here is some of the early morning scenery:
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I fished the point, the dock and north of the ramp on the rock outcroppings, then back to the point with no bites on several lures.
Then around 7:45 my luck changed and I did manage to land two small bass.
Here they are are:
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The lure was a Honeybee casting lure. Both my strikes came on my longer casts. I did get a hit on a Shadow Rap (Bud coloring) earlier no takers.
On this morning I also did reacquaint myself with the cottonwood (or whatever those little white tufts are that crawl up your line and into everything)
My bigger excitement was a pike also following that lure and the being hooked for about 30 seconds before jumping and spitting the hook. I was on my ultralight with 4 lb to get better casting distance on with that spoon and could not really horse it around.
Anyway - no giants, but a real nice morning and a couple fish to boot.
What did I learn (or thought I learned)?
1) Maybe this time of year, I don’t need to start until the sun is up a little higher and the water is warmer
2) Maybe the rocky shoreline helps heat that water up and get the fish going.
3) Maybe you don’t need red and white to catch Northern, but you MIGHT want stronger rod and line.....
Thanks for reading.
Below are some details about fishing conditions if you are interested – I use a couple or websites to get this information (not measuring and trying to fish)
At time of fishing:
Champlain bridge point 5:45-8:30 am (rocky shoreline)
Sky: clear with clouds, no haze, very light breeze from time to time
Air Pressure 30.22 to 30.24
Air rising from: 52-62
Water temp: UNK – I could not measure it out in the lake from shore.
Water color: stained green – I think, but bot cloudy
Vegetation: some on the bottom (was pulling in weeds)
Lake level: 97.34 or lower
Visible current under the bridge.
Weather history: - I like to keep this to see how I got to the conditions I fished.
4-5 days of sun after rains
Air pressure up from the high 29s to the low 30s
Lake temps rising into the 50s at the Echo Station ( https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?site_no=04294500 ) –
Lake level dropping for 5-6 days from 97.58 to 97.35
and all of the other highly experienced anglers that hat this is the exact reason the L.C.U. Site was created!(Again, Raz Relax etc. Forgive/Correct me if I am off-base here ,)The uniqueness, (especially in a Forum with a subject like fishing, where there is all-to-often an unwritten rule that anglers must be secretive about certain details of their successes
) makes this Forum/Site stand above any that I have personally encountered and I would imagine that sentiment is the same for many of it's members.
I o ly wanted to Express my gratitude, respect and admiration for this Site, its members and for all of the knowledge that I have inbedded in my brain in regards to Lake Champlain fishing. I will now stop Groveling
and yacking away! 