Lake Champlain United - Forums

7/7/2016 went out early this morning hoping to have an early bite and early exit with thunderstorms predicted. started fishing at 5:40 am and soon after mr gill was coming down the lake to . john had his brother with him and his plan was to drift in different areas near me to scout the area a little more since its his ist time here. for me the whites started early and then the sunnies then around 10 am the yellows started biting and big ones to. was getting a little windy around 11 am so i fished until 11:30 am with a good mess of fish to fillet. i kept only 9 inch yellows 9 inch whites and 7 inch sunnies everything else was released. mr gill (john) left around 10 am as he was heading home later with a two and half hour drive. his brother was with him and they got into the white pretty good on the vermont side but were on the small size he said. he also caught a pretty good size sheephead. i landed 4 bass and 5 bullhead to go along with the pannies.

7/8/2016 got a late start this morning and there was a brisk north east wind blowing. i rowed my boat north along the shore and then out to the broad lake since i was protected from the wind in the jungle. got out and set up approx 6:50 am in almost 2 foot waves. this was around 75 yards north of where i normally set up and in 2 feet less water. started out great as the big whites were on since it was cloudy. approx 7:45 am set the hook on what i thought was a big white and my drag started zzzzzzzing and the fish headed out to the broad lake with me not stopping it. got down to almost a bare reel trying to stop it and couldnt but did slow it down. started the slow process of trying to get it to the net and worrying about the bass boats going by every 5 minutes hopeing they wouldnt cut my line which has happened a couple of times last year. finally after about a 7 or 8 minute battle i landed a 29 inch 13 lb sheephead (drum). what a fight. the rest of the morning until 11:30 am i landed 4 sheephead lots of white perch sunnies and just a few yellows. nice day on the water as the breeze died down after 9 am .
29 inch 13 lb sheepheadupload picture
white perch landed lots of good size ones today.

image hosting 15mb

Matt...It was great fishing with you. You are the Lake Champlain Panfish Guru, that's for sure. Thanks for all the advise. Got lots of whites the second day but mostly small. Hopefully I'll be up again in the fall and maybe get into the bigger whites and yellows. Stay in touch.
John

Mr. Gill wrote:Matt...It was great fishing with you. You are the Lake Champlain Panfish Guru, that's for sure. Thanks for all the advise. Got lots of whites the second day but mostly small. Hopefully I'll be up again in the fall and maybe get into the bigger whites and yellows. Stay in touch.
John

john : will do plenty of whites no matter what area you are in out there. in late fall they seem to get bigger . fished where you were in front of my relatives camp and pounded the whites for 2 hours.

7/9/2010 had a short session this morning due to the much needed rain. landed a nice mess of panfish but mostly whites not to far from where my boat is kept in 6 feet of water. also landed 4 good size bass and a pickeral. the whites wernt as big as yesterday but all were filleting size.

7/10/2016 got out later today after a short rain fall. went out in the deeper water to drift for sheephead since it was a light wind. ist half hour caught a few white perch but no sheephead. around 8:30 am my rod tip went straight down and i said fish on and a good one. had a hard time getting it up and after a couple minute struggle landed what i thought would be a sheephead turned out ot be a 31 inch catfish. released it and decided to go out more and drift picked up a few good yellows but no big fish. then apporx 9:20 am my rod tip went straight down and fish on landed a nice 25 inch sheephead. released it and dropped my crawler right back down and fish on landed a 20 inch sheephead. then the next hour a few whites and yellows and nothing big. then around 11 am the rain started to come down heavy and my rod tip went straight down again and fish on. after a brief fight landed a 25 inch catfish. then headed for shore in the pouring rain. put my boat up and head for my pickup drenched from top to bottom. had a good morning though.

Looking forward to next month when I do my annual fishing contest at the bridge for white perch with the kids. Usually they quit when I hit a count of 50. I might let them win this year

Hey Fishy have you caught any eels in your part of the lake? South of the bridge in years past we could catch eels on a regular bases now it's been years since i got one. a big one can be good eating.

Sawyer wrote:Hey Fishy have you caught any eels in your part of the lake? South of the bridge in years past we could catch eels on a regular bases now it's been years since i got one. a big one can be good eating.

havent caught any this year but just started pan fishing 2 weeks ago and havent caught one yet. lots last year the most in about 15 years. eels are good eating but i hate skinning them.

Thanks good to here. i will try to catch some when we go down to my old fishing grounds south of the bridge.

7/11/2016 set out this morning on the flats outside the jungle looking for a patch of cabbage weeds to anchor by in 14 feet of water. found them and dropped anchor. threw my worm rod out and was setting it down when the rod just started taking off wildly right out of my hands out of the boat and gone under at a amazin speed. i just sat there in silence and ate some donuts. decided to stay there and keep dragging bottom with my spare rod with a not so good reel and maybe get lucky and retrieve it. it didnt happen i was there three hours.. soon after i lost my rod and reel i landed a good size sheephead. then another so im guessing it was a big sheephead. it was long three hours as it was one of my favorite shimano rods. it was a bite that i wont forget for awhile as it sprained my finger.
a pic of the sheephead i landed right after i lost my rod and reel.free image host

Sorry for the loss of your favorite fishing rod and reel. It happened to all of us. At least you got a very nice sheephead from the lake.

Gecha (Gerry) wrote:Sorry for the loss of your favorite fishing rod and reel. It happened to all of us. At least you got a very nice sheephead from the lake.

thanks it was special rod to me . it was just special as i could handle just about any fish on it. was great for heavy weeds and dragging bottom. the reel was a shimano also that would do the job also. will replace both soon as i look into the new shimano rods and reels. i now have two shimano rods and reels in lake champlain.

Hey Fishy do you release the sheephead or harvest them. If you keep them are you aware of the stones in there head. As kids we used to cut them out and use them as lucky stones. They are located just behind the eyes on both sides. They look like a broken off piece of a marble and are all white

Hey Matt, could be worse, at least it wasn't your Fenwick/Shimano set up you use on the river ...