Lake Champlain United - Forums

Had Capt Thorny and Joey aboard for a scouting run on fresh waters. Launched at 1st light after driving thru the battlefield that is downtown Burlington trailering the boat across church street for a 1st due to the detours. Had Joey watchin closely to ensure no homeless jumped in the boat as we stopped at the signs…

Coastguard parking was clear as the Jazz fest was on.

We motored in foggy, smoky, 2-3 footers across the abyss to scout salmon. There were some small deadheads seen so be careful out there…Water temps started at 57.4 surface. Main lake had 55 down about 20ft.. Willsborough had a thick thermo cline of 61 surface with 55 down over 40 ft in some spots…water color was a perfect deep green. we picked away at lakers and more Lakers and had a few salmon in the mix. No small 8” salmon like we have been seeing on the inland sea were caught. Almost all the lakers had 6-8” lamprey on them. We probably killed 10 lamprey yesterday.

Hot colors were blue and silver…. And more blue and silver. And when that didn’t work get the blue sleeve out and put out more blue and silver.

I Miss placed the damn counter so the count is not exact but I think we ended at 130 after boating 17 fish.

The BAD news is water feas are already showing up on the main lake in the NY side!!! 60 deg surface and they are active already!!!

No salmon pics taken as 60 surface will kill em if you handle em much now. But the lakers did fine coming from only 30 down..

Menu consisted of marinated venny followed by a
Rack off bbqed ribs that did NOT disappoint.

Great day on the pond guys. Thanks for the adventure!

Fish on!

Thanks for the report on new waters Matt, I had considered poking over there in the near future but given the flea situation and my disdain for spooling up with anchor line to fend them off I think I'll stick with picking away at random fish in cleaner waters!
Just a heads up the next time you have to trailer through Burlington and you want to protect your truck and boat from vagrants and homeless just tape HELP WANTED signs on and they will not even make eye contact with you I once took it one step further and learned the hard way that handing them an actual job application while sitting a traffic light resulted in a cup of coffee on the hood of my truck, there is a fine line with those folks......

Nice job relax crew!!!!

So much for the "skinny laker" syndrome people have talked about! Solid fish.

Hey that is quite the crew and some handsome Lakers.

"The BAD news is water fleas are already showing up on the main lake in the NY side!!! 60 deg surface and they are active already!!!"

I wasn't there but I would bet that you were harvesting Cottonwood Tree fuzz cause it sure is flying through the air in Waltham.

Keep it up, Randy

Surprise wrote: ↑Tue Jun 10, 2025 9:23 am Hey that is quite the crew and some handsome Lakers.

"The BAD news is water fleas are already showing up on the main lake in the NY side!!! 60 deg surface and they are active already!!!"

I wasn't there but I would bet that you were harvesting Cottonwood Tree fuzz cause it sure is flying through the air in Waltham.

Keep it up, Randy

I looked close Randy, and there was cotton mixed in some but there were definitely fleas… I verified 3 different times looking at individual flea spines.