Lake Champlain United - Forums

41 degrees here in grand isle this afternoon with a steady south wind.The Grand Isle ferry channel is opening up fast . My guess is by the end of the week the northern broad lake will be busted open . If only I could launch Joyride at Vantines access area it could be "game on". I will keep you all posted when I see open fishable water up here . Tight lines coming soon. Jim

Any open water report would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Do you by any chance get an eyeball on the mouth of the Winooski?
We used to get there a lot in March

Jump

Thanks for the real time update Jim! It has been an exceptionally long and boring winter and like many can’t wait to get back out.
I have been through all of my tackle and gear twice, had over $400 in tackle in my online order carts which I deleted because I have to many lures as it is. I did score the closest thing to the holy grail of spring salmon lures, a custom painted Purple Brown Trout Pins Minnow that was crafted by a forum member from NH and goes by a famous Van Halen song name but will remain anonymous as he had to suck up his male pride and brave the women cosmetic section to inquire about purple nail polish. Despite being a bit beyond middle age he got the suspicious eyeball from the gal at the register and I suppose in this day and age I don’t blame her for thinking something was a little odd, she was probably wondering if he was going to paint his fingernails, toenails, or BOTH!!??!!
Well I’m here to tell you he used at least some of the pinky paint to do up this awesome lure and mail it to me. Not sure what came of the rest of the bottle and won’t ask

I don't make it down by the mouth of the Winooski often . But I am guessing when the northern broad lake opens the Winooski will be right there with it Jim

Eat your heart out, Todd Flint!
But I can still see that gal from the cosmetics section looking me up and down when I offered the painting fishing lures explanation;
"Sure you are, sure you are..."
The things we do to catch a fish!
Nail polish color code number withheld in the interest of protecting the fishery.
"Where you from you sexy thing?!"
Ha ha ha!
Jump

About four days later than I thought but vantines boat launch in Grand Isle has open fishable water

Satellite pics make it look as though the ice may be gone or almost gone. Anyone have any real-life confirmation?

https://worldview.earthdata.nasa.gov/?v ... 3A51%3A47Z

Another heart warming report from Ahhspray. Thanks!
Nice looking boat too. I used to have a Mariner 220 center console. It was a good fishing machine and Langford always said if it had every fish caught by it in it it would sink ten times over...a lot of fish. There is no denying some boats troll better than others.
So, now my question becomes: If I were to make the haul up to Champlain and couldn't yet get out from the Winooski what would I target for fish types going outta Vantines? Or maybe somebody can say if the Inland Sea is now passable.

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Converse still locked in. Cool week won't go out soon.

Charlotte Ferry Running.

Fish On!

Good to know about present state of ice at Converse too.
Thank you
I take the ferry running back and forth as a good contribution to exposing some breakup too!
Joyride is right; It won't be long now. But I do hafta marvel how the ice survives big blows like we had last weekend

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Hoping for first week of April for Converse. Similar to 2019. No warm up rest of March or big wind usually associated with a warm up.

I got my informant watching Keelers which is my favorite spring location. Hopefully this year won't disappoint even though most of the Inland Sea salmon have been the shorts.

Does Keelers Bay have it's own boat launch or does one hafta use the one next to the causeway, who's name I forget?

Jump

Yes, Keelers has its own F&W launch. However, I always launch at the John Guilmette at the end of the causeway which has a much better ramp, larger parking area, and better turn around space. Plus the route to Keelers is all good fishing waters.

John Guilmette was an engineer for the state of Vermont who was involved with many F&W launch improvement projects. I met him several times while I was a contractor. I think he's retired now but still around. My recollection of John was that he was an avid water skier. I don't recall the circumstances for naming the launch after John Guilmette but it's cool when places are named for an engineer.

Ken
Retired Civil Engineer