Submitted by CGToney (ip 24.105.170.254)

Date Fished: 7/1/2005
Water Temperature: 79
Water Clarity: 4 feet or greater

Champlain is over post spawn. I had probably the best 4 days of fishing as far as numbers go in many years. I think if I had another person in the boat I could have had a 100 fish day. My son and I fished Friday through Monday, July 4, from Crown Point south to Ti. Friday was cloudy, wind 10 to 15 and made fishing a little difficult with boat control. Fri fished 6-6, until a rain storm chased me off the lake. By 9 am I had 30, and had fished just one spot. At one point I caught 15 LMB in 15 casts. I quit counting after that and I caught fish all day long. I think I must have caught over 70 LMB. Biggest 5 weighed 18.5 pounds on my electronic culling scale. Largest was 4 lb 5 oz. but most were 2.5 to 3.9 lbs. For the most part, the fish were caught on Zoom Brush Hog or flipping tube in green pumpkin. I caught a couple on a rattletrap/blue chrome. A couple fish were caught on a jig. One was on a white/char double willow Fleck spinnerbait and one on PopR. However the brush hog was the dominate fish catcher. I would try other baits and then pick up the brush hog and make one cast and catch a fish. The other lures would catch maybe one fish every 50 casts. Key structure was finding a wind blowing across a point where the milfoil was not too thick and depth was 6-8 feet with water clarity about 4 feet.

Sat fished 6 to 1 caught 30 LMB. Same pattern as Friday. After lunch I went back out and caught another 25 LMB from 2-5 pm. Biggest 5 weighed 17+ lbs. All were caught on Brush Hog again. I would try other lures and not even get a bite. I would make 10 casts to try to generate a strike. Then I would pick up the brush hog and make one or two casts and catch one. After a while I just quit trying to make them bite other lures and just fished the brush hog.

Sun I fished from 6:30-12 and had 34. I took my son out from 2-6 and caught another 30 and he caught 15. We left the fish biting. On our announced last cast we both caught a fish. What a way to end the day with a double. Biggest 5 for me were 15.5 lbs. My son's biggest 5 were 13.5 lbs. He must have lost or missed another 15 fish. We had doubles on 6 times. All were caught on baby Brush Hog or tube again in green pumpkin. Tried a couple of different spinnerbait combinations, PopR , custom painted shad raps to no success. Same pattern as other days. But the wind was blowing from the north. I had to move to the upwind side of each point to target the fish. I think the fish repositioned overnight when the wind shifted from S to N.

Monday was slower, wind blew harder in the morning from the S. I caught 11 fishing from 6:30 to 11:30, I continued to fish the brush hog and occasionally try other lures. I believe the fish are beginning to move and reposition from the north side of the points to the south side again. I took my son back out from 1:30 till 3 and caught 10 and he caught 8. We lost another 10 fish or our count would have been higher. My biggest 5 was 14 lbs. My son’s biggest 5 were 12.5 lbs. It helps being on the front of the boat. The fish had repositioned to the south side of the wind blown points again. The most amazing thing is most of these fish came from two points. In fact on Sun and Mon, those two points are ALL we fished. I could mark the fish on the depth finder. I wish I had one of those cameras to see just how many fish were there.

Champlain is the most amazing fishery. I checked a lot of the fish for previous hook marks to see if the fish were being caught twice. I did not see a single hook mark in any fish in the fish I caught. That fact is amazing. It goes to show the recruitment is really good three to four years ago given the size and growth rates. Champlain is over post spawn. I had probably the best 4 days of fishing as far as numbers go in many years. Fri I took a day of vacation, and fished 6-6, until a rain storm chased me off the lake. By 9 am I had 30, and had fished just one spot. At one point I caught 15 LMB in 15 casts. I quit counting after that and I caught fish all day long. I think I must have caught over 70 LMB. Biggest 5 weighed 18.5 pounds on my electronic culling scale. Largest was 4 lb 5 oz. but most were 2.5 to 3.9 lbs. For the most part the fish were caught on Zoom Brush Hog or flipping tube in green pumpkin. I caught a couple on a rattletrap/blue chrome. A couple fish were caught on a jig. One was on a white/char double willow Fleck spinnerbait and one on PopR.

Sat. fished 6 to 1 caught 30 LMB. After lunch caught another 25 from 2-5. Biggest 5 weighed 17+ lbs. All were caught on Brush Hog again. I would try other lures and not even get a bite. I would make 10 casts to try to generate a strike. Then I would pick up the brush hog and make one or two casts and catch one. After a while I just quit trying to make them bite a brush hog.

Sun I fished from 6:30-12 and had 34. Took my son out from 2-6 and caught another 30 and he caught 15. We left the fish biting. On our announced last cast we both caught a fish. What a way to end the day with a double. Biggest 5 for me were 15.5 lbs. My son's biggest 5 were 13.5 lbs. He must have lost or missed another 15 fish. We had doubles on 6 times. All were caught on baby Brush Hog or tube again in green pumpkin.

Monday was slower, wind blew harder in the morning. I caught 11 fishing from 6:30 to 11:30 and went in for lunch. I fished one weed bed. I took my son back out from 1:30 till 3 and caught 10 and he caught 8. We lost another 10 fish or our count would have been higher. My biggest 5 was 14 lbs. My son’s biggest 5 was 12.5 lbs. It helps being on the front of the boat. The most amazing thing is most of these fish came from two small weed beds. In fact on Sun and Mon, those two weed beds are ALL we fished. I could actually mark the fish on the depth finder. I wish I had one of those cameras to see just how many fish were there.

Champlain is the most amazing fishery. I checked a lot of the fish for previous hook marks to see if the fish were being caught twice. I did not see a single hook mark in any fish in the fish I caught. That fact is amazing. It goes to show the recruitment was really good three to four years ago given the size and growth rates.

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