Submitted by eric jensen (ip 66.252.189.133)

Date Fished: 5/15/2008
Water Temperature: 45
Water Clarity: 4 feet or greater

Wednesday morning at 2:30 am I loaded the car and headed north to fish with my friend, Legendary Adirondack guide and fisherman Steven Flint. He and I were going to spend the day scouting and warming up because the winner of my first free fishing trip, Pete Hanford, was going to join us at noon on Thursday and for a full day on Friday. It turns out that Pete is quite the fisherman as well. He used to be a smallmouth guide on the Susquehanna and fished in 34 tournaments last year. He won several of those and on the few weekends he isn’t in a tournament you can find him prowling the Susqy in the Sunbury area. Our target was pre-spawn smallmouth and we were hoping to find a few toads.

Steven, who works for the Nature Conservancy, always is very in tune with what is going on in nature and with the fish. Because of the heavy snowfall this winter the water was much cooler and the fish were running about a week behind their normal schedule. Last year at this time Lake Champlain was at 52 degrees and this year it was a questionable 45 degrees. Wednesday was very clear with bluebird skies and a wind out of the east. Both of these things are bad news for the fishing on Lake Champlain. Steven always has a plan B so went to one of his favorite Champlain tributaries to try our luck. He had been there about a week before and only found a few fish but we were hoping that the main body of fish had moved in. We started upstream and had very little action. The water even though it was lower had not warmed up any. It was a fish here and there and then Steven decided that we had to move way upstream to hopefully find some shallower warmer water. His plan worked out because as soon as we got into this area we started to spot cruising fish. The river is narrow and only about 3’ deep and clear in this area. We were poking around exploring when Steven, who has the fish spotting eyes of an eagle, saw a large pod of smallies below a riffle milling around a big group of spawning suckers. We got below these fish and started to wack them. It was like we were fishing a bonefish flat because we could sight cast to cruising fish and often saw the strike. Once hooked up 2 or 3 fish would follow the hooked fish to the boat and we were able to get them to bite as well. When looking at the pictures you will be able to see the difference in these fish from the lake fish. These fish are much leaner and do not have the classic Lake Champlain bulge that add so much weight. The biggest fish we caught here was around 20” but weighed only 4 pounds. That fish would have weighed 5 ½-6 in the lake.

Thursday morning dawned to a steady rain and 50 degrees. The wind was out of the south in the morning and we had 2’ swells in mid lake. We headed to a sheltered area and had good action right from the start. It was a mix of smallmouth and toothy critters. It seemed that just about all the pike had open wounds from lamprey bites. Steven indicated that after they destroyed the laker and salmon populations the lamprey are now attacking both the pike and the smallmouth. It continued to rain hard but the fish gave steady if not hot action. I guess that Pete had the petal to the metal because we got the call at 11 that he was waiting for us. He brought the end of the rain and a change in wind from the south to the North West. We got back to fishing and targeted shore lines that the wind was blowing onto. It wasn’t long before Pete got into the action and after a few warm ups he got the first 5 lber to the boat. As Pete and Steven would say, Toadalishious. Again the fishing was steady but not huge numbers. There were fish around but Steven did not feel the main body had staged as of yet. Pete continued his run and put another pig in the boat and this one was over 6. We headed back to where we had started the day and continued to pick at them adding a real nice 13 lb pike and there was Pete again with another 5+ smallmouth. Pete was getting worn out by now with all these big fish and him driving 7 hours to get there. We headed to the dock and there were 4 boats waiting to pull out. I looked at Steven and of course he said lets go fishing instead of waiting. I had been asking him about a certain area and he felt that this would be a good time to give it a try. It was a short run and we were back into the fish. We ended up fishing in trees that the high water had flooded in the back of a bay. The water was only 2’ deep here and there were a lot of emerging weed stalks. Wouldn’t you know it but it was PETE time again. As he was pulling his x-rap to the boat he was dragging it along right next to the boat in full view of Steven and me. This long missile came out of nowhere and smashed his lure. There was not much water or line for a long fight and Pete gave this one the tuna fisherman’s haul over the side. This beast was 22” and just shy of 7lbs. We figured that we weren’t going to top that one and that it would be nice to end the day on a high note. What a day Pete had. He handed both Steven and I a pretty good wuppin.

Later that night we were celebrating over some drinks and fine food. Steven was kind enough to open his home to us. If there is one thing that Steven can do as well as he fishes, it is cooking. I had enjoyed a great dinner of steak and some spice rubbed halibut filets that Stevens friend, Doug, had brought back from an Alaskan fishing trip. We met Stevens’s lady friend, Deb, who was a lot of fun and a great hostess. There were a lot of laughs and a lot of beer and wine. I unfortunately had nightmares all night and got very little sleep. Pete had promised that he was going to make me his bitch from the back of the boat on the up coming day. Who could sleep with that hanging over your head?

5am came early and we were up to chase fish again. It was 37 degrees with a mix of sun and clouds and only a light wind. We went to the spots that had produced for us the day before but the fish had lock jaw. We tried everything that we could think of as far as lures and location but could not find the right formula on Friday. Steven ran us all over the lake but the fish would not cooperate. I think that we might have caught 20 fish all day again with a mix of smallies and pike. There was only one toad spotted and you will never guess who had that one hooked up. The pig threw Pete’s tube on a jump. Steven ran into a guide buddy at the dock and he and his two customers only caught 3 smallies all day. I guess the fish need a day off sometimes too. Even though Pete put more fish in the boat than me he was nice enough not to follow thru on his threat. When you get to the pictures if you are wondering who caught the boot. That was Pete too.

Steven out did himself with some delicious fresh pike nuggets in his secret breading. Deb turned out some great pan seared scallops with a black sesame and chive coating. Even though the fishing was tough it ended up to be a great day. Good friends, good food and good times. It was a pleasure meeting Pete and I hope to run into him on the Susqy sometime. Steven did a great job guiding us around and you would be hard pressed to find a better host. Check out his website at beyondthebanks@yahoo.com to find out more about him and his guide service. He guides on Champlain but also has many Adirondack streams and lakes to explore. It is always interesting to fish with Steven because you can target a wide variety of fish and water. Tell him that the fishing mortgage man sent you.

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