We rolled into Vermont, 3 miles north of the Canadian Border at 10PM on July 19^th, 2009 with the hopes of experiencing a great day on Lake Champlain the next morning.  Lake Champlain is rarely mentioned when people speak about great bass lakes as the southern giants such as Seminole, Lake Fork, Pickwick, and Guntersville often steal the show.  But let me tell you.  4 hours on this Vermont gem will change your mind in a big hurry.

In two hours we boated 25 smallmouth bass averaging 2 pounds each with several well over 3 pounds.  Amazing!!  We may have seen a few lakes with bigger averages but none could compare to the non-stop action that Champlain provides.  In fact, after two hours we decided to give the smallmouth a rest and try our hands at catching some pike.  Another hour of fishing later and we had caught numerous northern pike, chain pickerel, and largemouth bass casting rattletraps.  In total we boated 36 fish in just over 3 hours of fishing – which outside of North Dakota was the most productive fishing we’ve seen in 40 States.

Gil Gagner of Bronze Back Guide Service was our guide at the helm today.  Catching 75 pounds of bass in 3-4 hours seemed as routine as getting the mail for him.

Fish Tip:  If you are ever fishing a hump where there are lots of bass, put the fish you catch in your livewell until you are finished fishing the hump.  Captain Gil told us that a caught fish when released excretes a pheromone that spooks the other fish and turns off the bite.  By waiting until after you’re done fishing the hump to release the fish will keep the bite on.

Taylor beat me soundly today at 21 fish versus 16, but I was lucky enough to catch the 500^th fish of our journey around 8am.  We’ve got a fair number of smallmouth waters in the remaining States so we’re wondering now if we might hit the 700 number before it is over.

The weather today was overcast with some pretty strong southerly winds at 20mph making the big lake pretty rough – but the fish didn’t seem to mind.

We are starting to get a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel with only 8 more States in the RV before hopping a plane for Alaska and Hawaii.  But the northeast United States has some amazing water to explore so there is still more adventure left – so we need to dig deep.

By 11am we were headed east for New Hampshire and the Androscoggin River the next day.

Tonight we have the pleasure of sleeping at the Bethel Inn in Bethel, Maine just over the border from where we will fish the Androscoggin River in New Hampshire tomorrow morning.  We would like to extend a huge thanks to Wendy Gray and the Chamber of Commerce in Bethel for their hospitality in providing us a complimentary room for the night.

     We would love to hear from you.  Send us a note:

Name:
Email:
Comment:

"Deep in his heart, every man longs for a battle to fight,