Post by rgang4 on Oct 29, 2017 9:13:06 GMT -5
After seeing the upcoming weather for the weekend and the coming days I made arrangements Thursday evening to go to Ti and fish Friday and Saturday. I was apprehensive being the weather the previous days was wet and windy and I assumed the lake would be a mess but it was kind of a now or never situation so I rigged up my rods late Thursday evening and headed out at 6 a.m. for the lake.
Nice ride up, all seemed quiet as far as wind and the skies were clearing nicely. As I passed South Bay the water was flat and appeared pretty clean🤗 and I hoped to see the same farther north. It was.
Lake was calm, water very clear at the ramp, air temp 40 and water temp 55. Dropped the trolling motor and pulled out some rods. Started with a chatterbait but sure wished I had tied on a buzzbait 😏 the conditions were perfect but the chatterbait produced well and often........until it didn’t. Fish were on the outer edges early but seemed to move deeper into the grass as the sun got higher. Still no wind either so I opted for a small swim jig presentation. Good choice.
20.75” 5-3
I had set a few goals for myself for Friday and one was a five lber or better. The other was to not loose any baits to toothy critters. I almost pulled that off by trying to determine what had bitten before I set the hook and if it was a pike play it very carefully even trying to loose them before I lost my bait. Another was to keep track of how many bass I caught. Did good with that too until things got really busy late in the day. I remember hitting 20 when I lost count. I think most people would when you get a buzzbait bite like this going.
20.5” 4-14
20.25” 4-12
19.5” not long enough for Master Angler so no weight but close to 5 given how fat it was.
This was typical of what I wa catching on Friday.
I made several passes and each produced at least one along a nice nice stretch of weed near a secret point🤐 that’s no secret to many😉😁. I guess I probably wore them out there so I relocated for the sunset bite. That didn’t really work but that’s the only thing that didn’t. Too much wind most anywhere until the last twenty minutes or so before dark but even after the wind died the lake kept rocking so I left a few minutes before dark and got the boat covered and plugged in at the Best Western.
Though the wind was bad at times it never really made the fishing hard and didn’t really seem to affect the fish either. Really had to work your bait, fish in and out of the grass and make adjustments to size and color to keep them biting. Going smaller was key but being open minded paid off too like fishing a small Trap in the shallow sparse weeds or switching to a buzzbait when other baits were working. That one really was a no brainer given the set up. Clean water, broken weed bed, late afternoon, Champlain 😉
Wish I could say Saturday was repeat of Friday but it was not. Fished new water in the morning when conditions were good. Found small bass but big pike. Lost a few pike to instant bite offs but not much you can do when that happens. Only lost one that I tried to land. After a long battle the line finally gave way under hardly any pressure. Looked to be a bit bigger than this 34.5” model.
I always carry at least one extra buzzbait due to past pike encounters. Was able salvage this one but one more jumping, twisting and twirling pike and it’s done for.
Afternoon came and I had only a small limit of bass but a boatload of pike so I reluctantly fished an area that produced good chunks the day before. Hated to because I wanted to find something else but it was not happening.
Ended the day with three good chunks and decided to call it a day being the wind was just too much. Put all the rods away, straightened out other items and cleaned up all the loose weeds. Checked the time on my phone, 2:37🙄 and thought about making a few more casts. No. Need to work on being smarter too!
The wind really roiled things up yesterday. Mud lines forming everywhere. Whole areas muddied up too. But the good news is the fall bite is on, water temps are holding between 55-60, weedbeds are thinning out nice and slow making moving baits easy to fish and pretty effective.
Hope to get up a few more times before it’s over because it’s pretty hard to find fish or fishing as good anywhere these days but on Champlain. The buzzbait bite I had on Friday was reminiscent of afternoons on the Connecticut River but those days are a distant memory now😢
Nice ride up, all seemed quiet as far as wind and the skies were clearing nicely. As I passed South Bay the water was flat and appeared pretty clean🤗 and I hoped to see the same farther north. It was.
Lake was calm, water very clear at the ramp, air temp 40 and water temp 55. Dropped the trolling motor and pulled out some rods. Started with a chatterbait but sure wished I had tied on a buzzbait 😏 the conditions were perfect but the chatterbait produced well and often........until it didn’t. Fish were on the outer edges early but seemed to move deeper into the grass as the sun got higher. Still no wind either so I opted for a small swim jig presentation. Good choice.
20.75” 5-3
I had set a few goals for myself for Friday and one was a five lber or better. The other was to not loose any baits to toothy critters. I almost pulled that off by trying to determine what had bitten before I set the hook and if it was a pike play it very carefully even trying to loose them before I lost my bait. Another was to keep track of how many bass I caught. Did good with that too until things got really busy late in the day. I remember hitting 20 when I lost count. I think most people would when you get a buzzbait bite like this going.
20.5” 4-14
20.25” 4-12
19.5” not long enough for Master Angler so no weight but close to 5 given how fat it was.
This was typical of what I wa catching on Friday.
I made several passes and each produced at least one along a nice nice stretch of weed near a secret point🤐 that’s no secret to many😉😁. I guess I probably wore them out there so I relocated for the sunset bite. That didn’t really work but that’s the only thing that didn’t. Too much wind most anywhere until the last twenty minutes or so before dark but even after the wind died the lake kept rocking so I left a few minutes before dark and got the boat covered and plugged in at the Best Western.
Though the wind was bad at times it never really made the fishing hard and didn’t really seem to affect the fish either. Really had to work your bait, fish in and out of the grass and make adjustments to size and color to keep them biting. Going smaller was key but being open minded paid off too like fishing a small Trap in the shallow sparse weeds or switching to a buzzbait when other baits were working. That one really was a no brainer given the set up. Clean water, broken weed bed, late afternoon, Champlain 😉
Wish I could say Saturday was repeat of Friday but it was not. Fished new water in the morning when conditions were good. Found small bass but big pike. Lost a few pike to instant bite offs but not much you can do when that happens. Only lost one that I tried to land. After a long battle the line finally gave way under hardly any pressure. Looked to be a bit bigger than this 34.5” model.
I always carry at least one extra buzzbait due to past pike encounters. Was able salvage this one but one more jumping, twisting and twirling pike and it’s done for.
Afternoon came and I had only a small limit of bass but a boatload of pike so I reluctantly fished an area that produced good chunks the day before. Hated to because I wanted to find something else but it was not happening.
Ended the day with three good chunks and decided to call it a day being the wind was just too much. Put all the rods away, straightened out other items and cleaned up all the loose weeds. Checked the time on my phone, 2:37🙄 and thought about making a few more casts. No. Need to work on being smarter too!
The wind really roiled things up yesterday. Mud lines forming everywhere. Whole areas muddied up too. But the good news is the fall bite is on, water temps are holding between 55-60, weedbeds are thinning out nice and slow making moving baits easy to fish and pretty effective.
Hope to get up a few more times before it’s over because it’s pretty hard to find fish or fishing as good anywhere these days but on Champlain. The buzzbait bite I had on Friday was reminiscent of afternoons on the Connecticut River but those days are a distant memory now😢
. But, this rain event will make current and color the water on the river, cooling temps should get the smallies turned on. 
