Post by rgang4 on Jul 7, 2021 19:06:25 GMT -5
Back about mid May it seemed to me that the majority of largemouth were either spawning or recovering from the spawn. I thought I had a good chance of catching prespawn bass elsewhere on places like Dunmore, Chittenden and the Main lake above the bridge. Fishing was good enough that I did not feel I was missing anything on southern Champlain.
Dunmore was great one trip for nice fat prespawn largemouth, a few spawners as well and a mix of spawning and prespawn smallies. Largies topped out at 4-8 with three over 4. Weighed one smallie at 3-8 and a few more Iād guess just over three. By the time I got back a few weeks later the spawn was done but I had a great day anyway catching tons of pan fish including many rock bass over 10ā.
My partner didnāt catch any but she had a blast watching intensely on every cast always anticipating another fish. I rarely disappointed her.
Addy is definitely a fishing dog. Her first trip was at Chittenden where the fishing was so good we caught them the first cast, the last cast and rarely went more than a few minutes between bites. Most were small smallies, a few decent largemouth and a few decent smallies. I donāt think I broke 3 lbs. on any of them but four or five smallies had to have been close. All the smallies were on beds, largemouths were not there yet but very present in all the soft bottom bays with shoreline vegetation and or wood..
Jerkbaits, tubes, Ned rigs and in-line spinners worked well in both Dunmore and Chittenden.
Made a couple trips to the main lake with so-so results. First trip I thought my temp gauge was broken getting readings of 48-51. Fish were hard to catch but they were around. All came from points. Most of them came on suspending jerkbaits, a few on tubes in 8-12 ft. and a couple hit a #2 Mepps while I was fishing for perch. Came home with 24 decent perch for a fish fryšš
Eventually the smallies got on beds on the main lake,
Dunmore became a summer zoo, and Chittenden produced 0 largies and a handful of little smallies last time out.
It was time to go back to the south lake. When I finally did I found a royal mess. Algae everywhere, dirty water, not much weed and not a single decent fish on two short trips.
At least sunrise was worth it!
But things changed fast. Recently the algae has been in check, the water has cleared, some decent weeds have filled in and the alewives have the bass turned on and fattening up. Lucky for me I picked the last week of June for vacation this year and believe I hit the beginning of the summer peak. I had the option of pushing my vacation week back to the end of the month instead of the week of the LCI.
Good thing because that had to be the windiest summer week ever, not to mention cold and wet at times too.
One Sunday it was so nasty I was actually glad I had a bad trolling motor battery which kept me off the water and put me on the banks of Otter Creek where I caught my biggest brown ever in a stream! Caught some half decent pike and a Master Angler fallfish too which was the target species that day.
21ā brown, pike about 25ā I guess
Well back to bass and my vacation week.
Probably the best vacation week ever. Not solely for the fishing though, Iāve had better but not much. Before I left my wife had told me she will be coming home on 8/1 which is our 40th wedding anniversary and we really had a great week together. So glad I didnāt go to the cottage alone. Probably would have been my lastš„²
Collette and Addy bringing the kayaks to the dockšāš¦ŗš
We had great weather to be on the lake with all the heat and humidity prior to the 4th. Also had a nice visit from friends on Friday at the cottage and over the weekend at the camper.
If anything went wrong it was just a timing glitch when Gavin arrived a minute too late to catch a 28ā cat. I had been fishing cut bait all week with no bites so I finally gave up and tried for sheephead late one afternoon after a storm with strong wind and rain muddied the water by the cottage.
At least we got him a few Master Angler size gills and Rockies which made us both very happy.
Vacation sadly came to an end but sure ended with a bang. Ran into a bunch of fish Sunday afternoon and luckily they stuck around until Monday morning when Jim and I got together to fish for the first time.
Jimās first of the day
My first of the day I thinkš¤
Caught some very nice SM on the south lake this week. They are chasing alewives when I catch them. Sometimes I found them schooling, other times it was just one by itself like this one.
Great week for me, great week for my wife too. I was so at peace I kept my cool and kept my mouth shut when some idiot and his partner who came in behind me and watched me land a bunch of nice fish got so close they were casting at the same exact spot I was! If you know who you are I feel sorry for you because that was pathetic. Good for you I am trying hard to change my ways or I assure you I would have ruined both of our nights.š¤¬ And I wonāt even mention the two guys Monday morning who were almost as bad. A guy should be able to cast in any direction around his boat without hitting the person who moved in on them shouldnāt he?
Hereās a sample of some of the fish this past week. Most came on swim jigs or swimbaits but had some good topwater bites too and have to mention the night crawler that caught the 28ā cat.
Big fish of the week, 5-5 and only 19.5ā
long.
Dunmore was great one trip for nice fat prespawn largemouth, a few spawners as well and a mix of spawning and prespawn smallies. Largies topped out at 4-8 with three over 4. Weighed one smallie at 3-8 and a few more Iād guess just over three. By the time I got back a few weeks later the spawn was done but I had a great day anyway catching tons of pan fish including many rock bass over 10ā.
My partner didnāt catch any but she had a blast watching intensely on every cast always anticipating another fish. I rarely disappointed her.
Addy is definitely a fishing dog. Her first trip was at Chittenden where the fishing was so good we caught them the first cast, the last cast and rarely went more than a few minutes between bites. Most were small smallies, a few decent largemouth and a few decent smallies. I donāt think I broke 3 lbs. on any of them but four or five smallies had to have been close. All the smallies were on beds, largemouths were not there yet but very present in all the soft bottom bays with shoreline vegetation and or wood..
Jerkbaits, tubes, Ned rigs and in-line spinners worked well in both Dunmore and Chittenden.
Made a couple trips to the main lake with so-so results. First trip I thought my temp gauge was broken getting readings of 48-51. Fish were hard to catch but they were around. All came from points. Most of them came on suspending jerkbaits, a few on tubes in 8-12 ft. and a couple hit a #2 Mepps while I was fishing for perch. Came home with 24 decent perch for a fish fryšš
Eventually the smallies got on beds on the main lake,
Dunmore became a summer zoo, and Chittenden produced 0 largies and a handful of little smallies last time out.
It was time to go back to the south lake. When I finally did I found a royal mess. Algae everywhere, dirty water, not much weed and not a single decent fish on two short trips.
At least sunrise was worth it!
But things changed fast. Recently the algae has been in check, the water has cleared, some decent weeds have filled in and the alewives have the bass turned on and fattening up. Lucky for me I picked the last week of June for vacation this year and believe I hit the beginning of the summer peak. I had the option of pushing my vacation week back to the end of the month instead of the week of the LCI.
Good thing because that had to be the windiest summer week ever, not to mention cold and wet at times too.
One Sunday it was so nasty I was actually glad I had a bad trolling motor battery which kept me off the water and put me on the banks of Otter Creek where I caught my biggest brown ever in a stream! Caught some half decent pike and a Master Angler fallfish too which was the target species that day.
21ā brown, pike about 25ā I guess
Well back to bass and my vacation week.
Probably the best vacation week ever. Not solely for the fishing though, Iāve had better but not much. Before I left my wife had told me she will be coming home on 8/1 which is our 40th wedding anniversary and we really had a great week together. So glad I didnāt go to the cottage alone. Probably would have been my lastš„²
Collette and Addy bringing the kayaks to the dockšāš¦ŗš
We had great weather to be on the lake with all the heat and humidity prior to the 4th. Also had a nice visit from friends on Friday at the cottage and over the weekend at the camper.
If anything went wrong it was just a timing glitch when Gavin arrived a minute too late to catch a 28ā cat. I had been fishing cut bait all week with no bites so I finally gave up and tried for sheephead late one afternoon after a storm with strong wind and rain muddied the water by the cottage.
At least we got him a few Master Angler size gills and Rockies which made us both very happy.
Vacation sadly came to an end but sure ended with a bang. Ran into a bunch of fish Sunday afternoon and luckily they stuck around until Monday morning when Jim and I got together to fish for the first time.
Jimās first of the day
My first of the day I thinkš¤
Caught some very nice SM on the south lake this week. They are chasing alewives when I catch them. Sometimes I found them schooling, other times it was just one by itself like this one.
Great week for me, great week for my wife too. I was so at peace I kept my cool and kept my mouth shut when some idiot and his partner who came in behind me and watched me land a bunch of nice fish got so close they were casting at the same exact spot I was! If you know who you are I feel sorry for you because that was pathetic. Good for you I am trying hard to change my ways or I assure you I would have ruined both of our nights.š¤¬ And I wonāt even mention the two guys Monday morning who were almost as bad. A guy should be able to cast in any direction around his boat without hitting the person who moved in on them shouldnāt he?
Hereās a sample of some of the fish this past week. Most came on swim jigs or swimbaits but had some good topwater bites too and have to mention the night crawler that caught the 28ā cat.
Big fish of the week, 5-5 and only 19.5ā
long.
