By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan
Generally, we tend to paint lakes green or brown, depending on the dominant bass species. Even where largemouth and smallmouth coexist, one typically outshines the other in terms of abundance and tournament-winning size.
Rare is the fishery with balanced doses of green and brown fish, both with seasonal potential to provide a winning limit. Among these rare gems, Lake Champlain tops the field with incredible habitat diversity and abundant bass populations – all wrapped in magnificent natural ambiance.
"I love Lake Champlain because it is a true 50/50 fishery,” said Bassmaster Elite Series pro Mike Iaconelli. “You can routinely win with either species or a combination of both.
“It's one of the only lakes in the country you can fish a cove, go down the bank and flip up 20 pounds of largemouth. Then turn around go back up the same bank and cast out deeper and catch 20 pounds of smallmouth."
Fellow Elite pro Dave Lefebre agrees: “I think this is the only place that the major (bass fishing tours) go where you can win with either species. It all hinges on time of year. There are times when you’d be more apt to win with smallmouth and then there are times when largemouth would be (most prominent).
“The times when I think you could win with smallmouth would be the tail end of the spawn, when the season first opens. Then in September and October when the water cools down, you can weigh in lots of 4 1/2-pounders.”
Largemouth typically spawn before the season opens, but Lefebre said the summer months more than make up for that with big numbers of hefty green fish stacking over offshore breaks and humps.
“Once they get out of their postspawn slump, in late July through early September, the largemouth are the deal.”
Champlain's smallmouths will sometimes rise from 30 feet beneath the surface to inhale a topwater plug.
And like any great fishery, Champlain’s packed with forage. From crawfish to alewives, to bluegill and huge numbers of yellow perch, bass of both brands lack not for belly-fillers.
When travel plans permit, Champlain is well worth a visit. Here are a few points to help you dial in your fishing plan.
Geography and Habitat
With some 490 square miles of surface area, Champlain stretches 125 miles from its narrow southern tip around historic Fort Ticonderoga, northward into the Champlain Islands region terminating in lower Quebec. Below the Canadian border, the lake straddles the Vermont-New York line with the Green Mountains flanking its eastern side and the Adirondacks sprawling to the west.
Stretching 14 miles at its widest point, this narrow lake boasts stunning scenery with bluffs, rocky points, residential and municipal waterfronts, bays and coves, a couple of bridges and several rivers. As Iaconelli alluded, Champlain’s green and brown bass populations don’t often occur side-by-side, but switching focus doesn’t necessarily require a significant move.
Of course, the species' preferences remain mostly textbook, so deeper, rocky structure and deep grass beds excel for smallmouth pursuits outside of the spawn, which brings them to shallow, rocky shorelines. For largemouth, keep it shallow and focus on wood, docks, and laydowns; crank shoreline rocks, or work the dense milfoil beds found on the south end.
Productive Tactics
Those vast expanses of southern grass offer an excellent largemouth environment where topwater frogs can keep you busy for several hours. Also, punching Beaver-style baits and pitching Texas-rigged worms and Brush Hogs around contour points in the vegetation will yield plenty of opportunities.
Up north, bays like St. Albans and Missisquois bristle with logs, laydowns and stumps just begging for a jig, Texas rig, shaky head or beefed-up dropshot. Under cloudy skies, or any lowlight conditions, bladed jigs, swimjigs and topwater plugs will pick off the roamers.
And to that later point, don’t assume that only the big heads can play the surface game. As Pennsylvania tournament competitor Jason Ober points out, walking a topwater plug over a rock reef might just bring a brown beast charging topside.
Suspension bridges are among the attractions of the new Adventure Trail at nearby Ausable Chasm.
“Most people don’t think about smallmouth as hitting topwaters, but on a calm morning, before the sun gets too bright, they’ll come up from 30 feet and blast a Spook,” he said. “When a smallmouth comes up to hit a topwater bait, it’s impressive.”
For most smallmouth efforts, stick with dropshots, tubes and Carolina-rigged lizards; but keep a jerkbait handy. Smallies will ravage anything that looks like a yellow perch or sunfish running for cover.
While You’re There
Lake Champlain is conveniently accessible from either side. A few notes for travelers:
> Nearby cities: Plattsburgh, N.Y.; Burlington, Vt.
> Visitors Info: http://GoAdirondack.com, http://www.Vermont.org/vcb
> Ferries: Three routes of auto/pedestrian travel link Vermont and New York (http://www.Ferries.com)
> Highways: Interstate 87 flanks Champlain’s west side, while I-89 swings into Burlington, Vt., crosses the international border and terminates at Canadian Highway 133.
> Must See: About 30 minutes south of Plattsburgh, Ausable Chasm showcases nature’s sculpting forces with the largest gorge east of the Mississippi River. Created eons ago by the Ausable River, the park offers breathtaking views along multiple hiking trails, rafting, tubing and swimming options.
Ausable Chasm’s newest addition, the Adventure Trail, crisscrosses the river with zip lines and cable bridges, while thrilling visitors with cargo-net climbs up the rock face, exhilarating edge walks and optional rappelling.
For park details, visit http://AusableChasm.com.
