This week we are on Lake Champlain for the third Bassmaster Eastern Open tournament of the year. This is my second tournament ever on Champlain and I got here early due to the cancellation of the Elite event on the Chesapeake. It’s been fun and informative to have some extra time to try and find them on this monster of a fishery. I finished 6th here at the Elite last year and had an awesome week.
I went back to look at my notes on last year’s event and it said this…
A big key this week is deciding whether to fish for smallmouth, largemouth, or a mixture of the two. This is one of those places where you can make some extremely long runs and gamble big. If you’ve ever heard anything at all about Champlain you’ve probably heard mention of Ticonderoga where historically a lot of tournaments have been won. Undoubtedly there will be a few guys go there this week in search of a big wad of largemouth that they can have all to themselves. Count me out of that equation. I’ll be one of the guys that stays up north, closer to the launch site, and maximizes my fishing time. I plan on mixing it up spending some time on smallmouth and largemouth. Actually a lot of the places I plan on fishing I feel like I could catch either species at any time which is a plus in my eyes. Largemouth obviously grow bigger than the smallmouth do so the best case scenario would be to catch a really good “kicker” largemouth at some point throughout the day.
Fish will be caught a lot of different ways this week as this lake has about any type of available cover you could ask for. Grass, docks, bridges, rocks, wood, all of the above will play a role in this one. I plan on having several different options handy for the many different situations I will encounter. One technique I plan to spend some time doing though is flipping scattered grass in 6-10 feet of water. This is something I learned on Lake Guntersville and I’ve had success with it on most of these northern lakes with good largemouth populations. Flipping the scattered stuff is different than flipping actual mats of grass and it sometimes takes longer to find the fish because it all looks the same but the rewards can be great. My plan is to go do this once I have a decent limit in the boat to try and catch that all important “kicker”.
All of that information is still 100% applicable for this year. This place is extremely healthy and loaded with fish. Put Champlain on your “bucket” list.
I will flip with my trusty MHX-FP-936. This rod is 7’9″ and has all the power I need to get a big one coming my way in that thick grass. Pair it up with a high-speed reel spooled up with 60-pound Vicious No-faid braid. On the business end I use a one-ounce tungsten weight, a 4/0 Mustad 3x Grip Pin Max flipping hook, and a small, compact creature bait, like the X Zone Muscle Back Finesse Craw.
One bait that’s a solid big producer for me on Champlain on smallmouth especially is the Ned rig. I use a Mustad Grip Pin Ned jig head with a new bait designed especially for this technique called the Ned Zone from X Zone lures. The rod I built for this technique is an MHX-NEPS-81MLXF. It is 6’9” medium-light power with 10lb braid and 6-8lb. fluorocarbon leader.
Thank y’all for reading these and I hope they help you catch more fish on your lake or if you ever make it to Lake Champlain. If you ever have any questions find me on Facebook or Instagram.