Re: fishing in lake champlain
i will be going to lake champlain aug 1 to 8 (will be in mallets bay but have a sailboat and an inflatable to fish from) i know very little about that area and what fish to catch.
What rigs should i use and what can i expect to catch?
thanks
Mallets Bay is mostly warmwater species this time of year... Incidental salmon are caught in the outer bay, but lake trout are in the main lake now for the most part. The inner bay has northerns and largemouth, and the outer bay produces smallmouth and northerns. Some walleye can be had but I don't have any great advice on where to find them- I actually have fished north of the bays, but never in Mallets Bay.
I would bottom bounce spinner rigs with crawlers and/or minnows on lips of structure that drops from ten-to-twenty feet to deep water- even below the thermocline if you are a walleye fisherman. You won't catch walleye below the thermocline, but the lips that drop to deep water are what I mean to highlight. I understand spinnerbaits and original Rapalas (big ones) work for northerns and largemouth in the inner bay. Daredevles and the like too. Smallmouth in the outer bay go for scented plastics on carolinas as well as various spinners and Rapalas and the like.
I have heard of muskie being caught there. Brown trout in deeper water and rainbows too, but that is all heresay. The salmonids are pretty much in the main lake at this time of year.
Hope you have a great time!
