ChaosStarter
06-23-2013, 12:15 PM
*All pics at the end*
So 3 friends and I left last Friday night heading north towards the big water. 4 guys, 2 boats. We were going to fish Ticonderoga on the way up, but with the recent storms, the lake was 3' high (this will come into play later again) and we decided to skip it and try on the way home at the end of the week. We didn't hear much about it since it was a mudhole and not doing too hot at that point. Reports were that water temps dropped from 70*+ to around 55-60*F.
We stayed at a place called Holiday Harbor Motel. It's up in Alburg and a great place and sportmans cottage. It's run by a fella named Bruce and his wife. Great people. Great place. Docks and power to leave your boat so you don't have to pull it every time you're done fishing. Go out for breakfast, come in, eat lunch, and go back out.
The beginning of the week was tough with bad winds and a much colder lake because of the rains. Weather was beautiful but fishing was tough. Weeds in places there weren't last year and not in places that they were. Our easy go-to spots last year didn't produce anything. That wasn't a good sign. We managed to catch some fish here and there, but you had to fight for it. Because of the higher levels, the fish were much more spread out, not so much on normal humps, points, and structures. We tried going over to Monte Bay but the water was blowing north and hard. 4'+ seas in the Inland sea. We finally made it over there and it was 50* water. Probably the most disappointing thing to see at that point after battling GOOD, GOOD waves in a bass boat. The place looked dead. Not physically, but just devoid of life. Plant life everywhere, but no fish. Went back early and decided this would be our first drinking night instead.
By Monday and Tuesday, we were able to get out to the Inland Sea and the Broad Sea, and start putting something together. Numbers picked up. Still limited size though. As many cookie-cutter smallies, perch (yellow and white), and a lot of good size pike that you could want. Jerkbaits were the key and would remain the favorite just about the whole week. Catching fish in a lot of places, but no big sizes again. Probably a 20-30 fish day.
Middle of the week, we hit up Missiquoi Bay. Did great! My buddy and I got on a hot streak of largemouth. 15-20 fish in a span of 30 minutes. All 2.5-3 with some big boys thrown in. Spinnerbaits and flipping plastics into reeds. I pulled out a nice 4.5lb'er on a spinnerbait. Found more fish all around the bay but of the smaller variety, again LMB and pike. That evening, started fishing the Inland Sea again finding good smallies up to 3lb's on humps using hard/soft jerkbaits and sometimes bugbaits on shakey heads off the bottom. It was a loooooong day, but we probably picked up 60+ fish with some nice sizes coming in.
On Thursday, it was over to St. Albans bay. Caught a few LMB in a small creek, but that would be it for a while. Fished some shorelines of St. Albans but never saw a wink. Fished some local islands and started picking away at smallies again. We got to one section and it was on fire, but not on any power fishing baits, all finesse bug baits. We picked up a bunch including a doubleheader of 3lb smalles (see pic below). Went back to the humps from the night before and picked up a lot more smallies and some pike. Even saw bait blowing up around us but with nothing underneath it in the shallow sections of the humps.
Friday, tried running north into some new territory. Picked away and small LMB and some pike and the only pickerel I saw this trip. The waves were incredible coming north and blew us out of our spot. Moved further north out of the wind and fished an old train bridge. Lots of snags here. Caught a bunch of nice fighting white perch and a chunky 2lb smallmouth.
In the end, my buddy won our LMB pool with a 4lb 13oz LMB (caught on the next cast after my 4.5lb'er, that bastard!), and I won our smallmouth pool with a on-the-nose 4lb smallie.
What we found was that with the high water, the alewife population exploded. We didn't see a single skinny fish anywhere we went. They all had fat little bellies. Most smallies were soft indicating the baitfish food with few having hard bellies indicating crayfish. They also said that this is why fish were harder to find. They were more spread out and chasing bait as opposed to waiting on humps/points/shoals for the bait to come to them.
Also, there were late spawners still (both SMB and LMB) most likely because this rain pushed them back out to prespawn when the water temps dropped. When we started, the main seas were around 59-60*. When we ended, we were seeing 69* in the main seas.
This place doesn't fish like anything in our area. Natural lakes are so incredibly different from man-made lakes. You see cliffs, and would expect good drop offs, but you'll see just structure-less, point-less flat straights, for sometimes miles. It was frustrating. So incredably massive. But it was so tough finding fish. One day, it could be wind blown points, other times they don't bite if there's any wind at all. Sometimes fishing miles off any shoreline or island, and you're fishing in 10 feet of water. The high water didn't help as it hid a lot of better grass areas and threw us off.
Side note: We know there is a good population of walleye in the lake as well. We could hear splashes at night outside our cottage, but we never made it out like we wanted to. My buddy caught a nice 4lb'er last year and I wanted to repeat but we were just too tired each day for night fishing.
Side note: We didn't get any pictures of pike this year due to no one beating any personal bests. But trust me, they are EVERYWHERE and they all fight like hell. Big boys in there too. I missed a few that would've been a personal best. They could be in smallie locations, or in largemouth locations. For you pike guys, go to Champ and throw bass lures. It doesn't matter what.
Side note: I could've taken pictures of all the fish but we caught so many under 3lb fish that I lost track everyday. Only the best of the week got pictures.
These pictures are relatively in order, but some may be misplaced:
Cruising in the morning:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/944141_601727829847993_383808499_n.jpg
Another:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1044366_601727879847988_116042948_n.jpg
First day there:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1011934_601740813180028_1587504161_n.jpg
Our place:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1045198_601740793180030_2055006016_n.jpg
East-facing sunrise:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1044128_601728436514599_1341684420_n.jpg
West-facing sunset:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1003963_601728413181268_1479083364_n.jpg
A different nights sunset:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/994792_601727956514647_1871927355_n.jpg
That afternoon of drinking:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1010724_601740779846698_1611322663_n.jpg
My view of my buddies bass boat. This was zoomed in about a 1/4 mile away:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1005555_601727916514651_1785506862_n.jpg
My 4.5lb LMB:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969950_599278750092901_1810783248_n.jpg
So 3 friends and I left last Friday night heading north towards the big water. 4 guys, 2 boats. We were going to fish Ticonderoga on the way up, but with the recent storms, the lake was 3' high (this will come into play later again) and we decided to skip it and try on the way home at the end of the week. We didn't hear much about it since it was a mudhole and not doing too hot at that point. Reports were that water temps dropped from 70*+ to around 55-60*F.
We stayed at a place called Holiday Harbor Motel. It's up in Alburg and a great place and sportmans cottage. It's run by a fella named Bruce and his wife. Great people. Great place. Docks and power to leave your boat so you don't have to pull it every time you're done fishing. Go out for breakfast, come in, eat lunch, and go back out.
The beginning of the week was tough with bad winds and a much colder lake because of the rains. Weather was beautiful but fishing was tough. Weeds in places there weren't last year and not in places that they were. Our easy go-to spots last year didn't produce anything. That wasn't a good sign. We managed to catch some fish here and there, but you had to fight for it. Because of the higher levels, the fish were much more spread out, not so much on normal humps, points, and structures. We tried going over to Monte Bay but the water was blowing north and hard. 4'+ seas in the Inland sea. We finally made it over there and it was 50* water. Probably the most disappointing thing to see at that point after battling GOOD, GOOD waves in a bass boat. The place looked dead. Not physically, but just devoid of life. Plant life everywhere, but no fish. Went back early and decided this would be our first drinking night instead.
By Monday and Tuesday, we were able to get out to the Inland Sea and the Broad Sea, and start putting something together. Numbers picked up. Still limited size though. As many cookie-cutter smallies, perch (yellow and white), and a lot of good size pike that you could want. Jerkbaits were the key and would remain the favorite just about the whole week. Catching fish in a lot of places, but no big sizes again. Probably a 20-30 fish day.
Middle of the week, we hit up Missiquoi Bay. Did great! My buddy and I got on a hot streak of largemouth. 15-20 fish in a span of 30 minutes. All 2.5-3 with some big boys thrown in. Spinnerbaits and flipping plastics into reeds. I pulled out a nice 4.5lb'er on a spinnerbait. Found more fish all around the bay but of the smaller variety, again LMB and pike. That evening, started fishing the Inland Sea again finding good smallies up to 3lb's on humps using hard/soft jerkbaits and sometimes bugbaits on shakey heads off the bottom. It was a loooooong day, but we probably picked up 60+ fish with some nice sizes coming in.
On Thursday, it was over to St. Albans bay. Caught a few LMB in a small creek, but that would be it for a while. Fished some shorelines of St. Albans but never saw a wink. Fished some local islands and started picking away at smallies again. We got to one section and it was on fire, but not on any power fishing baits, all finesse bug baits. We picked up a bunch including a doubleheader of 3lb smalles (see pic below). Went back to the humps from the night before and picked up a lot more smallies and some pike. Even saw bait blowing up around us but with nothing underneath it in the shallow sections of the humps.
Friday, tried running north into some new territory. Picked away and small LMB and some pike and the only pickerel I saw this trip. The waves were incredible coming north and blew us out of our spot. Moved further north out of the wind and fished an old train bridge. Lots of snags here. Caught a bunch of nice fighting white perch and a chunky 2lb smallmouth.
In the end, my buddy won our LMB pool with a 4lb 13oz LMB (caught on the next cast after my 4.5lb'er, that bastard!), and I won our smallmouth pool with a on-the-nose 4lb smallie.
What we found was that with the high water, the alewife population exploded. We didn't see a single skinny fish anywhere we went. They all had fat little bellies. Most smallies were soft indicating the baitfish food with few having hard bellies indicating crayfish. They also said that this is why fish were harder to find. They were more spread out and chasing bait as opposed to waiting on humps/points/shoals for the bait to come to them.
Also, there were late spawners still (both SMB and LMB) most likely because this rain pushed them back out to prespawn when the water temps dropped. When we started, the main seas were around 59-60*. When we ended, we were seeing 69* in the main seas.
This place doesn't fish like anything in our area. Natural lakes are so incredibly different from man-made lakes. You see cliffs, and would expect good drop offs, but you'll see just structure-less, point-less flat straights, for sometimes miles. It was frustrating. So incredably massive. But it was so tough finding fish. One day, it could be wind blown points, other times they don't bite if there's any wind at all. Sometimes fishing miles off any shoreline or island, and you're fishing in 10 feet of water. The high water didn't help as it hid a lot of better grass areas and threw us off.
Side note: We know there is a good population of walleye in the lake as well. We could hear splashes at night outside our cottage, but we never made it out like we wanted to. My buddy caught a nice 4lb'er last year and I wanted to repeat but we were just too tired each day for night fishing.
Side note: We didn't get any pictures of pike this year due to no one beating any personal bests. But trust me, they are EVERYWHERE and they all fight like hell. Big boys in there too. I missed a few that would've been a personal best. They could be in smallie locations, or in largemouth locations. For you pike guys, go to Champ and throw bass lures. It doesn't matter what.
Side note: I could've taken pictures of all the fish but we caught so many under 3lb fish that I lost track everyday. Only the best of the week got pictures.
These pictures are relatively in order, but some may be misplaced:
Cruising in the morning:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/944141_601727829847993_383808499_n.jpg
Another:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1044366_601727879847988_116042948_n.jpg
First day there:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/1011934_601740813180028_1587504161_n.jpg
Our place:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1045198_601740793180030_2055006016_n.jpg
East-facing sunrise:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/1044128_601728436514599_1341684420_n.jpg
West-facing sunset:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1003963_601728413181268_1479083364_n.jpg
A different nights sunset:
https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/994792_601727956514647_1871927355_n.jpg
That afternoon of drinking:
https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/1010724_601740779846698_1611322663_n.jpg
My view of my buddies bass boat. This was zoomed in about a 1/4 mile away:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1005555_601727916514651_1785506862_n.jpg
My 4.5lb LMB:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/969950_599278750092901_1810783248_n.jpg