Post by scott blair on Feb 9, 2010 20:39:51 GMT -4
By Vic Attardo, On the Outdoors
“Champy,” the Lake Champlain monster, probably can’t surface with 12 inches of ice over its prehistoric head, but that thick white sheet is just what the Frozen Chozen need to catch winter fish.
As an inland sea, or a Great Lake that faces the wrong direction, Lake Champlain is a mecca for hard-water anglers from Vermont, New York and beyond.
With a diversity of species, including crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, perch, walleye, smelt and pike, Lake Champlain has everything ice anglers desire, and it has it sooner and longer.
Earlier this week, I spent two days on lower and upper ends of Champlain with James “Jamie” Vladyka of Ice Adventures Guide Service. We caught plenty of fish and saw plenty of others caught under not-so-favorable post-full moon conditions. As it was, I really could have been staggered by the quality of the fishing had my timing been better.
Using Lindy Little Joe “Genz Worms” and “Fat Boys,” we jigged up buckets-full of hefty panfish, including some dandy crappie and bluegill. Our best fishing was north in the Grand Isle area about a stone’s throw from Canada. Honestly we didn’t do as well in Champlain’s southern end, below Crown Point, as this part of the lake had recently “rolled over” after heavy rains. Nevertheless I saw great potential in its shallow water.
Indeed despite being so huge – 125 miles long, covering 600 square miles -- Lake Champlain is mostly shallow. Near Fort Ticonderoga, a single flat extends for more than a thousand yards from the Vermont shoreline. This flat covered depths of mostly six to nine feet before sliding down into a deep river channel. On the opposite side of the narrow channel, a similarly vast and shallow flat stretches over to the New York shoreline. And this kind of topography is common along the entire length of the lake.
At Grand Isle, we fished an open bay that rolled along for miles and miles. Against the immediate shoreline, the expanse was predictably shallow with depths of just a foot or two. Then the bottom dropped into six to ten feet of water for a few hundred horizontal yards before rising again to a much shallower bottom that went on as far as the eye could see – and on clear winter’s day the eye could see a long distance.
It’s these broad flats filled with weeds and whatnot that ice anglers target. At this point in the season, most panfish are shallow though they apparently move around a good deal on the Champlain flats. Despite their high mobility, Vladyka certainly knew how to find fish.
The two Lindy baits that are a major part of his ice plan are used to hold a cluster of larvae popularly known as “spikes.” Colored by what they are given to eat – for instance pink-tones spikes are raised on salmon – they offer a bit of live contrast to the Fat Boys and Genz Worms that also come in rainbow of colors.
If an area is not producing fish, Vladyka (802-855-0082; jamesvladyka@yahoo.com) does not sit, or stand, in one place for long. To start the day he drills enough holes to qualify the ice as a contender for a Swiss Cheese Look-A-Like Contest. Depending on the place and the distance, he drives his ATV – with you on the side seat -- prodding each hole until he finds active biters.
“Jamie” is practically attached to his Vexilar unit, a flasher which enables him to determine the depth and the presence of fish. Even though the ice lures and bait are smaller than gum drops, the flasher records their descent to the bottom – usually as a thin green line. The bottom is shown as bright red. When some of that red detaches itself and rises up toward the bait, something is about to happen. Suddenly the green line of the lure is enveloped in red. This could mean that a fish is swimming beside the bait but if you feel a twitch on the rod in addition to the sandwich of red, there’s little doubt it’s a strike.
Of the two baits, I like the way the Genz Worm went quickly to the bottom and kept a horizontal presentation.
The lure has three balls along the shank of the hook, like a string of pearls, and this helps hold the jig level.
I watched Jamie twitch the lure not just by rising and lifting the jig but with a very subtle side-to-side action, as if he was shivering in the cold. With the jig just below a drilled hole I noticed how his arm motion had the bait shimmy and shake with subtlety.
As a sidebar I saw something on this trip I had never seen, or heard about, on the ice before. Apparently Lake Champlain is so rich with panfish that the lake supports a clan of commercial ice fishermen. These anglers, many of whom are Vladyka’s friends, sell their catch to a wholesaler in Burlington, Vermont. The going rate for crappie is $2 a pound. With cash as a goal the commercial anglers are highly motivated to find and catch fish. Quite outgoing, they share their locational info with Vladyka which means a client benefits as well.
Indeed, Lake Champlain is an incredible resource. Pumpkinseeds, which are often stunted to the length of a long finger in these parts, have broad high foreheads on Champlain. There were average size crappie for sure, but there were a number of fish measuring out to 14-inches. Bluegills were of good quality and I saw a nine pound Northern pike – again at a slow time in the season.
Often I found myself just staring across the great white expanse of frozen ice and not thinking about the fish. In a way I hoped that the Loch Ness-like “Champy” would suddenly appear, but she rarely does in winter.
“Champy,” the Lake Champlain monster, probably can’t surface with 12 inches of ice over its prehistoric head, but that thick white sheet is just what the Frozen Chozen need to catch winter fish.
As an inland sea, or a Great Lake that faces the wrong direction, Lake Champlain is a mecca for hard-water anglers from Vermont, New York and beyond.
With a diversity of species, including crappie, bluegill, pumpkinseed, perch, walleye, smelt and pike, Lake Champlain has everything ice anglers desire, and it has it sooner and longer.
Earlier this week, I spent two days on lower and upper ends of Champlain with James “Jamie” Vladyka of Ice Adventures Guide Service. We caught plenty of fish and saw plenty of others caught under not-so-favorable post-full moon conditions. As it was, I really could have been staggered by the quality of the fishing had my timing been better.
Using Lindy Little Joe “Genz Worms” and “Fat Boys,” we jigged up buckets-full of hefty panfish, including some dandy crappie and bluegill. Our best fishing was north in the Grand Isle area about a stone’s throw from Canada. Honestly we didn’t do as well in Champlain’s southern end, below Crown Point, as this part of the lake had recently “rolled over” after heavy rains. Nevertheless I saw great potential in its shallow water.
Indeed despite being so huge – 125 miles long, covering 600 square miles -- Lake Champlain is mostly shallow. Near Fort Ticonderoga, a single flat extends for more than a thousand yards from the Vermont shoreline. This flat covered depths of mostly six to nine feet before sliding down into a deep river channel. On the opposite side of the narrow channel, a similarly vast and shallow flat stretches over to the New York shoreline. And this kind of topography is common along the entire length of the lake.
At Grand Isle, we fished an open bay that rolled along for miles and miles. Against the immediate shoreline, the expanse was predictably shallow with depths of just a foot or two. Then the bottom dropped into six to ten feet of water for a few hundred horizontal yards before rising again to a much shallower bottom that went on as far as the eye could see – and on clear winter’s day the eye could see a long distance.
It’s these broad flats filled with weeds and whatnot that ice anglers target. At this point in the season, most panfish are shallow though they apparently move around a good deal on the Champlain flats. Despite their high mobility, Vladyka certainly knew how to find fish.
The two Lindy baits that are a major part of his ice plan are used to hold a cluster of larvae popularly known as “spikes.” Colored by what they are given to eat – for instance pink-tones spikes are raised on salmon – they offer a bit of live contrast to the Fat Boys and Genz Worms that also come in rainbow of colors.
If an area is not producing fish, Vladyka (802-855-0082; jamesvladyka@yahoo.com) does not sit, or stand, in one place for long. To start the day he drills enough holes to qualify the ice as a contender for a Swiss Cheese Look-A-Like Contest. Depending on the place and the distance, he drives his ATV – with you on the side seat -- prodding each hole until he finds active biters.
“Jamie” is practically attached to his Vexilar unit, a flasher which enables him to determine the depth and the presence of fish. Even though the ice lures and bait are smaller than gum drops, the flasher records their descent to the bottom – usually as a thin green line. The bottom is shown as bright red. When some of that red detaches itself and rises up toward the bait, something is about to happen. Suddenly the green line of the lure is enveloped in red. This could mean that a fish is swimming beside the bait but if you feel a twitch on the rod in addition to the sandwich of red, there’s little doubt it’s a strike.
Of the two baits, I like the way the Genz Worm went quickly to the bottom and kept a horizontal presentation.
The lure has three balls along the shank of the hook, like a string of pearls, and this helps hold the jig level.
I watched Jamie twitch the lure not just by rising and lifting the jig but with a very subtle side-to-side action, as if he was shivering in the cold. With the jig just below a drilled hole I noticed how his arm motion had the bait shimmy and shake with subtlety.
As a sidebar I saw something on this trip I had never seen, or heard about, on the ice before. Apparently Lake Champlain is so rich with panfish that the lake supports a clan of commercial ice fishermen. These anglers, many of whom are Vladyka’s friends, sell their catch to a wholesaler in Burlington, Vermont. The going rate for crappie is $2 a pound. With cash as a goal the commercial anglers are highly motivated to find and catch fish. Quite outgoing, they share their locational info with Vladyka which means a client benefits as well.
Indeed, Lake Champlain is an incredible resource. Pumpkinseeds, which are often stunted to the length of a long finger in these parts, have broad high foreheads on Champlain. There were average size crappie for sure, but there were a number of fish measuring out to 14-inches. Bluegills were of good quality and I saw a nine pound Northern pike – again at a slow time in the season.
Often I found myself just staring across the great white expanse of frozen ice and not thinking about the fish. In a way I hoped that the Loch Ness-like “Champy” would suddenly appear, but she rarely does in winter.
