It won’t be long before I’m heading to Lake Champlain for the next Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series event, and after several weeks off, I’m really looking forward to getting back to tournament fishing.
Champlain is not only a beautiful lake, but it’s also very diverse. There’s always multiple things to do. You can go up shallow and fish for largemouth, you can go up shallow and fish for smallmouth or you can go deep for smallmouth. You can pick your poison and do what you want to do.
I’ve fished Champlain four previous times, and my finishes have ranged from fourth place to near the bottom of the pack. This is a fantastic lake, but it can be difficult to establish consistency.
I think that’s because of how much the smallmouth move. It seems like they’re in different places each year.
Champlain’s a natural lake, but the water level fluctuates. That seems to be the big factor with how the bait moves and how the fish move — especially those pelagic smallmouth.
Lake Champlain is known for its healthy populations of largemouth and smallmouth, but over the past five to six years, the way guys have figured it out, this has become a smallmouth dominant lake. This year, I think there will be a shift in focus.
I say that because we will not be allowed to use forward-facing sonar this year at Lake Champlain. Guys are still gonna catch a lot of smallmouth, but I think we’ll see more diversity.
You’re gonna see a variety of techniques play, like topwaters, jerkbaits, vibrating jigs and regular jigs. You’ll still see some guys catch them on a jighead minnow, but it will be more like the way Jeff Gustafson used 2D sonar to win the 2021 Elite event and the 2023 Bassmaster Classic at the Tennessee River. I also think the boulders will play, like they did when Brandon Palaniuk won in 2020.
I think a lot of techniques that kinda got overlooked because of forward-facing sonar and the minnow will come back into play. I think it will be a cool tournament to fish, and it will be entertaining for fans to watch.
I think Ticonderoga at the south end of the lake will play more this year. I think for sure more guys will go down there in practice, and I think with the concentration of big largemouth, the tournament can be won down there.
I’ve never been to Ti, so I don’t know if I’ll go down there. It’s a big time commitment, and with the wind, it can turn into a rough ride. It’s about 70 miles one way, and I know in years past, some guys have not made it back because it was so rough.
If you decide to go, you have to accept the risk. If you can make it work, the potential is definitely there.
I’m just gonna cover a lot of water and keep an open mind. That’s what I’ve noticed on that lake — there’s lot of dead water, but when you find them, you find a bunch of them.
I expect the whole lake from Missisquoi Bay to Ti will be in play. Whoever finds that big population of fish, whether they’re largemouth or smallmouth, I think they can ride it out for four days.
