Elite

Dock talk at Lake Champlain

The sheer size of Lake Champlain presents its own challenges of how to break it down into a viable game plan.

Posted on
Photography by
Andy Crawford
Captions by
Craig Lamb
Ah, yes. The Inland Sea. More than likely it will be the place to be during the Tackle Warehouse Bassmaster Elite at Lake Champlain. Forward-facing sonar has changed how the game is played here during summertime, when pelagic smallmouth roam about the massive offshore entity searching out alewives and perch. Photo: Craig Lamb
But wait. Debby is coming. The remnants of the now tropical depression are due to arrive over the region on Friday. Rain is a given in tournaments. How the pre- and post-frontal weather affects the bite will be worth watching. What do the anglers think about this scenario going into the crucial eighth event of the season. How do they eliminate unproductive water, based on the sheer size of Lake Champlain? We report. You decide. Is it truth or dock talk? Photo: Craig Lamb
Brandon Palaniuk
“One thing it does is take you longer to move from area to area. For me in big water situations I typically do better when I can get in an area and spend more time there, compared to wasting time running around. 
“When we come here, I try to practice four different wind directions. Even if it’s not your best area your secondary spot may be better protected than your primary spot that’s blown out. 
“You may be able to catch more fish from the secondary area when it’s protected than fishing four footers in your primary area. 
“I like to have options and be able to manage those options.”
Carl Jocumsen
“The biggest consideration is big winds (like we might have with Tropical Depression Debby) are par for the course at Champlain. That’s what is great about the lake. It requires making strategies based on the weather conditions, regardless of how they are and even on calm days. 
“Looking at the weather and specifically the wind direction is a must when deciding a strategy here, not unlike the running time and how much time you have to fish there. 
“There are key areas spread far apart and you must take those factors into consideration, given the limitation of time in a given competition day. 
“Even with forward-facing sonar and how it’s opened up the pelagic strategies offshore, you still have to figure in those weather variables to make it work.”
Chris Zaldain
It looks like we’ll have weather coming in on Friday, but it’s not any different than what we had during practice. We had sideways rain and all that. When we come here you practice for the variable weather conditions; the wind, the rain, whatever it might be. It’s amplified here because of the sheer size of the lake. 
“The lake is completely different than how it fished last year, when you had giant schools of four-, five-pound smallmouth to make those 25-pound weights from the same location. The schools I found had average of three-pound smallmouth with an occasional four pounder. Nothing like the wolf packs of big smallmouth like we had last year. 
“Largemouth will be the outlier and they will absolutely play this week, comparing the results to recent tournaments here. It’s going to be difficult to win solely on smallmouth this year. 
“I came up short in size on smallmouth on some of the areas where I did well last year. The smallmouth are wandering more and relating less to contours. I have a great baseline for the smallmouth but they may only weigh 19 pounds, and that won’t cut it here. So, you will have to add largemouth to the weight.”
Matt Herren
“Lake Champlain is so big and you can catch quality largemouth and smallmouth just about anywhere, and that makes it difficult to eliminate water while coming up with a strategy that will sustain itself for two or four days. 
“The best way to do is look at the prevailing history of what’s happened just before you came here. Not fishing history as much as using that as a baseline of which direction to go with the largemouth and smallmouth. 
“The Inland Sea is like a 20,000-acre lake anywhere else, and that doesn’t cover a third of the overall lake. We talk about it all the time. 
“You talk to the other guys and we think we’re not doing the right thing. The reason is because you don’t see other competitors. But eventually guys locate the same areas. That’s what makes Champlain such a special place.”
Bill Lowen 
“We often get asked how we break down Champlain about everywhere we go, and that’s a good question. How I am going to do it fish my strengths for largemouth in shallow water, and it can be done here. I also believe that largemouth will factor in more than in the past.
“I’m going to keep myself in my comfort zone and do what I do best. What’s different about Champlain though, is you have to take external conditions into factor. The wind is key, and how it affects your areas. 
“The last few years forward-facing sonar has changed the game for pelagic smallmouth out in the offshore areas. At the same time, the largemouth have been less pressured. 
“What’s been good news for me is largemouth have played more into the winning weights than smallmouth. Based on that leaves no question in which direction I’m going to go.”
Hunter Shryock
“Last year we had similar conditions for what we might face with the weather, and guys are factoring that into strategies as the given for Lake Champlain. 
“I also think there is more in play than what we are expecting. 
“The Inland Sea plays so much, and so does the northern and southern ends of the lake. But from what I’ve seen someone will uncover something we didn’t expect to see happen. 
“It will still be pelagic but there will be some new twist to it. I connect that assumption based on what we have to go on from last year.”

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