Bass Northern Open-Lake Champlain Practice

Well the 2nd of 3 events on the BASS Northern Open Trail was held last week at Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, Ny.. I made the trip in one 23 hour drive getting to our rental house on Sat. afternoon. After getting things put away I hit the water to start looking for areas and learn my way around the lake.

I found this lake to be the biggest lake I have ever encountered(at 217,000 acres of water)so I made the dession to find an area and devote my time to learning that section as much as I could. I hit the upper section of the "New York Arm". I found a section on the map that had several reef areas on it and hit that the first day. From reading reports in the past I would be fishing for Smallmouth Bass this far north. I wanted to cover water fast to learn about the area so I picked up the Lake Fork Live Magic Shad and started working the grass. After about an hour I found several bites and one good fish. I then worked the area with a drop shot a little deeper boating several better fish on the Jackall Crosstail Shad.

On day two of practice I went back to that area and hit other sections on the reef. I also hit some other reef areas in the 10 or so miles of the arm. I found the pattern to be working well and my good friend from Chicago, Will Peet had a couple of solid bites there as well. Will is fishing his first Bassmasters Open at the young age of 16 and I could not be more proud of him. He has come along way from the young angler I met several years ago. We made the choice to find other sections and do some more scanning with the sonar. We found several other grass lines in 12-30 feet of water to check on the next few days.

One the 3rd day of practice I moved into the Vermont section of the lake and found the pattern I was fishing to be holding up there as well. We found several areas there but none holding fish that had the size that the New York section had. One thing was for sure I knew I was fishing the right baits and colors. I burnned through alot of Magic Shad and Crosstail shad baits. I wanted to try some other baits but found that bite to be too strong to change up. I then made the choice to move back to the New York section and pick it apart even more. I spent the rest of the day looking at the sonar and marking areas with fish.

Day 4 of practice I made the run from the ramp in Plattsburgh to see just how long it would take to get there in bad water. We put the boat in the water and after rounding the point at the ramp hit flat water. I burned up the lake making the run to the area in 21 minutes. I fished the areas I had marked on the sonar and found several deeper places that produced solid fish. The winds got up as we fished and the water became almost too rough to fish. Being the conditions were different that when I had hit the reef in other days of practice I wanted to check and see if that had an effect. I went to one section I had marked and caught fish and after 3 cast put one in the boat. I knew then that the fish would hold there in atleast several types of conditions. The run was good for me to time coming back and to give you an idea, what took me 21 minutes in good water took 2 hours to run back in 4 footers. This was something I needed to know forsure. To explain a little, finding fish on Lake Champlain is not that hard. Getting to them and back to the ramp during a tournament on time is where the hard part comes in. I have seen a ton of anglers in my research that have had great sacks of fish only to be late or not make it back at all. This was something that I did not want to happen to me in my first Northern event.

On the last day of practice I made the run to the Inland Sea area and looked at some grass lines and drops I found on the map. I found several places that looked good but also saw a ton of boats as well. I wish I had more time to fish this area but that is a down fall to only getting a few days to practice. I know there are some areas in there that would be great and produce alot of fish but without having time to pick them apart I was not willing to "gamble" on them.

I got all my baits in line and loaded the boat ready for battle. I want to thank all of my sponsors for thier help in this event and the Peet family for doing all they did for me, without them I would not even be fishing this event. I also need to say a huge thank you to Curt from Jackall Lures and Tracy from Lake Fork Trophy Lures for getting me the baits I needed in such a hurry and making my stress level go down. You guys are the BEST! Be sure to check out the rest of my tournament blog coming up in the next few days.