June- early summer transition
Capt. Matthew Trombley
May 31, 2012
Lake Champlain - Freshwater Fishing Report
We just finished our May tour of the Spring Striped Bass run on the Hudson River, a season of ups & downs with the fish being a bit out of the normal routine with the ealry spring warm up! But over all a great couple of weeks as we had many charters with full limits & some nice fish in the high teens & low twenty pound range being taken. Our best fish was a 34lb cow that had just spawned, no doubt a fish that would have tiped the scales at over 40lbs! The water clarity was it's normal cloudy state, but surface debries got worse as we got further into the season. Stick baits trolled off from down riggers took most of our fish, hot colors in Chartruse, Orange & Purple took most fish this year. Our last trip of the month saw river temps pushing 70 degrees which certainly spells the end of the run!
Lake Champlain Fishing Forecast:
We have now switched gears & into our early summer mode, chasing Landlock Salmon & Lake Trout with a few Steelhead & Brown Trout thrown in for good measure. We are finding most fish about 15 to 25 ft down with Small 2&3/4" spoons taking most hits. The fish are feeding primarily on young of the year Alewives so small lures are the go to presentation. We actually found a group of fish that had been gorging on a massive spring May Fly hatch, funny to see the Salmon still working so close to the surface this late in the spring. As the weeks progress the fish will stack with the thermocline & expect to find them any where from 35 to 55 ft down. Hot colors have been any silver spoons with green & black on them. As the fish slide deeper purple & blues along with the Greens will be the go to lures!
Target Species:
Landlock Salmon
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