Lake Champlain - St. Albans, VT Fishing Report

7/26/13-7/28/13 - Avid Anglers @ Lake Champlain (St. Albans)

Finally...I can add Champlain to my resume! For 3 days(Friday pre-fishing, and Club Tourneys Saturday and Sunday) I mainly had two goals. 1st was to beat my personal best Smallmouth weight of 2lb 9oz which I've had for like 3 years, and 2nd was to do well in the tournaments.

Friday: This was a pre-fishing day for my Buddy Dave and I. Loaded up his boat, and hit the road at 3am-ish to make the trek to St. Albans, VT. Arrived safely, and were on the water by 8am. Winds out of the North chopped up the water a little, but was manageable. 1st fish of the day would give me a new personal best, as a 3lb Smallie takes my drop shot. Drop shot got all my Smallmouth this day, some Perch and Rock Bass on a square bill, and my only Largemouth of the weekend on a senko. My practice day best 5 consisted 4 Smallmouth (3lbs, 2-1/2lb, 1-1/4lbs, and 1lb) and one 2-1/2lbs Largemouth for about 10-1/4lbs.

Saturday: This Club Tourney counted as the last for the 2013 season, which would decide AOY. What a beautiful day on the big lake! Slight winds from the south. More waves from boat traffic than anything. My usual spot as Co-Angler. Today I fish with Paul who is always near the top of the standings. We basically fished 5 spots all day. 1st 4 were his, last spot was mine. 2 hours on the 1st spot yielded him a keeper he would later cull, and me a 2-1/4lb Smallie on a C-rig. 2nd spot was where most of the action came Paul limited out on this spot, culling once or twice. I picked up 2 more Smallies (1-1/2lber on a dropshot, and my biggest of the day a 2-3/4lb Smallie on a spider grub). 3rd spot gave Paul a nice Largemouth that was a heavy 2. 4th spot got me my last keeper Smallie of the day at about 1lb. Last spot with 20 mins left, Paul upgraded again with a another decent 2+lb Largemouth. He finished in 4th place with 13.63lbs, just enough to win AOY. I finished in 7th with 7.46lbs. 1st place was 14.51lbs, with a 4.17lb Lunker Smallmouth. On a side note, I had a pretty good year as Co-Angler, finishing 3rd overall in the 2013 standing against some great competition.

Sunday: This Club tourney counted as the 1st of the 2014 season. Fished with Fred today. Winds howled out of the South East creating 2-3ft swells. Tough on the body, ouch! It makes it tough to fish spots, or even stay close to spots. We took a good pounded running back to weigh-in. We grinded it out making the best of it though. Fred had 1 of 2 limits today finishing 2nd place was 12.38lbs. I had only 2 Smallies today for 5.76lb giving me 5th place, however one of them was the tourney lunker @ 4.01lbs, another new personal best in 3 days. Also caught a 4lb Pike on a dropshot with 6lb test during the tourney.

• Added By: meat7gtk on 07/31/13 10:59 AM
• Location: Lake Champlain - St. Albans, VT
• Report Date: 7/26/2013 - 7/28/2013
• # of Hotspots: 10
• # of Photos: 4
• # of Fish Caught: 33
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