Living the Dream: Lake Champlain, Part 1
Dave Andrews details his stormy prepractice on Lake Champlain for FLW Series competition
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Editor’s note: This is the first piece in a series of journal entries from Dave Andrews, winner of the 2007 TBF National Championship, detailing his third stop on the 2008 FLW Series Eastern schedule. Entries will be published at FLWOutdoors.com throughout the course of the season. As winner of the “Living the Dream” package, offered by FLW Outdoors through The Bass Federation, Andrews had his entry fees paid to test his club skills on the pro tour with the use of a fully wrapped boat and tow package. Andrews will chronicle his adventure in pro bass fishing, having most recently competed on New York’s Lake Champlain. After Andrews has submitted his journal following each FLW Series event, segments will be posted approximately weekly. (Read his Wheeler Lake journal; this links to the final entry, which provides links at the top for each preceding part)
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Walmart FLW Series BP Eastern Division
Stop No. 3: Lake Champlain
Sept. 10-13, 2008
Prepractice
Early August
It had been six months since my last “Living the Dream” tournament, and I’d spent most of the summer off the water. I fished only a couple of local events during the summer here in New England. Most of my time was spent with family and at work. I was anxious to get back on the tournament trail and the next stop was a familiar one to me.
I’ve fished Lake Champlain off and on for about 10 years, and, as most anglers do, really enjoy the beauty and challenge that the “sixth Great Lake” offers. Champlain has been good to me in the past. I’ve won a lot of money on the lake over the years, but I haven’t fished here in nearly two full years, and the constant pressure, both from recreational anglers and from the never-ending stream of tournaments, has spread out and conditioned the bass in the lake.
Also confounding things was the odd weather pattern that the Northeast region found itself in for much of the spring and summer. The Champlain region was continuously pounded by severe weather in the form of thunderstorms, tornadoes and nearly nightly tropical downpours.
I had hoped to get plenty of time to prepractice the lake, but as usual the summer slipped away on me, and I found myself only able to get two weekends and a total of four days to practice for the upcoming FLW Series event. My first weekend was in early August. I drove up after work on a Friday and got to the lake around 6 p.m. I was fishing with my longtime tournament partner Scott Leppanen, who would be fishing the co-angler side of the tournament.
When we launched the “Living the Dream” Ranger Z520, we found the water to be about 4 feet higher then normal summer pool. In fact, the water has never been higher in August as it was when we arrived. Four feet may not sound like a lot, but considering how big Lake Champlain is, the amount of water necessary to raise the lake 4 feet is simply staggering. The question on my mind was how it would affect the fish. We were about to find out.
Anxious to get fishing, we raced to an old, familiar shoreline that typically held thick milfoil. This year, with the high water and overall lack of sunshine, the weeds were thin and scattered and didn’t come close to matting on the surface. Scott and I picked up our flipping sticks and went to work with 1/2-ounce jigs. We quickly boated three nice largemouths, all between 4 and 6 pounds, but we were nervous about a black cloud coming at us from the south and figured we better head back toward the launch.
We zipped toward home as fast as we could, but about halfway there, we got cut off by the fast-approaching storm. In an instant, we lost all visibility and were pelted by huge raindrops. I drove the boat toward the shoreline for protection, but it was all rock and there was nowhere to beach the boat. It was too late anyway, as the storm was right on top of us. We just stayed low in the boat and took our beating as the lightning cracked all around us. The automatic bilge pumps kicked on in an instant and stayed on for the duration of the storm. It lasted roughly 20 minutes and produced about 2 inches of rain in that time. When it finally passed, it was dark and eerily silent. Nighttime was fast approaching and we still had about eight miles to get back to the launch. When visibility improved a bit, we drove back and pulled the boat out and headed for our hotel. All night, frequent thunderstorms rolled over our heads as we slept.
The rest of the weekend was less eventful from a weather standpoint, but we never did see the sun. Cloudy, drizzly conditions prevailed, but the wind stayed manageable. We fished in the inland sea section of northern Lake Champlain. We targeted smallmouth bass exclusively on Saturday and mostly largemouths on Sunday. Fishing was tough for us. The high water had scattered the smallmouths, and we picked away at an occasional keeper, but never found a school of fish in any location. My best five smallies on Saturday would go about 17 pounds, but I only managed five good bites on the day. The bigger smallies all came up for Lucky Craft Sammies fished over scattered weeds.
The second day, we targeted deep smallies in the morning. We used our Lowrance electronics to graph bait pods in 30 to 45 feet of water. When we saw arches alongside the bait, we’d drop down on them and sometimes were rewarded with 2 1/2- to 3-pound smallmouths. All of the smallies fell for a hand-poured 4-inch Netters drop-shot worm in smelt color.
We eventually abandoned this water for some protection from the wind and ducked into St. Albans Bay. We picked a nondescript shoreline and started flipping the milfoil with Zoom Brush Hogs. I quickly boated a 4-pound largemouth and several in the 2- to 3-pound range. I figured this was good backup stuff in case the weather went bad in the tournament, but these largemouths weren’t really what I was looking for. My best five fish probably weighed 13 or 14 pounds on the day.
Mid-August
My second prepractice trip was just prior to the cutoff in mid-August. The weather pattern had taken a dramatic turn since my first trip to Champlain. It hadn’t rained in over two weeks, and the lake had dropped over 1 foot since my last visit. It was still high, but falling fast.
I met up with an old friend, Robin Royston, whom I hadn’t fished with in several years, and together we headed north toward the Canadian border to Missisquoi Bay to look for some largemouths in the flooded backwaters. I had driven up that morning, and by the time I had met up with Robin and got on the water, it was nearly 11 a.m.
We worked into some thick shoreline cover, buzzing Netters frogs through the reeds and lily pads. I caught several nice bass doing this and was beginning to feel pretty comfortable up here, when Robin 
noticed a white buoy outside of where we were fishing. We trolled over to read the sign, which claimed the area that we were in to be “Wildlife Refuge.” Furthermore, the sign noted that no unauthorized boats could be in the area.
We drove out and noticed that these buoys were strung all along the shoreline, essentially putting most of the good fishing areas off limits, or so it appeared. Confused, I looked for a local angler and found a guide out with customers and asked him for clarification. He informed me that there were two types of signs and that most of the area where we were fishing was legal water to fish. This was a relief, and we continued to work along the reeds and pads with both Netters buzz frogs (black) and Spro Bronze eyes (Natural Green). I really like the Netters frog; it has a ring and a core inside the plastic, which keeps the frog from bunching up and sliding down the hook shank. They are nearly indestructible too.
The sun was hot, and the day was flat calm. Whenever I would see a lay-down log in the pads, I’d flip a Brush Hog toward the wood. I caught some really nice largemouths doing this including one that was over 5 pounds. My friend Robin found a surprise 4-pound smallmouth on one such log too.
We fished late into the evening and had a really great practice day. My best five largemouths were probably 17 or 18 pounds today.
My final day of prepractice was nearly a lost cause due to weather. It blew 15 to 20 mph out of the south, and the lake whipped up 3- to 4-foot rollers by 7 a.m. The plan was to work some midlake smallmouth spots, again trying to find schools of fish that were relating to bait in deep water. The weather forced us to hide for most of the day, and we never really stumbled onto anything good. Late in the day, the wind dropped to a manageable 10 to 15 mph, and we caught a few nice smallmouths on spinnerbaits on weed edges, but never found any consistent action.
When the day was over, I parted company with Robin, stored the boat at my favorite motel and started on the five-hour journey back to Massachusetts. I’d be back in 10 days for the official practice period.
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Editor’s note: Stay tuned for Part 2 of Andrews’ adventure on Lake Champlain in which he’ll write about his official practice period.
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