Champlain 5/22-23 (long winded)

What a weekend! Weather idiots had both days wrong. At midnite the NWS was
predicting a high of 68, SSE wind at 17, rain all day with T-storms late.
That was for Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be 70 and calm with a chance
of showers.

Our plan was to fish smallies on the big water one day and LM and pike
around Ticonderoga the other. Going by the National weather service, were
decided to fish the protected water around Ti on Saturday and hop they were
right about the calm on Sunday.

Started out with a real nasty blow on Saturday, but it was out of the
north, not the SSE. I drizzled on and off most of the morning. The temp
never got about 56. But by 9am that north wind was a gentle breeze and by
noon it was glass calm. We probably should have left and gone to the big
water for smallies, but we were catching too many fish to leave. We went to
one big point at 7AM, and left it at 5PM. We shared it with one other boat
for most of the day -- they came in at about 8 and were still there when we
left. A lot of other boats came through, but save one (more on which later)
they just fished the shoreline and left without catching anything. We were
100 to 150 yards off shore, for the most part. Within 20 minutes after we
arrived, we'd already caught 10LM 2 northerns and 2 chain pickerel,
throwing spinnerbaits.

It was 4PM when we started "one last pass" down the side of the point. At
that point we had caught more than 60 LMB, 8 northerns and 15 pickerel.
(unusual for the pickerel to outnumber the pike there, but it seem to have
been swinging in that direction over the past few years). I was
experimenting with a variety of stuff, and had caught fish on several
spinnerbaits (although a very subdued "blue shad" skirted, 1 oz singlespin
with a nickel blade was by far my most productive), a gold Pointer 78
Jerkbait (which seemed to be catching the larger fish) and LC's new heavily
salted, sinking Slug-Gos, along with a couple on salted, sinking Spankies.
My son on the other hand, threw the same, 1 oz spinnerbait (Hideously
bright and huge -- we call it Tom's Toothy Critter Gitter -- all day. I
probably had more bass than him, he had way more of the toothy guys, but
was still responsible for boating 25 or so of the LMB.

Then, when we were in "one more pass" mode, I started throwing the wacky
rig (with the salted spanky) again, and went into 'the zone'. For more than
45 minutes, I caught a fish on every cast. The biggest was maybe 3-1/2,
most of the rest around 2-1/4. Tom kept throwing his big spinnerbait, and
caught a half dozen fish during my run. I kept telling him to switch, but
he said, "This has been good though for them all day, it's good enough for
them now."

In the midst of my run, two guys in a little boat (being a small boat
fisherman myself, I have a great deal of empathy for fellow small boat
anglers) who were fishing along the bank, happened to notice us out there
catching fish like non-stop. so they immediately turned and headed out to
where we were.

Last night, it poured. This morning, the flags were hanging straight down.
OK! Smallies on the big water. We headed for Button Bay State Park. And
when we got there, it was obvious that launching the boat would have been a
dumb idea. It was white-caps as far as the eye could see. So we turned
around and headed back to Ti. Still calm there. We put the boat in and
headed back to yesterday's hotspot. The boat we'd shared the point with was
already there. Half-way into the first pass, the wind arrived from the
north. In three passes, we managed only 1 bass, 2 pike and 1 pickerel, with
my son's big ugly spinnerbait being responsible for all but one of the pike
(which bit MY bigugly spinnerbait).

Off we went, in search of calmer water and more active fish. Unlike
Saturday's constant action, we had to work out butts off to put anything
together. I ended up scratching out a limit of bass, all on a 1 oz
singlespin witha green pumpkin skirt (NOBODY throws green pumpkin
spinnerbaits, but in my experience, it's always been a good dark day
producer). The weird thing is that 4 of the 6 bass I caught on Sunday were
bigger than any of the bass I caught on Saturday when they were really on.
One of the fish I caught drop shotting a green pumpkin speedworm. The rest
were on the spinnerbait.

Anyway, the same little boat with two guys in it from the previous
afternoon pulled in on us twice today immediately after we caught a fish.
Talk about classless.

All the spinnerbait fish today, and almost all the spinnerbait fish
yesterday came with the lure dropping down on a pause in the retrieve. The
jerkbait fish all hit on lengthy pauses with the lure hovering in place. In
Sat, I was happy that no toothy crittersshowed interest in the expensive
jerkbait (which I was fishing on 8 pound mono). Today, I got two of them
bitten off. All the rest of the fish came on soft plastics that were being
deadsticked or nearly so. The fishing was a lot different Sun than Sat, but
both days, the fish showed no interest in bottom bouncing presentations, or
in anything moving along horizontally. They seemed to want it still or
slowly sinking, but still in the upper half of the water column. Never even
had a hit on a T-rigged plastic or a jig -- which is really unusual for me,
as that's the way I prefer to fish.

All in all, it was a great trip despite the weatherman's innacurate
predictions and the two classless hole jumpers. I'll be headed back up in a
couple weeks. I'll post some pics tomorrow night.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Attention all fishermen! Note that Rich (the best angler I know of) makes
single blade versions a part of his daytime spinnerbait arsenal (as well as
just for obvious night use), and that he often uses them with considerable
success. Note also that his spinnerbait fishing methods go far beyond simple
shallow, steady retrieves. How many of you own & use single blade
spinnerbaits? How many of you actually think about what kind of action you
are putting on that lure during the retrieve? Fishing is a brain sport, not
an aerobic exercise. Pay close attention to everything Rich says, and make
it a part of your fishing life. We are damn lucky to have him here!

Again... thanks for sharing all these things with us, Mr. Z.

--
Bob Rickard
(AKA Dr. Spinnerbait)
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))

"RichZ" wrote in message
...
What a weekend! Weather idiots had both days wrong. At midnite the NWS was
predicting a high of 68, SSE wind at 17, rain all day with T-storms late.
That was for Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be 70 and calm with a chance
of showers.

Our plan was to fish smallies on the big water one day and LM and pike
around Ticonderoga the other. Going by the National weather service, were
decided to fish the protected water around Ti on Saturday and hop they
were
right about the calm on Sunday.

Started out with a real nasty blow on Saturday, but it was out of the
north, not the SSE. I drizzled on and off most of the morning. The temp
never got about 56. But by 9am that north wind was a gentle breeze and by
noon it was glass calm. We probably should have left and gone to the big
water for smallies, but we were catching too many fish to leave. We went
to
one big point at 7AM, and left it at 5PM. We shared it with one other boat
for most of the day -- they came in at about 8 and were still there when
we
left. A lot of other boats came through, but save one (more on which
later)
they just fished the shoreline and left without catching anything. We
were
100 to 150 yards off shore, for the most part. Within 20 minutes after we
arrived, we'd already caught 10LM 2 northerns and 2 chain pickerel,
throwing spinnerbaits.

It was 4PM when we started "one last pass" down the side of the point. At
that point we had caught more than 60 LMB, 8 northerns and 15 pickerel.
(unusual for the pickerel to outnumber the pike there, but it seem to have
been swinging in that direction over the past few years). I was
experimenting with a variety of stuff, and had caught fish on several
spinnerbaits (although a very subdued "blue shad" skirted, 1 oz singlespin
with a nickel blade was by far my most productive), a gold Pointer 78
Jerkbait (which seemed to be catching the larger fish) and LC's new
heavily
salted, sinking Slug-Gos, along with a couple on salted, sinking Spankies.
My son on the other hand, threw the same, 1 oz spinnerbait (Hideously
bright and huge -- we call it Tom's Toothy Critter Gitter -- all day. I
probably had more bass than him, he had way more of the toothy guys, but
was still responsible for boating 25 or so of the LMB.

Then, when we were in "one more pass" mode, I started throwing the wacky
rig (with the salted spanky) again, and went into 'the zone'. For more
than
45 minutes, I caught a fish on every cast. The biggest was maybe 3-1/2,
most of the rest around 2-1/4. Tom kept throwing his big spinnerbait, and
caught a half dozen fish during my run. I kept telling him to switch, but
he said, "This has been good though for them all day, it's good enough for
them now."

In the midst of my run, two guys in a little boat (being a small boat
fisherman myself, I have a great deal of empathy for fellow small boat
anglers) who were fishing along the bank, happened to notice us out there
catching fish like non-stop. so they immediately turned and headed out to
where we were.

Last night, it poured. This morning, the flags were hanging straight down.
OK! Smallies on the big water. We headed for Button Bay State Park. And
when we got there, it was obvious that launching the boat would have been
a
dumb idea. It was white-caps as far as the eye could see. So we turned
around and headed back to Ti. Still calm there. We put the boat in and
headed back to yesterday's hotspot. The boat we'd shared the point with
was
already there. Half-way into the first pass, the wind arrived from the
north. In three passes, we managed only 1 bass, 2 pike and 1 pickerel,
with
my son's big ugly spinnerbait being responsible for all but one of the
pike
(which bit MY bigugly spinnerbait).

Off we went, in search of calmer water and more active fish. Unlike
Saturday's constant action, we had to work out butts off to put anything
together. I ended up scratching out a limit of bass, all on a 1 oz
singlespin witha green pumpkin skirt (NOBODY throws green pumpkin
spinnerbaits, but in my experience, it's always been a good dark day
producer). The weird thing is that 4 of the 6 bass I caught on Sunday were
bigger than any of the bass I caught on Saturday when they were really on.
One of the fish I caught drop shotting a green pumpkin speedworm. The rest
were on the spinnerbait.

Anyway, the same little boat with two guys in it from the previous
afternoon pulled in on us twice today immediately after we caught a fish.
Talk about classless.

All the spinnerbait fish today, and almost all the spinnerbait fish
yesterday came with the lure dropping down on a pause in the retrieve. The
jerkbait fish all hit on lengthy pauses with the lure hovering in place.
In
Sat, I was happy that no toothy crittersshowed interest in the expensive
jerkbait (which I was fishing on 8 pound mono). Today, I got two of them
bitten off. All the rest of the fish came on soft plastics that were
being
deadsticked or nearly so. The fishing was a lot different Sun than Sat,
but
both days, the fish showed no interest in bottom bouncing presentations,
or
in anything moving along horizontally. They seemed to want it still or
slowly sinking, but still in the upper half of the water column. Never
even
had a hit on a T-rigged plastic or a jig -- which is really unusual for
me,
as that's the way I prefer to fish.

All in all, it was a great trip despite the weatherman's innacurate
predictions and the two classless hole jumpers. I'll be headed back up in
a
couple weeks. I'll post some pics tomorrow night.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

I never did think much of spinnerbait action, until the first NWC I went to.
Heavy won that tourney by throwing a spinnerbait and pulling it either off
grass or lilly pads I believe, Not that the fishing was awesome or anything
but he managed to get what counted by altering the action of the lure that
can't be fished wrong, I've had my fair share of fish by dropping a spinner
during a retrieve or casting into nasty stuff and popping it free since
then.

Rich as always, great report, By the way have you used those speed worms
long? The have been this years senko for me.
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
.. .
Attention all fishermen! Note that Rich (the best angler I know of) makes
single blade versions a part of his daytime spinnerbait arsenal (as well
as
just for obvious night use), and that he often uses them with considerable
success. Note also that his spinnerbait fishing methods go far beyond
simple
shallow, steady retrieves. How many of you own & use single blade
spinnerbaits? How many of you actually think about what kind of action you
are putting on that lure during the retrieve? Fishing is a brain sport,
not
an aerobic exercise. Pay close attention to everything Rich says, and make
it a part of your fishing life. We are damn lucky to have him here!

Again... thanks for sharing all these things with us, Mr. Z.

--
Bob Rickard
(AKA Dr. Spinnerbait)
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))

"RichZ" wrote in message
...
What a weekend! Weather idiots had both days wrong. At midnite the NWS
was
predicting a high of 68, SSE wind at 17, rain all day with T-storms
late.
That was for Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be 70 and calm with a
chance
of showers.

Our plan was to fish smallies on the big water one day and LM and pike
around Ticonderoga the other. Going by the National weather service,
were
decided to fish the protected water around Ti on Saturday and hop they
were
right about the calm on Sunday.

Started out with a real nasty blow on Saturday, but it was out of the
north, not the SSE. I drizzled on and off most of the morning. The temp
never got about 56. But by 9am that north wind was a gentle breeze and
by
noon it was glass calm. We probably should have left and gone to the big
water for smallies, but we were catching too many fish to leave. We went
to
one big point at 7AM, and left it at 5PM. We shared it with one other
boat
for most of the day -- they came in at about 8 and were still there when
we
left. A lot of other boats came through, but save one (more on which
later)
they just fished the shoreline and left without catching anything. We
were
100 to 150 yards off shore, for the most part. Within 20 minutes after
we
arrived, we'd already caught 10LM 2 northerns and 2 chain pickerel,
throwing spinnerbaits.

It was 4PM when we started "one last pass" down the side of the point.
At
that point we had caught more than 60 LMB, 8 northerns and 15 pickerel.
(unusual for the pickerel to outnumber the pike there, but it seem to
have
been swinging in that direction over the past few years). I was
experimenting with a variety of stuff, and had caught fish on several
spinnerbaits (although a very subdued "blue shad" skirted, 1 oz
singlespin
with a nickel blade was by far my most productive), a gold Pointer 78
Jerkbait (which seemed to be catching the larger fish) and LC's new
heavily
salted, sinking Slug-Gos, along with a couple on salted, sinking
Spankies.
My son on the other hand, threw the same, 1 oz spinnerbait (Hideously
bright and huge -- we call it Tom's Toothy Critter Gitter -- all day. I
probably had more bass than him, he had way more of the toothy guys, but
was still responsible for boating 25 or so of the LMB.

Then, when we were in "one more pass" mode, I started throwing the wacky
rig (with the salted spanky) again, and went into 'the zone'. For more
than
45 minutes, I caught a fish on every cast. The biggest was maybe 3-1/2,
most of the rest around 2-1/4. Tom kept throwing his big spinnerbait,
and
caught a half dozen fish during my run. I kept telling him to switch,
but
he said, "This has been good though for them all day, it's good enough
for
them now."

In the midst of my run, two guys in a little boat (being a small boat
fisherman myself, I have a great deal of empathy for fellow small boat
anglers) who were fishing along the bank, happened to notice us out
there
catching fish like non-stop. so they immediately turned and headed out
to
where we were.

Last night, it poured. This morning, the flags were hanging straight
down.
OK! Smallies on the big water. We headed for Button Bay State Park. And
when we got there, it was obvious that launching the boat would have
been
a
dumb idea. It was white-caps as far as the eye could see. So we turned
around and headed back to Ti. Still calm there. We put the boat in and
headed back to yesterday's hotspot. The boat we'd shared the point with
was
already there. Half-way into the first pass, the wind arrived from the
north. In three passes, we managed only 1 bass, 2 pike and 1 pickerel,
with
my son's big ugly spinnerbait being responsible for all but one of the
pike
(which bit MY bigugly spinnerbait).

Off we went, in search of calmer water and more active fish. Unlike
Saturday's constant action, we had to work out butts off to put anything
together. I ended up scratching out a limit of bass, all on a 1 oz
singlespin witha green pumpkin skirt (NOBODY throws green pumpkin
spinnerbaits, but in my experience, it's always been a good dark day
producer). The weird thing is that 4 of the 6 bass I caught on Sunday
were
bigger than any of the bass I caught on Saturday when they were really
on.
One of the fish I caught drop shotting a green pumpkin speedworm. The
rest
were on the spinnerbait.

Anyway, the same little boat with two guys in it from the previous
afternoon pulled in on us twice today immediately after we caught a
fish.
Talk about classless.

All the spinnerbait fish today, and almost all the spinnerbait fish
yesterday came with the lure dropping down on a pause in the retrieve.
The
jerkbait fish all hit on lengthy pauses with the lure hovering in place.
In
Sat, I was happy that no toothy crittersshowed interest in the expensive
jerkbait (which I was fishing on 8 pound mono). Today, I got two of them
bitten off. All the rest of the fish came on soft plastics that were
being
deadsticked or nearly so. The fishing was a lot different Sun than Sat,
but
both days, the fish showed no interest in bottom bouncing presentations,
or
in anything moving along horizontally. They seemed to want it still or
slowly sinking, but still in the upper half of the water column. Never
even
had a hit on a T-rigged plastic or a jig -- which is really unusual for
me,
as that's the way I prefer to fish.

All in all, it was a great trip despite the weatherman's innacurate
predictions and the two classless hole jumpers. I'll be headed back up
in
a
couple weeks. I'll post some pics tomorrow night.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Alwaysfishking wrote:
By the way have you used those speed worms
long?


When I say seed worm, I'm talking about the original, before they went and
put the slit in the tail. Just a plain paddle tail, and yes, I've used them
for a long while. I'm also a big fan of the original Ding-A-Ling worms and
Producto's Vibrator -- both predecessors of the speedworm in the world of
oversized flat paddle tail worms. Gambler used to also make one back in the
80s. There also used to be a similar Florida-made worm called the Stumpy
that I also used. About the only oversized paddle tail worm I never had
success with was the Culprit version. Can't think of the name of it right
now. But worms with that big, flat paddle tail have always been my favorite
style of plastic worm. And we've been slicing one side of the leading edge
of the tail on an angle to make it into a wicked twister like the newer
speed worms and the Mann's version for almost as long.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing

Moe told me about cutting the tail, will have to try that next time out,a
nother question I'm glad I asked, thanks
"RichZ" wrote in message
...
Alwaysfishking wrote:
By the way have you used those speed worms
long?


When I say seed worm, I'm talking about the original, before they went and
put the slit in the tail. Just a plain paddle tail, and yes, I've used
them
for a long while. I'm also a big fan of the original Ding-A-Ling worms and
Producto's Vibrator -- both predecessors of the speedworm in the world of
oversized flat paddle tail worms. Gambler used to also make one back in
the
80s. There also used to be a similar Florida-made worm called the Stumpy
that I also used. About the only oversized paddle tail worm I never had
success with was the Culprit version. Can't think of the name of it right
now. But worms with that big, flat paddle tail have always been my
favorite
style of plastic worm. And we've been slicing one side of the leading edge
of the tail on an angle to make it into a wicked twister like the newer
speed worms and the Mann's version for almost as long.

RichZ©
www.richz.com/fishing