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Great report Rob. My only dislike was the political part that you would not have posted in other reports if the Facebook crap had not been written. No need to justify.

Cheers.

Christian Gervais wrote:Great report Rob. My only dislike was the political part that you would not have posted in other reports if the Facebook crap had not been written. No need to justify.

Cheers.

On the contrary, a well-informed community is always the best way to go about these sorta things, what better place than FH.
I still wonder why Erie and Ontario does not have a C&R period for the Canadian side but does on the State side.

On that note, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t think those were decent hogs!

TheMaverick wrote:

Christian Gervais wrote:Great report Rob. My only dislike was the political part that you would not have posted in other reports if the Facebook crap had not been written. No need to justify.

Cheers.

On the contrary, a well-informed community is always the best way to go about these sorta things, what better place than FH.
I still wonder why Erie and Ontario does not have a C&R period for the Canadian side but does on the State side.

On that note, I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t think those were decent hogs!

What I meant is that it seemed like he had to justify is outing.

Great report.

Awesome RJ, I want to go back so bad!!!
Next year

I don't think the size has to do with a longer growing season. The centre of Champlain is roughly the same latitude as Brockville. Although the north end is shallow the middle is cold and deep.

I think the size may have to do with the forage base. Lake Champlain has a huge smelt population and now has an overabundance of alewives. We have neither in most of our lakes or not in great numbers. The smelt are probably coming out of spawning streams into shallow bays. The alewives spawn in same areas in early spring. Their bass have a feast this early when ours don't.

It is a beautiful lake. I have spent some time on South Hero Island. I always wanted to try it ice fishing.

It's funny that the fish we have the most of get the most protection. We have so many bass they are impacting other species. I know a retired but highly regarded fisheries professional that maintains we could have a commercial fishery for bass with little consequence. These are his words and not mine. Minnesota has a spring opener for bass and I don't think the bass fishing there suffers. By giving anglers more options an early bass season may take pressure off over fished walleye and trout populations.

Food for thought.

No sad faces all smiles.

Glad to see you enjoyed your C&R Champlain experience, and even happier to see they are biting. I am heading there on Thursday for my annual spring trip, I think this is my 6th or 7th year. I fish the north end of the lake, the smallmouth population is crazy and it still has a good largemouth population. Talking to friends and reading reports from the south end of the lake the largemouth bite is definitely better than the north end and every year we say will drive the extra hour but haven't done it yet. We have been getting great numbers over the years with lots of big fish but we definitely catch them all sizes from 6" to 5lb+. I do find it interesting you were not catching many small fish.

Last year when we went at the South end in 2 1/2 days we caught well over 120+ fish many being i nthe 2lb-3lb range as well as many 3lb-4lb as well. All the smaller fish are usually real shallow spawning. We were getting the smaller bass in 4ft- inches of water mostly in back bays or creeks. I didnt see and of your pics that shallow. As far as better quality fish it could be that you had a good outing and also the fact that in the US they put more time and money into their natural resources. Such as stocking programs etc Which is why most boat launches can accommodate 3-4 boats at once.

Im there this friday to sunday I wil llet ya know how it goes!

NY State does not stock bass. There is absolutely no reason to stock bass. You were likely catching males either making nests or guarding nests. A 2-3 lbs. male bass is comparably speaking LARGE.

Some solid fish. Great report and pics RJ

ganman - Yes Im well aware of what those fish were doing. However they werent on beds as of yet. They were all roaming around. There were lots of small fish. I dont consider a two pound fish big. There were also whack loads of 1 1/2lb fish as well.

Im there this weekend Ill give an update when Im back!

I've enjoyed reading this report a few times RJ. Thanks for sharing

Seems like a long way to go and not bring a few fillets home to enjoy. lol

Looks like a good trip.
As for the C&R season... Scientific study is always good. Ontario cancelled the spring bear hunt years ago due to political pressure and zero scientific info to argue the cancellation. They are slowly bringing it back because studies show that it is needed in a management role. This to say, that scientific studies can be commissioned for many reasons with many intended results. They all need consideration, but also need some 'devils advocacy' to keep them in check, as to limit their possible agenda. At any rate, you caught some real nice fish. As mentionned before, forage is usually a key to growth, but so is competition. Maybe with less 1 and 2 pounders in FMZ 18, there might be enough forage for more fish to reach 5+ pounds. Hmmm, bass fillets;-) The unfortunate thing is we can not know for sure what the impacts are unless a C&R season, as a trial, gets implemented on some lakes and the results studied. Just not my lake or river:-)