lake champlain (trolling salmon)

[aj454]

Want to go to champlain (Westport will be where im at) and troll for some salmon. Need to know what type of rig,how deep, how far out, what kind of line. Can anyone help with some info for a beginner??

[PSC13]

Im a beginner also but i have been google searching tips for catching salmon and have come up with alot of information.  I plan on fishing Cumberland bay on Lake Champlain this friday and try out the tips i found and see if they work.  Many websites i looked at said to troll a smelt imitation lure just a few feet below the surface around inlets and to troll in an S or zig zag pattern and some sites said 2-3mph and some said 1mph so im just going to try different speeds and see what works.  They also said that if its a sunny day the salmon will stay down deeper to avoid the sunlight so you might have to troll deeper.

[aj454]

yea i was told 40 to 5o feet down.  Im goin to westport saturday and try my luck. Let me know how you did friday.  I also am surfing the web  and getting alot of info too.

[bailey63]

Hey guys i would try from top to whatever depth they show up on fishfinder. I would run from 1.8 to 2.5 mph drag spoons my early spring go to patterns are chickenwing, habanaro, ice frog, glow frog,  42nd spoon and anything with good nix of purple ex kovorkian. Good colors are also anything blue n green silver start dragging and give em more of what they want. If your lucky some locals will be out and i am thinking you wont have to go deep for them. Look for boats set up in general area but be kind don't move in on other boats but sure you wouldn't any how. Good luck

[jeffd7766]

if you plan on fishing northern champlain try the mouths  of the rivers......the saranac and the ausable are a good place to start....have caught many myself from shore in both locations early spring...and this warm weather must be making things go nuts up there......clown colored rapalas and alike colorded spoons have worked well

[Dabluz]

All excellent info.  Yes, the landlocked salmon are near the top right now.  Their main feed is smelt.  If there are no smelt, they cannot survive.....simple as that.

Use smelt imitations and you don't have to troll deep at this time of year.  Smelt are spawning right now and they spawn in streams and rivers just like trout and salmon so fishing at the mouths of such waterways is a definite plus. Smelt are actually of the salmonidae family.  Yes, blue, purple, green, a touch of pink, a bit of yellow....all are good because the smelt have all colours of the spectrum on their skin.  Blue and purple being the most prevalent.  Yellow worked very well last year when the water was cold.

Salmon are fast so it's a good idea to troll fast (2 to 4 km/h).  This also allows you to cover a lot of water too.  Don't need to let your minnow imitation get too far behind the boat.  Streamers work just as well as minnow imitations.  Tandem streamers are great for trolling.  From my experience....streamers are actually better than lures.  You don't need to use fly fishing equipment to troll a streamer or tandem streamer.  You will get better results if you twitch the streamer while trolling.  Same thing with swimming minnow imitations.

Landlocked fishing in my area only opens at the end of May.

Hey....send feedback after your trip.

[bailey63]

Hey jeffd i forgot about the clowns and even wonderbread always good for me how nuch luck do you have on the stick baits? I have not really done well myself with them, but get a few on them. I know aj should have a good time conditions are perfect now. I wish i was hitting the big O this weekend browns been on fire. Instead headed to the nations capital to wander around. Who knew our weather was gonna be this way. Again good luck and post how you do.

[aj454]

thank all you guys for the info. I will let you know how we did. by the way what pound test line do you use???

[jeffd7766]

i have not fished up there in a couple years.....since college but when i was up there for 4 years i fished almost everyday....the stickbaits seemed to be king as far as fishing from shore goes...i liked the really small sinking ones for up in the saranac a bit.....near the monument is where i caught most of them.... and towards the mouth i would have better luck on black siler husky jerks....but this time of year th small mouth are har to kepp off them

[Dabluz]

thank all you guys for the info. I will let you know how we did. by the way what pound test line do you use???

I like to use 6 lb test Sensation.  I guess 8 lb test Sensation would be ok too.

[aj454]

Thanks I just went and bought some stingers biggest one was 3n3/4 some smaller.  Little warrior to ever hear of them??    I can't wait to get there. When trolling for the salmon do you tie the lure to the main line alone with no attractors and how far from the ball. I was told 30feet???any info

[aj454]

Just got back from westport and got 1 laker. Trolled all different depths with different sizes & colors  and got nothin. Trolled trhough a bunch a few times at the same depths as the lures and nothin. One other boat out there dont know how they did.Did 5 hrs of trolling. Don't get it.

[PSC13]

I fished for 4 hours yesterday morning in my kayak where the saranac rivers comes into champlain i caught 4 small perch and caught a PB smallmouth it was 3.05lbs so that was cool.  Other than that a little disappointed in my salmon catch.  I talked to some locals and they didnt catch anythine either maybe it was just to nice of a day.  I got my first sunburn of the year also.

[nypike]

never fished champlain but where we go we flatline tandem streamers in a smelt color and usually have good luck.

[bball1377]

Champlain has been taken over by alewives now and the smelt population is very few and fare between.  Alewives have a much higher oil content and the fish love them, that's the only thing they will eat now.  If you can imitate those then you will catch fish.  A stinger in dirty white boy does a pretty good job of it.  and this time of year they are in the top ten feet.