CTFishTalk.com: Lake George and Lake Champlain - Connecticut Bass Fishing Reports ( CT Bass Fishing Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

prorider4life · Joined: 11 Aug 2008 Posts: 8

Looks like i've successfully planned a 3 day weekend the last week in september to go to lake george. We'll be staying in Ticonderoga so we can easily hit both lake george and lake champlain. I'm looking for any and all advice on fishing these lakes as it will be my first time fishing there. any help would be greatly appreciated! Any one been there recently? thanks in advance! Exclamation

SkeeterJim · Joined: 08 May 2007 Posts: 2219 Location: Newington, CT

Been to Lake Champlain several weeks ago and caught more 3-5 lb. smallies than I could swing a stick at! My shoulders were killing me but it was the good kind of pain. Very Happy

One word is all I gotta say........tubes, tubes, and more tubes. Smallies were going nuts for them. Watermelon w/ red flakes, motoroil and just plain white were the go to colors that day. You'll have to toss a variety of colors until the fish tells you what they want and when they do you'll know! Very Happy

Good luck.
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prorider4life · Joined: 11 Aug 2008 Posts: 8

thanks a lot. I fish plastic worms a lot and i have a small tube collection. I'll have to pick up some more before going. i hear the southern part of the lake in the ticonderoga area is great for bass fishing because of all the heavy weeds down there. any more advice out there? thanks!

Justin · Joined: 11 Oct 2007 Posts: 106 Location: Farmington, CT

There is such a wide variety of types of things to fish. There is a good mix of smallmouth and largemouth around Crown Point Bridge, but the further south you go, the more it becomes largies. Up north is more smallies unless you get into some of the bays around the Inland Sea. There are rock points all over the place both north and south if you prefer that over flipping grass.

Southern end has a ton of multiple types of weeds. If you plan on flipping/pitching the chestnut, be prepared to lose a lot of tackle to toothy critters. You’ll need a stout rod and definitely braid if you want to give yourself a chance. You can get away with mono/flouro and a rod that isn’t quite a pool cue, but it definitely helps to have strong gear and heavy weights. There’s always throwing a frog over the matted slog, spinnerbaits through the grass, crankbaits in the sparse grass or rocks, or topwater...and that’s pretty much anywhere in the lake.

Last time I was up there, they were mowing down the chestnut, so I don’t know how much is left, but there were miles and miles of it. Also, the last time I was up there (last month) it was a completely different lake because the weeds either hadn’t grown in, weren’t as thick, weren’t there, or were different from years past at that time. The water was unusually clear for the south part of the lake, so it made fishing tougher.

If you’re launching from Ticonderoga, you don’t have to go too far to find good spots or even schools of fish. The nice thing about launching from Ti is that if the weather gets ugly, you are more protected and less affected than if you run north...it can get REALLY nasty up north. Watch for the snags in the channel if you run down to South Bay, you shouldn’t have any problem seeing them, but just keep an eye out. It’s a big place, but don’t let it overwhelm/intimidate you...it’s not that bad. If you don’t have a map of the place, get one, comes in real handy for finding your way and finding place to fish.

As far as bait and color selection, everything works, some more than others.

It’s definitely one of the top of the list places I like to go fishing.