Ice Fishing Report: Lake Trout on Lake Champlain
It was an optimistic Friday, although my weekend plans had fallen through. Originally, the plan was to head up to West Dover, Vermont to hit the ski slopes with a buddy, then rendezvous with my father that same day for a snowmobiling trip in New York’s Adirondack park.
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But my skiing buddy cancelled last minute due to work or his girlfriend or something unrelated to recreation. So there I sat, tapping and thumbing through my mobile device, grasping at whatever could salvage the weekend. Wise words spoken by my off-the-boat Italian grandfather echoed in my head: “When you’re drowning, an alligator looks like a log.” The thought of fishing on sketchy ice on Long Island briefly crossed my mind, but I decided if there’s fishable ice down here, then anywhere North of the city must have even better opportunity.
I browsed the internet, searching things like Best Ice Fishing Lakes in NY, Tackle Shop Upstate NY, Best lures for Lake Trout. I scrolled through social media for recent catches to get an idea of what was happening around the Northeast. I bounced primarily between NY and Connecticut, and called a few tackle shops for ice conditions and to figure out what was biting, but ultimately found myself in a state of paralysis by analysis trying to land on where to go and what to fish for.
Through fate, good fortune, or both, my buddy Jack Larizadeh texted me mid-search asking about the ice fishing I did on Long Island the day before. “You should go fish VT bro,” he texted me. And that’s when how I connected with Alex Corriveault, aka @Champlain_Papii on instagram, and Angling With Alex on YouTube.
Alex is a Champlain sharpie, with a lot of time spent chasing fish through the ice and all the gear to make for a comfortable and successful time out there. I committed to waking up at around 1:30AM to make it up by first light around 6:00 a.m. We would hit the ice on Lake Champlain to target Lake Trout primarily, but with opportunities for Pike (my favorite freshwater fish) and panfish like perch and crappie.
So I found myself in bed at 7:30PM, worried that I wouldn’t be able to sleep and that it would be a dangerous drive up that no amount of coffee could fix. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. I was out like a light, and 6 hours later experienced the curious phenomenon of waking up 10 minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off.
I jumped to my feet and started my car. Diligently packing the night before meant all I had to was grab my jacket, fill up my coffee, and go. I entered the rally point in my GPS…just shy of 5 hours and 290 miles. Not bad. A thermos of fresh coffee and a topped-off YETI bottle later, I was speeding down my neighborhood towards the on-ramp to the Long Island Expressway.
It was a peaceful drive up, being so early in the morning. The enthusiasm to fish kept me wide awake, while Joe Cermele’s Cut & Retie podcast kept me artificial company in the form of a conversation I didn’t have to participate in, but could enjoy listening to.
When I arrived over the bridge and reached the parking area on the Vermont-side of the Lake, it was still dark, with a slight gradient of lighter blue marking the sky where the sun would rise. There were dozens of cars and very few available spots, I was lucky enough to get one between a stack of dock structures that were hauled out for the season.
It turns out it was Free Fishing Day in Vermont, so I didn’t need to purchase a fishing license. It also might’ve explained the huge number of anglers, but Alex had told me that they missed fishing this place for the past two seasons due to a combination of crowding and a lack of safe ice due.
I met up with Alex and his buddy Will, shook their hands, and handed them both a copy of On The Water magazine. It was brutally cold. My wool fingerless gloves didn’t cut it; my fingertips burning from the wind chill, so I layered my snowmobile gloves over them. Alex gave me a pair of ice spikes to put on over my boots, which greatly helped with traction. I grabbed a few pieces of loose gear and we set out onto the clear ice, sled in tow.
It was a beautiful morning, with a now clear orange and dark-blue gradient forming across the sky as the sun started rise. I stepped nervously over pressure cracks, but was reassured by Alex that it was just due to new ice forming, and the ice was so thick you could probably drive over it. The sight of an ATV crossing the ice farther out put me at ease. Throughout the day, pressure cracks sounded off like lasers from a sci-fi movie echoing around the lake. Occasionally, I’d step forward and create crack of close by, causing my heart-rate to go up and my legs to weaken.
We only walked maybe 500 feet or so from the shore to our first spot. “The current rips here” Alex told me. We could expect to see big lake trout moving in and intercepting our jigs on live sonar screen, plus schools of panfish like perch and crappie that would linger on the bottom. As we unpacked the sled and started pitching the ice tents, including what Alex called ‘The Piss Shack’ – a smaller, well-used ice tent barely big enough to fit two anglers – the wind started to pick up a bit. With the tents staked, the propane heater turned on, and the LiveScope active, we settled into our chairs and got to jiggin’.
After 30 minutes or so, we spotted a big shape come in from the right-edge of the screen in the middle of the water column. “Drop your jig down and hold it in front of it.” Alex instructed me. I watched as my bucktail perfectly landed in front, and the fish clearly homed-in on it. “Reel up slowly.” I did as he said and feeling that same excitement as the first fish we saw that day, but amplified knowing that I’d be the one to reel in this fish, I eagerly watched the fish follow my bucktail up. It gained speed until the jig and the fish became one on the screen, and a second later came the bite.
The trip taught me so much about lake trout—how they are finicky, how they chase lures for a long time before deciding to strike, and how slow retrieves tend to provoke more bites than aggressive jigging. Ice safety was always in the back of my mind as well, especially with pressure cracks sounding off throughout the day, sometimes right at your feet.
As the mid-day set in, the action slowed significantly, and the number of tip-ups and tents on the ice dwindled. My plans for the next day were different. Instead of getting wings with the boys I fished with, I drove West a few hours into the Adirondack park to meet my father on the Tug Hill plateau, where we would ride snowmobiles. I couldn’t wait to show him the pictures of my first lake trout.
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Source: https://onthewater.com/ice-fishing-on-lake-champlain
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