Vermont ?? [Archive] - Bill Kiene's Fly Fishing Forum

TheAnglingReport

06-03-2015, 07:29 AM

David,

This article from a 2010 issue of The Angling Report about fly fishing Lake Champlain might help you make some decisions! I pasted the full text of the article below and the link is here:
http://www.anglingreport.com/current_issue.cfm?id=574

Feel free to reach out to me at mike@anglingreport.com. I would like to hear from you on your return!

All About Bowfin And More On Lake Champlain

(posted August, 2010)

I have been fly-fishing for only 15 years but, like a lot of late converts, I’m a fanatic. I own far too much gear, and I have fished in quite a few places: my home state of New York, Maine, the British Virgin Islands, California, British Columbia and other points near and far. But I’d never fished in neighboring Vermont. So, when The Angling Report offered a FREE Fishing trip with two days of guided fly fishing on Lake Champlain and its Vermont tributaries, I was raring to go.

North Central Vermont is a trout fisherman’s paradise, but I was told from the get-go that variety was the goal of my trip. Depending on timing and weather conditions, we might do anything from wade-fish rivers for smallmouth bass to sight fish for carp, bowfin and northern pike in the shallow marshes bordering Lake Cham- plain. Frankly, I’d never even heard of a bowfin before my trip, and the only way I knew about fly fishing for carp was by talking to my good friend, Angling Report Honor Roll Subscriber Tim Welch. He has been touting carp (“redneck bonefish”) on a fly for years. As for northerns, who hasn’t seen those YouTube clips of pike striking so ferociously?

John Synott, the owner of Stream and Brook, and my guide, Drew Price, wanted to know my fishing experience, physical abilities and preferences so they could craft a battle plan – subject to weather, of course. Ideally, at least one of the two days would be warm and sunny for the sight fishing. Both carp and bowfin become more active in warm water and they are easier to spot with sun. Wading for smallmouths and trout could be done even in heavy rain. The largest smallmouths, which would normally be in the rivers in June, had dropped back to the lake early this year.

Friday morning was cloudy as I drove to my rendezvous point with Drew south of Burlington. On the back of his truck, he had a large canoe which had to weigh close to 100 pounds. We drove down a long causeway, between a body of water called Otter Creek and a large wetland that opened to a bay off Lake Champlain. There, Drew nonchalantly walked to the back of the truck, pulled back the canoe, lifted it straight up over his head, walked it to the edge of the shore, spun it in one motion right side up and plunked it into the water with hardly a splash - a truly remarkable display. My back hurt just watching. Then he loaded it with cooler, life jackets, seatbacks (welcome with my bad back) and two rods: one equipped with a very short, heavy leader for the bowfin, the other with a longer, tapered leader and lighter tippet for carp. He also attached pontoons to the canoe that enabled us to stand safely and comfortably to see and cast to the fish.

Drew did all of the paddling. I found him warm, enthusiastic, extremely knowledgeable and generally delightful to be with. In response to my questioning, he told me he’s 40, born in Montreal, a high school science teacher with two undergraduate degrees, one in art and a second in ecology. He has been guiding a dozen years. A scientist at heart, he provided explanations for the various situations we encountered. He did things like grab a rock, pick off the nymphs and do everything but taste them to tell you which is what.
Our first quarry was the unfamiliar bowfin. I quickly learned they look like a cross between a moray eel and a musky. They are the wolverines of Lake Champlain – tough, toothy, ornery and unpredictable. Since they prefer still, weedy shallows, very few fly fishermen ever encounter them. Even fewer hook or land one. Bass fishermen decry them as equipment busters. Numerous bowfin references on the web include pictures of lures bent beyond recognition.

We had less-than-perfect conditions that morning. The preceding days had been cold and rainy, so the water temperature was closer to 60 than the 70 degrees that Drew feels is ideal, plus the cloud cover seldom parted to help us spot fish. Even so, in a couple of hours that morning, Drew put me on eight bowfin, with the smallest running 10 pounds. Not shy, they let us get close enough for me to cast a size 4 crayfish imitation right up under their noses and jiggle it – the exact technique a Cajun guide had taught me for black drum. The first few declined my offering. But then one grabbed it and I did my best “Bass Masters” imitation, jerking my rod skyward twice to set the hook in her bony jaw. The fight was furious but short. It ended when the fish spun around several times, wrapping itself in line and tangled weeds, effectively pinning itself within a soft, green blanket so we could reach down with a Boga Grip and hoist it out of the water for a photo and quick release.

Later that morning and after lunch we targeted carp in the same general area and in another spot a few miles away. Carp eat virtually anything, and they cruise constantly from right on the surface to five feet deep, so it’s difficult to “match the hatch.” The real problem is, they are spooky and use most of their limited vision to look for predators (you, for example). This means you have to be able to present your fly at a fair distance. The little sight they use for feeding is focused on what Drew described as a “basketball-sized” circle just in front of and below their heads. The ideal presentation places the fly just beyond that circle and quickly strips into it. With fish that change direction and depth constantly, this was a challenge.

We saw dozens and dozens of HUGE carp, some up to 40 pounds. I made several hundred casts with an 8-weight in the four hours we fished for them. Whenever possible, I cast to a specific fish. Sometimes, however, there were so many swimming in random patterns that all I could do was pitch it in among them. I hooked only one carp, and kept it on only long enough to know why someone would deliberately fish for them. They’re huge, and (as my scientist-guide assured me) much stronger, pound for pound, than any trout. The real beauty of this sight fishing is that it heats up in the summer, exactly when the trout fishing is slowing down.

On Saturday morning, I awoke to steady, strong rain, which meant we had the water entirely to ourselves. Drew had promised to show me a number of his favorite trout places, including several sections of Otter Creek, and one spot each on the Middlebury and New Haven rivers. In deference to my balky back, all were fairly easy to access and wade. This was a truly extraordinary collection of trout waters. In some spots there was no sign of humans. Another was below a hydroelectric dam. Still others were beside roads or tilled fields, behind houses on a suburban street and at the foot of a waterfall right in downtown Middlebury (complete with spectators crossing bridges, seated at cafes and shopping at a farmers’ market). There were no hatches and few rises, so we fished sub-surface with black wooly buggers. The action was steady and we caught fish everywhere. We took good numbers of brown and rainbow trout (both stocked and wild), plus one gorgeous little brook trout, numerous small- mouths up to 14 inches, a few perch and one big, ugly chub that fought so hard that I thought it was the biggest fish I’d hooked all day. A good day of fishing.

Would I advise a friend to sample the fishing around Lake Champlain? My answer is a resounding “Yes!” Drew is a great guide, the scenery was fabulous and Burlington is a marvelous city with plenty to do when you aren’t fishing. Also, for me at least, as a New York resident, I did not have to cope with planes, airport security checks or border crossings. The fishing was good in less than perfect weather, and the variety of fishing opportunities was simply incredible. I hooked eight species on the two-day trip. The one fish we sought but never saw was a northern pike.

If you decide to give this fishing a try, and you are on a business trip at the time, John Synott assured me that Stream and Brook Fly Fishing has quality equipment to lend, including boots and waders. You can show up with little or nothing, fish and get back to your hotel in time for cocktails. You can reach John by phone at: 802-989-0398. The company web address is: http://www.streamandbrook.com/. A full day of guided fishing from a canoe on the lake is $250 1 x 1. A full day of guided walk-and-wade fishing is $250 for one angler, $400 for two. A one-day non-resident license is $15. A three-day costs $20. Both can be purchased on line at http://www.vtfishand/ wildlife.com/buylicense.cfm. Enjoy! - Andrew French.