A Champlain high
Anglers practicing for the final regular-season FLW Tour event on Lake Champlain have discovered something unique to the lake: high, stained water.
Over the last week, the extreme Northeast has had a severe drenching from rainfall. Much of the rain falling into the Adirondack and Green Mountain Ranges has rushed down into Lake Champlain. FLW Tour Pros are reporting the lake to be 2 to 3 feet higher than normal and Champlain’s normally crystal clear waters have become stained, even muddy in some places.
Such an onslaught of high, turbid water on a majority of the clear-water lakes in the U.S. would essentially mean lousy fishing for a few days while the lake stabilized. But that is not the case with Champlain, which has been dubbed the best bass lake in the country by many bass pros.
FLW Tour pros predict that the extreme conditions will do little to keep Champlain’s sizeable largemouth and smallmouth bass from ending up at the FLW weigh-in.
“These conditions are not going to have a tremendous effect over a majority of the lake, just in certain areas,” says FLW Tour pro Peter Thliveros. “If nothing else, these conditions will level the playing field a bit.”
One of the areas being negatively impacted is the northern end – an area known for productive fishing, especially for largemouth.
“The water is a lot dirtier than normal,” observes Kellogg’s pro Clark Wendlandt. “But I don’t think that it is going to impact this fishery that much. This place is just too vast and too good a fishery. Fishing maybe off by a pound or so, but that just means you’ll need 18 pounds a day instead of 19.”
Pros are reporting water temperatures to be in the high 50’s to middle 60’s – temperatures suitable for spawning. But Wendlandt says that sight-fishing will not be a part of his game plan.
“I have seen some fish spawning, but not enough to interest me,” concedes Wendlandt. “I am sure there will be fish caught that way in the tournament, but I am not going to count on spawning fish.”
Wendlandt adds that he feels the stained water will have more of an impact on the largemouth than the smallmouth.
FLW Tour pro Koby Kreiger claims that the muddy water is not as much the problem as the wind pushing the stained water into unexpected places. “You can find clear bays protected from the natural influx of mud, and catch some good fish; however, if the wind blows across the lake into those bays, it will push the dirty water in there and that shuts the fish down.”
Kreiger says the rain has been coming down off and on over the last three days. He would like to see the sun come out for a couple of days. “More than anything, the sun would allow me to see the dark spots, weeds, and rocks a little better so I could see where to cast. With the rain, clouds, and dark water, you just can’t see the likely fish-holding targets.”
Like Wendlandt, Kreiger contends that the stained water may affect the weights of the entire field, but anglers in the hunt are still going to catch stringers nearing 20 pounds. “If the sun would come out and the winds would calm down during the tournament, it would be awesome,” notes Kreiger.
Pro Bernie Schultz agrees, “I think if the sun would come out, we would kill them.”
Schultz says his strategy is not to adapt to the mud but rather to keep moving away from it. “I think this lake is like Okeechobee: when water gets dirty, the fish just quit biting for a while. I am not going to get in the mud and try to make fish bite. I will be fishing clear water.”
It looks as if Kreiger and Schultz will get their wish for sunshine. The forecast calls for sunny skies and little chance of rain Wednesday and Thursday; however, rain is back in the game plan for finalists on Friday and Saturday.