Champlain Salmon Fishing Heats Up as Waters Cool in Vermont
OutdoorHub 11.18.11
Barre, VT – If you are an angler who enjoys exciting fishing opportunities even in cool weather, give Lake Champlain a try for landlocked salmon before the lake ices over.
You will need a boat that can take the rough conditions that can develop quickly on the big lake, but the high quality landlocked salmon fishing experienced by anglers this fall makes it a worthwhile venture. Salmon numbers have definitely increased this year based on monitoring done each fall by state fisheries biologists.
“We have finished our fall salmon assessment sampling on Lake Champlain,” said State Fisheries Biologist Brian Chipman, “and the results indicate continuing improvements in the Lake Champlain salmon fishery accruing from the sea lamprey control program.”
“This fall, we collected and tagged over 400 landlocked salmon at Hatchery Brook in Grand Isle, as well as 91 salmon in the Lamoille River and 19 salmon at the Sandbar Causeway bridge. All three locations showed greater numbers of salmon collected than in 2010. The Lamoille River and Sandbar results show substantial increases.”
In addition, a record 189 salmon were captured, tagged and released by November 10 below the Winooski One Dam on the Winooski River. The previous record was 131 salmon tagged and released last year. Some of these salmon are still in the river and still offer a unique fishing opportunity.
Fishing for salmon on Lake Champlain this time of year is much like fishing for them in early spring. Deep trolling equipment is not required. The fish are cruising and feeding near the surface, where the action can be spectacular when trolling streamers with a flyrod or lures with spinning tackle.
