Champlain on the Fly Redux Day 2: Slamming Bass

Northern leopard frogs, Lithobates pipiens, are a very common sight around Champlain. They are common in a handful of places in Connecticut but I have never seen one at home. Often when someone sees what they think is a leopard frog in CT they are really looking at a pickerel frog. If you fish Champlain though, odds are you'll see a few of these along the way at a boat launch or campsite. Noah saw anglers catching them for pike bait on one of his trips up here. I could never do that, they're too adorable. But I will imitate them with flies. And on this day that would be very relevant. 

 For our second morning we drove north to fish the South Hero area. The are we had fished in June with a deep weed bed had turned into a shallow flat. It is easy to forget that this lake's height drops massively throughout the summer. But this drop actually put us at a sight fishing advantage, and there were bowfin, bass, and small esox all over this flat. What I didn't expect to see were tench, a species introduced from Europe. I really, really wish I had successfully hooked one. For a rough fish angler in the U.S., tench are kind of Holy Grail-ish. They are not common. The bowfin, atleast the ones that weren't completely buried in the weeds, were pushovers. I was able to find a few that were only partially buried, and each one took. I boated three of them, matching the previous day's bowfin success.

One thing I noted as I cruised over the flat and carefully observed the bottom and the fish was a couple of deep holes in which taller weeds were growing to the surface. Bass and a few bowfin were residing in these holes, and I was pretty sure I could get the largemouth very easily on a foam topwater fly called the Bass Plopper. The first pass at the first hole resulted in two solid bass on consecutive casts. Both just hammered the fly, absolutely slammed it, and fought like hell.

I gave it a 15 minute rest, came back, and kapow! Another good bass.

Another rest. I came back. Same fly, same hole. Another good fish.

We wandered off for a while, Noah caught a small pike and we both got a bunch of yellow perch. By that time we had pretty much used up our time in that area and decided to head out. On the way back through, same fly, same hole, another really nice bass.

We drove back south to an area we had never fished, The Narrows. The hope was to find a few gar so Noah could finally add that species to his list. They were around but they were catchable. Eventually, I decided to target bass. I had seen some frogs around when I "answered the call" before we launched there. Dragonflies were everywhere. And I saw more than one sizable largemouth blow up on baitfish right at the surface. So the choice was pretty clear. I tied on a weedless frog pattern, attached to a short 30lb leader and the 10wt. That may seem a little overkill for largemouth bass, but I've been trying to master catching big bass in the slop on the fly for years now, and using the 10wt has absolutely transformed my game. I can slam the hook home after I feel the fish and haul them right out of the think mats with little concern.

The bass were hungry and all worked up. Again and again they came out of the weeds to eat my fly as violently as any bass I've ever encountered. The fly I was using was tied on a weedless worm hook and mono extension, to ride point up, shield the bend of the hook to keep it from collecting weeds, and still have a great hooking percentage. It worked as well as I could have hoped. I hooked 3/4 of the bass that took.

There were pike and pickerel in there too, including some exceptionally large ones, but for some reason neither Noah nor I could keep one of them pinned until the very end, when I got a good pickerel in. I would have loved to add a big pike to the list of fish I caught on this trip but just the hits alone were worth it. Oh if only I had a camera rolling for every bite. None were boring.

I don't know how many bass I pulled out of the weeds on that day. At least a couple dozen. Some where of a pretty fair size. Nothing humongous. There was always a lot that attracted me to fishing weed mats for topwater bass. It was always about the unexpected. You never new when that ten pound hawg was going to blast through the pads for your frog. And unlocking the doors to exploring this world with a fly rod has become borderline obsession. I yearn to get the biggest bass out of the thickest crap on fly tackle. And Champlain seems to be a great place to do so. Though there are only a handful of new species I'd like to get in Champlain, I'll undoubtedly be back there again and again. It is an incredible and diverse fishery.