Greetings Lake Champlain enthusiasts! Spring is upon us and many boaters are already out navigating across the waters of the big lake. In spring it’s usually the fishermen who are first willing to endure the cold weather to cure their cabin fever. I pride myself in being one of the first few anglers to launch following ice-out. This year I was on the lake targeting lake trout and salmon during the last week of March. Believe it or not, I was catching some dandy lakers trolling just a few feet from the edge of the melting ice on Cumberland Bay. The lake trout fishing has been outstanding. As of this writing, May 1, 2009, my charters have landed 171 trout. Many fish where in the ten-pound range and the largest weighed in at just over thirteen pounds. I fish for Lake Champlain’s Seneca Lake strain of trout in 50 to 80 feet of water even in the early season. The Atlantic salmon fishing has been great too. The spring run in the tributaries brought in a good stock of salmon accessible to riverbank and fly fishermen. Those of us who trolled for salmon just after ice-out on the broad water in spots like Sandbar on the Inland Sea and Willsboro Bay on the main lake also did very well. The key to good salmon fishing in spring is finding slightly warmer water temperatures. The bass and pike fishing heated up in the rivers as well by the last week of April.

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Greetings from Lake Okeechobee, Florida!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my fishing and boating friends and clients for helping make the spring, summer and fall seasons on Lake Champlain an overwhelming success. In spite of a wet summer, high gas prices and a stumbling economy, I hosted nearly 50 fishing charters from April through October. We thoroughly enjoyed sharing time on the water with our clients and friends this year.

Our website, www.LakeChamplainAngler.com, averaged over 75 hits a day during the peak season. It’s nice to know that many of you are visiting the site to keep up with the various published articles, videos and Burlington Boatyard blog entries relating to our beloved lake. Thanks so much to all the webmasters, forum publishers and web entities out there who have placed links from their sites to ours.

Our fledgling marine towing, rescue and salvage operation, “Lake Champlain Marine Resource and Services”, was also very successful in its first year. Together, Captain Randy LaValley and I came to the assistance of over 30 stranded boaters bringing them safely to port, protecting their passengers and their investments. The highlight of our season was providing transportation to a large Valcour Island wedding party in cooperation with a few associate Lake Champlain Captains.

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As many of you know, we are blessed to have an outstanding bass fishery here on Lake Champlain. From the monster largemouth hiding among the weed beds of the extreme northern and southern ends of the lake to the chunky smallies that make the rocky flats and shoals of the watershed their feeding grounds, there is hardly a nook or cranny on this lake where a bass fisherman can’t find a worthy lunker. Last week the LCI successfully held their 9th annual bass fishing tournament, an event that’s open to any angler from the novice fishermen to the seasoned expert. BurlingtonBoatyard.com representatives volunteered their time at the LCI weigh-in and thoroughly covered the event with interviews that can be seen on this site shortly.

Next week it’s the big dogs turn with one of the largest professional tournaments of the year taking place in Plattsburgh September 10 – 13. In fact, the pros are already out buzzing around the lake in their fancy wrapped boats pre-fishing for bass. They are also mingling with the locals at a number of community events leading up to the tournament.

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Guy Mitrano’s Burlington Boatyard Blog post highlighting a recent Wall Street Journal article on Yo-Yoing on the North Atlantic focuses attention on lead contamination here. Yo-Yoing, or using heavy sinkers placed in live baits for striped bass and other bottom feeding fish is not only bad for the environment, it’s a bad reflection on anglers. It happened on Lake Champlain folks, but on a smaller and less intentional scale. Vermont’s program to “Get The Lead Out” was the beginning of an effort by wildlife officials to minimize lead contamination on Lake Champlain. In Vermont it is now illegal to fish with lead sinkers weighing less than one-half ounce. New York has banned the sale of lead sinkers smaller than one ounce. There are not many cases of Yo-Yoing on Lake Champlain that fisheries managers know of, but lead sinkers were a problem for wildlife, especially loons and other waterfowl. It’s up to anglers to refresh their stocks of sinkers with the various options now available like tin or tungsten weights. The old sinkers can be recycled.

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Here’s a heads-up to any boaters on Lake Champlain unlucky enough to require towing or salvage services. Captain Randy LaValley and myself are two of the few Coast Guard sanctioned Captains that provide assistance towing on Lake Champlain. We can be reached at (518) 578-9273, 24 hours a day. In fairness I mention John Mott, a fellow Captain and one of our competitors, who is also endorsed and provides Tow Boat US services out of Rouses Point. There is also another Captain at Essex Marina who is approved by the Coast Guard. There may be others that I am not aware of. Last year there was a Sea-Tow business on the Vermont side but I’m told that Captain went out of business. I wonder why? Surely there is enough of a need to sustain a few Captains offering these types of services, even in spite of the high gas prices, luke-warm economy and rainy weather. The Coast Guard claims on its website that they respond to between 200 and 300 rescue and salvage calls on Lake Champlain per boating season!

When it comes to towing and salvage, only Coast Guard approved Captains are playing by the rules! The Code Of Federal Regulations mandates that towers and salvors on Federal waters like Lake Champlain be Coast Guard approved Merchant Marine Officers with at least an Assistance Towing Endorsement. When the season began we met with the Coast Guard, the New York State Police Marine Patrol and the Clinton County Marine Patrol to assure them that we were fully trained, sanctioned and equipped to provide rescue and salvage on a 24 hour, 7 day per week schedule. We have the utmost faith in these and other law enforcement agencies to assure that the Captains they refer distressed boaters to be Coast Guard licensed and assistance towing endorsed.

There are however reports getting back to us that some towing services are laughing in the face of the law and operating without Coast Guard credentials. We have no way of knowing for sure how these spurious tow operators were referred to distressed boaters. Perhaps the boaters in need were simply customers who called for assistance from their home marina port.  It is legal to tow another vessel for free as a “Good Samaritan”. The truth is there are only a few marinas on Lake Champlain with Coast Guard Captains towing for them. The marinas are actually doing it illegally, especially if they are charging distressed boaters for the tow or salvage. In fact we have been shown photos of illegal tows (one was a tandem tow) and have heard from some boaters who claim that marinas providing tow services did not have the necessary qualifications. A few marinas are even towing without proper day shapes or towing lights, much less a license or towing endorsement. They may not even know that these lights and navigation aids are requirements! If an accident occurs while these unlicensed operators are towing or salvaging vessels there will surely be some interesting consequences.

We are trying to work in cooperation with all rescue and law enforcement agencies on Lake Champlain. Ultimately, it is not in our interest to name names or be whistle-blowers. It is certainly an awkward position to be in. We have jumped through the hoops and over the hurdles to be Coast Guard trained, approved and endorsed. We also pay for costly insurance to do these rescues. It’s really up to the distressed boater to specifically request a Coast Guard approved Captain with an Assistance Towing Endorsement; otherwise, they need not pay for the service. If they suspect fraud they should report the incident to the Coast Guard. I wish you all safe boating and may you never need our services. But if you do, you can be confident that you are in the hands of Coast Guard trained and sanctioned Captains who will do everything in their power to treat you fairly and protect your investment.

-Captain Mickey Maynard

Walleye anglers, I caught my fourth marble eye of the season on Sunday August 3rd. It was a seven-pound, five-ounce specimen caught on a crayfish crankbait while targeting smallmouth bass off Point Au Roche. It’s a real shame that we no longer have the walleye fishery we once had on Champlain. What happened to the good old days when walleye were stocked by the train-car-load off the railroad bridge at the mouth of the Saranac River? Loss of spawning habitat due to sedimentation and a significant decrease in stocking programs have led to the diminishing of the former burgeoning fishery. Many anglers comment to me that something should be done to improve the walleye fishery. I agree! Many feel there is far too much attention and money spent on lake trout. I like the lake trout fishing, but isn’t there some middle ground? Wouldn’t a healthy walleye fishery be a useful tool for fisheries managers to control the booming populations of alewives? Walleye are certainly more resistant to lamprey. The walleye fishery has continually declined over the past 30 years to the point that catching one is a rare event indeed. Albeit, when you do catch one it’s often four pounds or better. I’ve caught fish over 9 pounds and heard of some up to 12 or more. It seems like this lake could be an outstanding walleye fishing resource. The fishery shows a glimmer of hope on the southern end of the lake and in the Inland Sea. Hats off to the Lake Champlain Walleye Association for their efforts to restore the fishery and protect the few walleye that are out there.

-Captain Mickey Maynard

In the photo below Kyle Mayette, a Plattsburgh native, shows off a dandy walleye he caught in the Saranac River in late May, 2008.

Greetings Burlington Boatyard Visitors,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to each and every one of you. I hope you find this Lake Champlain Captain’s blog entertaining and enlightening. Like many of you, I have long been a passionate advocate for Lake Champlain. Through this medium I hope to continue a proactive tendency, not only by offering commentary, assistance and advice, but also by stirring your thoughts, opinions and enthusiasm for the resource.

I look forward to offering weekly commentary on a wide variety of Lake Champlain issues. At times I might cover topics as simple as the ABCs of boater’s safety. Or, I may delve into more comprehensive subjects like invasive species, from alewives to zebra mussels. I may even humbly throw in a fishing tip or two. Subjects will sometimes be expressed in a lighthearted manner, and at other times I may appear as angry or irritated as a junkyard dog. As is the nature of interesting blogs, I expect that some of my reflections and observations will occasionally be controversial and even at times, somewhat opinionated, but I will always be prepared to qualify more technical information with sources or references. When you do not see eye-to-eye with me, I trust we can respectfully agree to differ.

I am honored to have this opportunity to speak directly to you, the stakeholders of Lake Champlain. May we unite to protect Lake Champlain and the rights of sincere, conscientious mariners and anglers. Lake Champlain is the beloved jewel in our backyards. It is here for all to share. We must remind ourselves that we are not its possessors but rather its guardians until we pass it on to subsequent generations. Let’s all keep drifting toward the cause of stewardship, fishing for a better future and sailing away to brighter horizons.

In The Lake Champlain Bonds,
Captain Mickey Maynard