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.

I am spending the next few months in Florida on Lake Okeechobee. I have signed a licensed agreement with Boat US to operate a towboat out of Roland Martin’s Marina in Clewiston. I am grateful to Scott Martin as well as his mother Mary Ann for their support in this endeavor. Although the Florida towing operation has started off slowly, I look forward to more boat traffic and fishing charters with the onslaught of snowbirds in the next couple of months.

Fishing enthusiasts, if you’re planning on vacationing in Florida this winter, I invite you to contact me at (518) 578-9273 to take advantage of the outstanding largemouth fishery here in this central Florida watershed. If you’re boating on the Okeechobee waterway, I’m available to assist you navigating through the locks and across the Big O from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.

Best regards to all. You can continue to catch my blog entries at BurlingtonBoatyard.com this winter and I’ll be returning north before you know it, at least by ice-out on Lake Champlain.

Sincerely,

Captain Mickey Maynard

Thank you Capt. Mick, for your kind words and reaching out to us back here at home. We wish you a safe and successful start to your winter season, as we grab the jackets, gloves and ice gear while you fish and sit at the Tiki Bar with Scott Martin!