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!

We headed out of Burlington on Friday night, via the Ferry at Grand Isle, and crashed in Plattsburgh. When we arrived at the America’s Best Value Inn (hey, there was no availability at the Ritz!) we parked next to the BP Tahoe trailing a wrapped Ranger boat, followed by many more pickups – all pulling nice rigs. That set the tone for what the final day of the tournament would bring.

We started out on Saturday meeting up with Capt. Mickey Maynard of LakeChamplainAngler.com, and his son Marshall. He had got us the opportunity to head out to Point Au Roche to spend the morning meeting and interviewing David Dudley and Bobby Curtis of the Castrol Team. David Dudley is the 2008 FLW Angler of the Year, with over $2million in career earnings, and Bobby Curtis is a very accomplished pro angler that hails from Siloam Springs, AR. These two were spending their morning taking out a few of the teen anglers from the local bass club. This was exciting for the young guys to say the least, as they geared up and took off for a nice morning in Castrol wrapped Rangers sporting the Evinrude and Vmax motors.

Next we made our way back into town to meet up with Mickey, and there we found both the FLW main stage set up, as well as the Battle of Plattsburgh Celebration events taking place all around. Mickey brought us over to the National Guard exhibit, where we met Scott Martin, a legend-in-the-making small mouth bass angler. He won the FLW here on Champlain back in June of 2004, and has his own television show The Scott Martin Challenge, which airs on FSN and VS and will start up again in January. It was great getting a chance to speak with him and hear about his time on Champlain, as well as his thoughts about the FLW and what it’s like to be competing in these tournaments.

We hung out with the anglers from the National Guard team for a little while longer, and then made our way over towards the main stage area where we ran into Dan Konkoski, President of the Plattsburgh Bass Club. He was eager to discuss all the new up and coming events, tournaments and membership of the club. He mentioned that things are going very well there, and we are going to take him up on his offer of stopping by for a day out fishing.

About an hour away from the final weigh in, Mickey introduced us to Charlie Evans, President & CEO of FLW Outdoors. I asked him if we could do an interview spot and without hesitation he was in front of the main stage with me, giving a recap of the series so far, and a summary of what to expect with the upcoming weigh in. Needless to say I was honored to have had this opportunity and appreciate Charlie’s time.

Finally, the top ten anglers were pulling up the street with their five best fish. We got up close to the stage to watch the drama that was about to unfold as ounces turned into the difference between $25,000 and $125,000. It came down to the wire, and Charlie Evans stalled with some funny banter to add even more pressure to the final two anglers awaiting the results on the scale. As the crowd watched and cameras rolled, finally it was announced that Iams pro Chip Harrison from Bremen, Indiana was the 2008 Walmart FLW Series champion, winning by 12oz with three smallies and two large mouth, and taking home $125,000.

Covering the FLW this year was exciting and, as an angler, an experience I have always wanted to be a part of. The pros were extremely gracious in taking their time to speak with us about the tournament and what Lake Champlain means to them, as well as seeing all the staff and volunteers work vigorously to make sure everything went off without a hitch.

We’d like to thank Capt. Mickey Maynard especially, who went out of his way to contact the Castrol team and invited us to meet David Dudley and Bobby Curtis, and kept us informed of all that was going on so we wouldn’t miss a thing. Thanks Mick!

We got a few hours of footage which we are editing now, so stay tuned and look for more on BBY’s time at the 2008 FLW Series!

-Guy

Feel free to comment below…let us know if you were there, know a co-angler in the area, or just send along your feedback!