Campbell's Bay Northern Lake Champlain Vermont

Covid 19 really has thrown a wrench in our annual fishing trip plans. We have not been able to get into Canada for the last two years. So in an attempt to find the next best thing I spent several months researching and landed on this rural location call Campbell's Campground. We had a very narrow timeframe for fishing as Charlie had a week off transitioing from his Boston internship to his new placement at ECMC in Buffalo. Jake had to come to the Northeast for his friend KT's bachelor party so fortunately it all worked out. They had the same week available and Campbell's had vacancy. Our great friend Mr. Wilkes and a couple of his friends, also terrific people, were able to rent a cabin next to ours which worked out perfectly. We had ordered a cord of wood for the week, not anticipating that it was going to over 90 degrees every day, ugh! Needless to say we left a lot of wood behind. We had rented a couple small 12' fishing boats with 9.9 motors. I had made 4 homemade boat seats for these boats as I learned long ago how tough it is on the back to fish on bench seats for a week. Jake & Charlie were in one boat, Shu and I in the other.     a

 The first night we headed North, chasing some bad intelligence, and went to the 3 mouths of the Missisquoi River. All we found was 4' of water and a TON of reeds completely sealing these mouths. We also accidently crossed into Canada. The next day we went out into the Missisquoi Bay fishing for Northern Pike. I lost 4 fish and one was a 30+" pike. It was very frustrating. My usually dependable Abu Garcia round reel and St. Croix rod were letting me down as the new braid line kept breaking. There must have been a faulty rod tip that was shredding the new line. We then went down to the Missisquoi Bay Bridge and anchored. We ended up spending a lot of time under this bridge as it cast a large shadow which saved us during the 90+ degree days all week. On the east side we caught a lot of beautiful sunfish. They made for excellent fresh fish tacos!!! On the west side we caught a bunch of 3-5lb smallmouth. After the first day we determined the small fishing boats were not sufficient for this large body of water. Fortunately Campbell's had fishing pontoon boats available with 65 horse motors. This proved to be the ticket. The first day with this boat we meandered down the Alburgh Passage. By this time Matt and Ben were able to join us making for 6 fisherman in the boat. We trolled large stick baits and spinner baits without a bite. The floating weeds were tough and difficult to keep a clean lure in the water. We went to the infamous Carry Bay where caught several small bass. While in this bay Matt pointed out an eagle flying overhead with a fish in his beak. It landed in a nearby nest that immediately set off an incredibly loud chorus of awaiting hungry eaglets. Very cool. We saw eagles throughout our trip. From there we cut westward by Pelot's Point into the bigger water, heading south of Townes Reef into 140-160' of water. We marked a ton of fish on the bottom and saved way points for a return visit. The next morning we drove the 1 hour 15 mile boat ride to these saved way points. We found these terrific screen markings we could not get a nibble. We jigged all the classic trout and salmon vertical jigs. Shu and I would take turns keeping the boat heading into the 10 mph winds so as to allow the group to get their baits to the bottom. The general concensus was that there had been a glowing full moon the night before and that is what kept them so tight lipped. It was so hot that we spent two afternoons anchored in Maquam Bay. This bay was very shallow, sandy, and no weeds. We threw our lawn chairs in the lake and enjoyed several hours cooling off. Enjoyed this campground and lake very much.