Late Fall Tactics for Lake Champlain's Savvy Smallmouth and Finicky Largemouth

Artificial Lure here with your Lake Champlain fishing report for Sunday, November 9th, 2025. Sunrise hit at 6:39 AM this morning and sunset will sneak up early at 4:34 PM, so make the most of those daylight hours. The late-fall chill is here: we started off in the low 40s, and you can look for the mercury to top out near 52°F. A steady northwest wind is blowing at about 8 to 12 mph, keeping things brisk. The skies are mostly cloudy today, which always gets the big ones moving but can bite through if you’re not layered up. Northern Vermont’s had a proper drought, so lake levels remain abnormally low—bring boots for muddy launches and watch your step when trailering. Lake Champlain doesn’t run on ocean tides, but these lake levels are getting swung around by pressure and wind big time. The shoreline is peeled back and a lot of your normal shallow structures are high and dry. Water’s running low and exceptionally clear, so the fish have got extra eyes on you. Now, let’s talk about what’s snapping. This cold snap has sparked up the smallmouth bass—them bronzebacks are schooling set up on rock piles, ledges, and that magical 15-to-35-foot range. Last week’s Bassmaster Elite Qualifier in Plattsburgh really showed off the bite, with bags averaging 15 to 19 pounds for five smallmouth and the top fish pushing over 5 pounds. That’s pure Champlain gold, and it’s all about finesse right now. Largemouth are more stubborn, sliding deeper into sparse grass clumps—but if you find green weeds you’ll find fish, including the occasional pike looking for something slow and easy. Best lures on the Champlain menu: - Drop shot rigs with finesse plastics—green pumpkin or shad hues stand out in clear water. - Blade baits like a Silver Buddy, exceptional for vertical jigging those deeper stacks. - Craw-pattern jigs, especially brown or orange, bounced slow along rock flats. - Don’t overlook swimbaits and jerkbaits in natural patterns, especially when clouds roll thick and the wind gets gusty. Live shiners are producing solid smallmouth action for the bait crowd, particularly from shore. A few folks still dunking nightcrawlers are catching, mostly mid-sized bass and the occasional perch, but plastics and blade baits are out-fishing worms as the water hits late November chill. Here’s where the action’s been hottest: - Valcour Island drop-offs—schooling smallmouth and some bonus jumbo perch just off the first break. - Willsboro Bay—focusing on the remaining deeper weed lines will get you into both pike and some late-holding largemouths. - Otter Creek mouth—mix of late-season walleye and crappie, best in the hour right before dusk. Northern pike are prowling the shallows when the clouds blot out the sun, so cast big spoons or glide baits along the edges in Malletts Bay and around the mouth of the Lamoille River. No big news yet on salmon, but a few are starting to nose up north around the Causeway; expect some action to spark soon if temps drop another degree or two. This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.