If you read the 2025 OTW Bass issue this spring, you may remember an article about largemouth fishing on Lake Champlain. I learned a lot as an angler last season and dedicated my time to improving my ability to target the green fish on the north end of the lake. This year is no different, but some things have changed.
In 2024 I spent a lot of time looking for grass, which included checking many old waypoints where I fished years ago. Some areas had no grass, some had a little, and some were loaded, which is awesome. I learned that my areas weren’t really set up to hold big schools of fish, but the quality of fish was better; I could move from spot to spot and typically catch a limit of healthy largemouth bass. This season is much the same; the bass still prefer grass, but now it’s easier to find.
We started the spring with high water and chilly weather which, I feel, delayed grass growth once it finally warmed up a bit. Additionally, frequent rains kept water levels high when it was finally warm enough for grass to grow. As a result, the fish I was after stayed in different places until later in the season. It wasn’t until the first of August that I found decent fish in deeper grass, but they were there only because it’s been really dry since the high waters of spring. The water level is currently at one of the lowest points observed for this time of year in several years.
The bass have shown up, but it’s a different program. Grass is growing in a lot of places, which means more anglers are finding it and rotating through spots. Some areas that held good grass last year aren’t producing fish this year, and some spots that weren’t good last year still aren’t. I’ve had to expand my search, fishing longer and harder to get those few bites.
The good and the bad with grass fishing: there are still places that hold fish, but with more grass, they’re harder to find. Unlike last year, when grass beds were smaller and more isolated, the vast beds now make it easier to find vegetation—but harder to locate the bass. On the flip side, if you can find the sweet spots in the larger beds, you can enjoy some places to yourself.
As always, fishing spots and patterns are subject to change annually, and you have to be willing to adapt to those changes.
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