Jay Yelas at Lake Champlain

Beautiful Lake Champlain is where I am at this week for the FLW Open Setember15-18. I really enjoy my time up here. Champlain is one the most scenic lakes in the country, especially with the fall color. The fishing is really good too!

I enjoyed a couple weeks at home after the Cup. My girls didn’t go back to school until after Labor Day, so we had some good family time. We went camping, went to the beach, and they caught some nice salmon. Late August is when I do a bunch of fishing with my girls. The weather is perfect on the Oregon Coast, and the fishing is really good too.

It took me three days to get back here to Champlain from home. I left my boat at Mark Davis’ house after the Cup at Ouachita. So I flew to Little Rock, got the boat, and drove 26 hours to get here. That’s a lot of travel for one bass tournament.

Once you get here though, this place is so awesome you forget about the travel. We have been catching 20-40 bass a day. Mostly largemouth, but some good smallies too. The lake is 4′ high due to all the rain, so the bass are scattered more than normal. The high water has hurt the milfoil this year and you just can’t find any deep milfoil like you used to. That has the largemouth scattered in the flooded shallow cover. The smallies are still deep, but there are some up shallow too.

My practice hasn’t turned up schools of big ones like I sometimes have found here. Lots of bites for sure, but there is so much cover in the water it is hard to find the big ones bunched up. I did find one spot with deep milfoil that has some good largemouth, other than that I will be moving a lot.

I like the fact that the high water has changed the playing field considerably. It is like a new lake in many ways.

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