The second heat wave of the summer was giving me a serious case of writer’s block and brain fog. Just getting back from a week’s vacation on the North Carolina/South Carolina border wasn’t helping, either. In desperation, I reached out to a friend who recently moved to hotter climes and asked what he missed the most about fall fishing in New Hampshire and Vermont beside the cooler temps and limited boat traffic. “Crappie, salmon, lakers, and smallies,” was his hurried text response, followed shortly with, “A good day on a trout stream is also tough to beat that time of year.”
Story idea…check. Fan and cold beverage…check. Inspiration and motivation to write 1,000 words this afternoon? Working on it but should improve upon opening second cold beverage.
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One of the perks of fishing northern New England in the fall is the multitude of opportunities. Numerous warmwater and coldwater species just a short drive from each other, or even in the same waterbody, make choosing a destination and species to pursue an easy task. But targeting a number of them in a single place in one day takes some planning in terms of water body, location within it to launch and fish, and tackle preparation.
Black crappie, landlocked salmon, lake trout, and smallmouth bass from a single lake in one day … oh, and trout from a tributary flowing into the lake. While there are several lakes in both New Hampshire and Vermont where I could accomplish my goal, I focused on the biggest lake in each state to increase my likelihood of success: Lake Champlain in Vermont and Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire.
After pondering a map of Champlain and its many boat launches, I decide to use the Fort Cassin ramp in Ferrisburgh. I’ve used this access point many times in the spring and fall when fishing for landlocked salmon and lake trout, so it shouldn’t be too hard to catch these two species there simply by heading north on the main lake and sticking to the Vermont side. Additionally, there is plenty of good smallmouth bass habitat (rocks, points, and steep depth transitions) in areas in and around nearby Kingsland Bay and large enough populations that I might pick them up occasionally while trolling for salmonids.
That, of course, still leaves black crappie and tributary trout to cross off the list for my one-day excursion to Champlain. Luckily, the Fort Cassin ramp is on Otter Creek and the section around the boat ramp has some great warmwater fish habitat. I may have to weed through a bunch of largemouth bass, yellow perch, and sunfish, but I don’t think it will take me too long to find a willing crappie or two. Vermont’s longest river also hosts hatchery trout in the upper section and below most of the dams in the lower section, so I will work my way upstream until I find success.
While a large lake by New England standards at 44,586 acres, New Hampshire’s Winnipesaukee pales in size to Champlain’s 278,480 acres, making it much easier to choose a launch location and still accomplish my task for the day. I quickly decide on the launch at Shep Brown’s Boat Basin in Meredith as it provides immediate access to a relatively small, deep basin. If I strike out on lakers and salmon there, I can easily reach larger deep-water areas to both the north and south. By the way, open season for lake trout and salmon on Winnipesaukee closes September 30.
Winni’s water depth and habitat are varied enough that finding a hump, rock pile, or point holding a smallmouth bass or two should be a quick exercise. Likewise, I’m confident I will find some backwaters nearby for black crappie if they aren’t already suspended in small basins.
To round out my day, I will fish for wild brook trout in Coffin Brook (Alton) on my way home. I know it is technically not a direct tributary to Winnipesaukee since it first flows into the Merrymeeting River, but it’s on the way home!
My tactics in both states will be very similar and I plan to multi-task with rods as much as possible across species to save space and time. Two lead-core outfits to troll assorted spoons (Honey Bees, Savant Winnie Spoons, DB Smelt, and Sutton 61s) for lake trout and salmon in deep-water basins are definites. I hope the thermocline is still set up so I can vertically jig for lakers and have the zone for salmon be more defined. For vertical jigging, I’ll use a ¾-ounce tungsten jig tied on with a white or silver 2- to 3-inch tube or plastic swimbait. Once I see lakers on the fish finder, I’ll hold still, using the big motor, and drop on them, reeling up only when they rocket off the bottom and are just below the jig.
Smallmouth will be had using a simple bare tungsten jig tipped with a Z-Man Scented Jerk Shadz or a drop shot with a Berkley Powerbait MaxScent Flat Worm. I’ll keep crappie offerings just as simple by downsizing the jig and drop shot weight size and replacing the aforementioned plastics with Z-Man’s finesse panfish series offerings, including the new Micro WormZ.
Finally, my trout lure pack will be similarly minimal and include a few Mepps Spinners, a 1/32-ounce Kastmaster, a couple of small marabou jigs and, as backup, some split shot and size 8/0 hooks (for which I will turn over logs to get worms if I get desperate for a bite).
One spinning combo is all I will need for the smallmouth, trout, crappie, and vertical jigging for lakers. My choice will be a 6’9” Daiwa TD EYE medium-fast walleye rod combined with a size 3000 Daiwa Regal LT reel. This setup fits perfectly in my hand, and when combined with 10-pound Power Pro and various strength Seaguar fluorocarbon leaders, is fast becoming one of my favorite and most versatile rigs.
It might have taken three beverages, but I made my 1,000 words with a few to spare and stayed reasonably cool for the afternoon. I’m now going to grill some chimichurri-marinated chicken and jump in the pool. I hope you get out for some multi-species-on-one-water-body days this fall in New Hampshire and Vermont.
Gabe Gries is a fish biologist and member of the New England Outdoor Writers Association. Contact Gabe at fishnh@hotmail.com if you have a question or suggestion for a column.
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