South Bay Whitehall NY Fishing Report

South Bay 8/12-14

BVBA tourny brought my Bass buddies and I to Whithall NY, the Birthplace of the US Navy, and some fine fishing on South Bay and the lowerstretch of Lake Champlain. 4 days were spent together for the enjoyment of food, drink, fishing and comraderie. Only a few of us had fished here before and we all looked forward to fishing new waters. This fishery offers a 4 lane state of the art launching facility and provides access to over 100 miles of fishing north to Canada, as well as access to the Hudson River via the locks, and can accomodate the canoeist to fish the shores of South Bay. Located in eastern Ny it is a rural slow paced get away spot to pursue the Largemouth bass.
I explored the lower strech of Champlain and found Red Rock Bay, a spot I returned to each day to start. Abudant bass and sheltered location with rock and wood along a 150 yard stretch at the base of a 200 ft ledge is what attracted me. First bass caught here was a 3 1/2 lber and I locked in too long here on Friday catching and releasing, as by Sunday I found the bass were on to me and I only was able to boat 2 bass. One of these days when prefishing I will learn to locate the bass, familerize myself with the spot and move on, keeping the catching to the tourny days that count. The Murky waters of this whole stretch of water are very silted and visibility ranges from a few inches to maby a foot so that noisy baits were the best of choice. I went with a white Nichols spinnerbait and trailer, and a Black red flake sidewinder worm with a rattle in its tail. The bass seemed to tune in and found these baits much quicker than the Senkos, witch I caught some good fish on, though it required repeated casting to spots. A black blue jig with rattles was also good in certain areas
Day one Saturday I boated 5 bass for a total of 10.22 lbs, and Sunday I only weighed in 3 bass of 7lbs giving me a 17 lb bag for the 2 day event which resulted in a 4th place finish and out of the money. Eddie with a 1st place total weight of 24 lbs probably secured the Mr Bass title for the Year, Brian took 2nd place with 22 lbs and lunkers both days of 5.7 and 4.25 lbs, and lee claimed 3rd with total weight of 17.55 lbs.

Baits that worked best for others were spinnerbait, jigs and frogs in the thicker cover to be found. Though I tossed the magnum spro I had and hooked up with some nice sized bass in the slop, I very shortly became unhooked and fustration set in as the only fish taken on a frog by me were some small pike.
On Sunday I did land 2 nice northerns on a spinnerbait in Red Rock that went 10 and 7lbs which were probably the high point of the trip giving me that heart pounding excitment when they hit the bait like a freight train. Another fish worth mentioning was the bowfin caught on Sunday in a cut along a thick blanket of cut weeds that collected along a shallow 2 ft shoreline. This being my 1st bowfin I thought I had lunker bass all wrapped up when after putting up a ferocious battle he came to net in all its uglyness and as I gazed down at its flattened tooth filled mouth I came back to earth,weigh it at 6 1/2 lbs released it and continued to search for the right species.

As always a great time was spent on this getaway with all my Bassin Buddies!

• Added By: johnnywad on 08/16/11 10:27 AM
• Location: South Bay Whitehall NY
• Report Date: 8/12/2011 - 8/14/2011
• # of Hotspots: 4
• # of Photos: 1
• # of Fish Caught: 31
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