By: Dan Carns
I’m in northern Vermont for next six months and if you’ve never been here spring comes very late! It’s now July and just a couple of months ago my water froze twice in my camper. I mention this as I’m here to bass fish with my buddies Jim, Pat and Jimmy and we’ve been holding off until the fish move out of their deep winter haunts and begin their near shore transition and pre-spawn migration. We finally launched in what I can only describe as one of the best largemouth and smallmouth bass fisheries in all of New England. As expected, the water temps were in the mid-fifties, so we began to work the water column looking for fish and it was apparent that the bass were not anywhere near shore. It took us a about a half hour to establish that the fish where about fifty feet offshore and in around ten to fifteen feet of water. We spent a couple of hours catching a dozen fish or so and we felt like it was a good start to the season. Three days later, my buddy Jim and I returned as the sun had been out since our last outing and as expected the water temps where now sixty degrees and the fish had moved closer to shore but not quite into the shallows. We caught twenty fish between us in a couple of hours and it was obvious that they were hungry!
After discussing this transition change with our friend Jimmy (Professional Bass Angler) he was chopping at the bit to go back out! We are fortunate to have Jimmy Kennedy (@chefjimmydk) as one of our inner circle of traveling and fishing friends as he brings a whole different level of game with him. Of course, he is a Bass Boat (@skeeter_boats) tournament angler sponsored by the biggest names in the industry like @fishshimano, @fishgloomis and @fishpowerpro but somehow we convinced him to try kayak fishing and he already excels at it.
After discussing the improving water conditions, he and I planned another trip back out. Water temps where now mid-sixties, no wind and bluebird skies. With Jimmy in his newly outfitted Zambezi and me in the new Elite Pro Angler from @Vanhunksusa we began our run down the western shoreline where we boated no less than thirty fish apiece while Jimmy consistently hooked into bigger fish, in deeper water than I was fishing. We crossed the lake to the eastern, more secluded shoreline when Jimmy assured me he was going to boat couple of five pounders and promptly did so. We spent another three hours focused on fishing just offshore away from the smaller fish and picked up another thirty fish each, many in the three-to-four-pound range. I would finally catch my biggest fish of the day on a rock in about twelve feet of water and grateful for a stunning day of fishing and his focused approach!