Artificial Lure here with your Lake Champlain fishing report for October 26, 2025. We’re deep into fall, and the bite’s reflecting the quick-changing weather—cold overnight dips are carving fog off the water, and those hungry smallies and lakers are on the move. Today, expect sunrise at 7:21 AM and sunset right about 5:47 PM. The morning saw dense fog, but it’s burning off to reveal mostly cloudy skies, temps climbing from the upper 30s into the low 50s, with a light north breeze that’ll pick up later. Water temps are hovering in the high 40s to low 50s, so dress in layers and watch for that chill.

Lake Champlain doesn’t have true tides, but expect some subtle seiche movement and changing wind that can move water levels and bait. This week has seen stable conditions, which has kept the fish in typical fall staging zones—look for bass and perch around sharp drop-offs, rocky points, and lingering weedbeds, especially as baitfish school up.

Fishing action has been solid. Most folks are reporting decent numbers and quality—earlier this week, local angler Corey Gillis bagged a limit of chunky smallmouth near Swanton during the American Fishing Tour, winning it wire-to-wire. He, like many, went finesse: drop-shots rigged with Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worms and smaller tubes did most of the damage. A 1/6-ounce marabou jig also caught big bronzebacks patrolling shallower flats on overcast afternoons, particularly near the Missisquoi Bay and the northern portion of the Inland Sea. If you’re after largemouth, chatterbaits and Texas-rigged creature baits dragged across remaining green grass (try the narrows near Ticonderoga) are still fooling good fish, though the window is narrowing as weeds die back.

Walleye have been a bit trickier, but a handful are showing up during low-light hours on jerkbaits and blade baits off rocky shoals around the mouth of Otter Creek and near Crown Point Bridge. Perch are schooled up mid-depth (15–30 feet), and small jigging spoons tipped with a minnow head are putting numbers in the bucket.

Best baits right now:
- Berkley MaxScent Flat Worms or Lil’ General on a drop-shot
- Marabou or bucktail jigs for finicky smallies
- Swimbaits and blade baits for open-water roamers
- Tubes and finesse football jigs for dragging along rock piles
- For panfish, small spoons or tungsten ice jigs with waxies

Two hot spots to check today:
- **The Sandbar Causeway:** Smallies are stacking here on the rocks as baitfish bunch up.
- **Port Henry to Crown Point:** The deeper humps off the flats are holding mixed bags of bass and the odd walleye at dawn.

Recent catches show a good mix—anglers are pulling 3–4 pound smallmouth with the occasional 5+ if you grind it out, and perch buckets are filling quickly for the panfish crowd, especially in the Inland Sea.

That’s it for today’s Lake Champlain round-up. Thanks for tuning in to Artificial Lure—don’t forget to subscribe for more local fishing insights. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.

Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn

This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI