going up to the southern part of lake Champlain for a week, looking for advice on catching walleye and pike

Can’t help with walleye,  but for pike search out submerged islands in at least 20 foot of water Surrounded by deeper water.  I’ve found trolling on leadcore works well

 

Walleye fishing is very good in Champlain, but we never target them.

The lake supports loads of good pike in the 5 to 8 lb range. Sadly, if it weren't for legal firearm fishing,

Champlain would likely produce its fair share of 40" gators.

The best pike fishing tends to be in the northern tier, like the Grand Isle region and Missisquoi Bay.

 

Roger

 

Pike are going to mostly be in deeper structure this time of year. Some small ones will stay in shallow weeds the whole year but anything decent size heads for deeper water once the water gets in the upper 60’s. Pike prefer much cooler water than bass do, so everything you should be looking for should be 15-20 fow and deeper. I’ve never fished Champlain but I know it is a clear lake so if there are weeds growing into that 15+ foot range try fishing the deepest edge you can find, especially if it is near deep water. The biggest pike in the lake are most likely going to be suspended around the thermocline over deep basin chasing schools of Cisco’s or whitefish if they are in the lake. Most big lakes like that will have some sort of pelagic baitfish that will he in deep water, doesn’t have to be the ones I talked about. These fish are generally the hardest to pattern due to the areas they are in being very expensive but they are almost always big. I have had success trolling musky cranks like super Shad raps and grandmas at 3-5mph. 
 

walleye are going to be most likely in one of three patterns this time of year. Deep weeds, rock structure, and suspended in deep water adjacent to structure. Watch a couple Tom boley videos.

18 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

Pike are going to mostly be in deeper structure this time of year. Some small ones will stay in shallow weeds the whole year but anything decent size heads for deeper water once the water gets in the upper 60’s. Pike prefer much cooler water than bass do, so everything you should be looking for should be 15-20 fow and deeper. I’ve never fished Champlain but I know it is a clear lake so if there are weeds growing into that 15+ foot range try fishing the deepest edge you can find, especially if it is near deep water. The biggest pike in the lake are most likely going to be suspended around the thermocline over deep basin chasing schools of Cisco’s or whitefish if they are in the lake. Most big lakes like that will have some sort of pelagic baitfish that will he in deep water, doesn’t have to be the ones I talked about. These fish are generally the hardest to pattern due to the areas they are in being very expensive but they are almost always big. I have had success trolling musky cranks like super Shad raps and grandmas at 3-5mph. 
 

walleye are going to be most likely in one of three patterns this time of year. Deep weeds, rock structure, and suspended in deep water adjacent to structure. Watch a couple Tom boley videos, he’s the tacticalbassin of walleye fishing.

my plan for the smaller lake is to chuck and wind spinnerbaits through the weeds in 10 - 20', any clue how to catch the deeper ones besides the trolling you mentioned, I will be trying that

3 hours ago, Quarry Man said:

my plan for the smaller lake is to chuck and wind spinnerbaits through the weeds in 10 - 20', any clue how to catch the deeper ones besides the trolling you mentioned, I will be trying that

Spinnerbaits do work for pike but are very overused. Try some swimbaits in the 4-6” range and you’ll most likely have a better average size. Open water suspended pike are pretty hard to cast for but again casting swimbaits on a heavy head down 20 ft or so, as well as vertically jigging stuff like bondy baits and 8-10” tubes would be a good bet around schools of bait. If you want to cast for them, focus on offshore reefs, main lake points, and deep weed edges you will have a way better chance.

17 minutes ago, Ogandrews said:

Spinnerbaits do work for pike but are very overused. Try some swimbaits in the 4-6” range and you’ll most likely have a better average size. Open water suspended pike are pretty hard to cast for but again casting swimbaits on a heavy head down 20 ft or so, as well as vertically jigging stuff like bondy baits and 8-10” tubes would be a good bet around schools of bait. If you want to cast for them, focus on offshore reefs, main lake points, and deep weed edges you will have a way better chance.

thanks! I think ill have better luck fishing the visual stuff like points and weed lines, but I want to try and use my electronics as well.

Tom Boley is a great resource as said above. One learning curve deal with walleyes on clear bodies of water is light penetration. Walleyes have a layer in their eye called the tapetum lucidum. This causes the eye to shine we see in photos with them and allow them to feed very successfully in low light situations. I don't think you would get skunked fishing during midday hours on Champlain. But, I do believe you would see a noticeable difference in catch rate fishing in lower light situations.  

I might add that if you get a cloudy/overcast/rainy day, that would be ideal.  Warm bright sunshine is difficult fishing this time of year as it sends fish deeper and into thick weeds looking for refuge.

Walleye love jitterbugs at night over weed beds and on the edges.