On the subject of Champlain...I worked there 15 years ago and the highlight of the early fishing season for the locals was rifle season for pike. Believe it or not there was (and probaly still is) a gun season for spawning pike. The guys would go down to
the flooded swamps and blast away with their deer rifles. You did not have to be a very good shot since the shock of a 7mm magnum would stun a fish in the next county. I cannot explain how this season came about or why in the world it was allowed to cont
inue but I laugh at the near incomprehensible idiocy every time I think of it. I did not believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.