When do Trout & Salmon start feeding?

[tamiron]

South Bend Indiana is a long ways from Lake Champlain. Not one angler that I know that fishes Lake Champlain has caught any fish and told me that they have. But if you are waiting for someone to tell you they are aggressively feeding, let me be the first to tell you and let Vermont Fish and Game confirm it.

These fish are eating machines and if you are waiting for someone else to tell you, stop. Get out there and catch some and let the rest of us know that they are hitting. The where is something that should be extremely general. But sharing has to start somewhere.

[Crazy Ivan]

This is the best advice Jim has given in all the years that I have known him.
First of all the salmon bite aggressively most the year. Waiting to read about it here on the forum and then having a knee jerk reaction to a hot post is a waist of time. Get out there as often as you can or want to, invent your own hot spots. Be successful on your own, the salmon are feeding!
There is not a day of the year that my friends and I go out not exspecting to have a good day on the water. October and November can be challenging but the fish are still there and are still feeding. You just have to get out there. We haven't been iced off the lake for more than a week or two in years, and the fish feed everyday all year.
My point is this...... Fishing is good everyday, catching or not! We fish all year long in our boats. Tying new things on my own and being successfull at it is very satisfyingly to me. I put in a ton of hours in order to be successful. The fish are feeding.
Cell phones and group texting is the way 99% fishing reports are getting shared. That is just the way it is. This is not hiding information or being selfish it is just a way that guys can share there hard learned information and success with a group of friends.
So there most likely is not going to be a big green flag waved on the forum to signal the feeding frenzy on the forum. The salmon fishing is fantastic on lake Champlain year round! You just have to get out there.
Todd

[tamiron]

So there most likely is not going to be a big green flag waved on the forum to signal the feeding frenzy on the forum. The salmon fishing is fantastic on lake Champlain year round! You just have to get out there.
Todd

Now you have the confirmation from a very successful angler who is telling you to get out there and put in the time. If you have questions other than where, post them to the forum or try a PM. This is one sport where experience is not an option, it is a necessity.

[fishy1]

i totally agree with jim and todd. ist hand experience fishing and learning is what its all about . it is very hard to get skunked on champlain from shore or in a boat. lakers ,browns, salmon steelheads and more champlain has lots to catch. like todd said explore the lake yourself dont expect fisherman to tell you where their spots are because champlain is 125 miles long and and most of it except maybe the most southerly part you can catch cold water fish. depending on the month you can catch them in 1 fow to 200 fow or more. get out there fishing and feel the excitement of the sport.

[jimbow]

Well said Matt.

[JDK]

Deleted

[Crazy Ivan]

JDK
Sir you are confused, disoriented, out of your league and way out of line. The point is don't wait for a fishing report, just go fishing. No where in this post did anyone ask for a fishing report, nor did anyone even remotely suggest that anyone buy something.

[JDK]

You are correct, I did misread the post. My apologies to all.

[dickbaker]

Thanks for the incentive Jim. But after reading your post asking for More Participation on the Forum, I find Ivan's reply offering just the opposite? A small group of fishermen using cell phones and radios most of the time seems to defeat the object of LCU? I trailer my 18 ft. Starcraft from NH to my little camper on Keeler Bay. I'm retired living on Social Security. For professionals (on the water every day) or residents with nearby access or even private dock its hurts to have them tell me not to look for help at LCU but to just get out as much as they do?? I do enjoy reading about successful fishing trips and even some recommendations for pet lures or depth and general location? I find Reelax's regular posts stimulate me to get out on the water when weather and time permit!
Dick

[Crazy Ivan]

Dick,
Great to hear you are retired and love to fish. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today. Jim and my whole point in THIs Post is, if you are waiting for a fishing report to head out this spring.... Don't wait, go now, have fun and catch fish. Report or not just go fishing.
Sorry it hurt to tell you that you most likely are not going to see the everyday gushing reports of fishing on the forum that were so fluent in years past, this is just the way it is. Other more popular, easier to use technology is taking the majority of the reports. Private groups that are full of colorful and fun conversations are not considered correct for this type of furum are more popular. Where this may not work for you or others it does work for some groups, and most still do contribute here not just at the level we use to.
Todd
When you come from New Hampshire to fish send me a PM and I will HELP you find some salmon.

[fishy1]

todd will certainly put you on salmon. thats why this forum is great it has connected me with numerous fisherman for just about everywhere in 5 states and most have become freinds and we are in contact all the time, even guys that never fished with me here pm me from time to time for conditions and so on. although i havent ever fished with todd when we connected on the forum we found that we both new hot spots on lake champlain. come to find out todd when growing up lived not more than 5 miles across from me where i live. the only thing separating us was champlain itself and i lived in ny and todd vt. we used to fish im sure close to each other years ago when todd was fishing the bridge area where i liked to fish and until a few years ago thanks to the forum we never knew it. the lcu works in so many different ways and helps fisherman stay connected to this great sport.

[JDK]

I deleted a post I wrote last night and in retrospect feel I was wrong to do so. While it may not have been worded as clearly as I meant, I don't feel that I am disoriented, confused, dazed, out of my league, out of line, or anything else for that matter.

What I thought I wrote was "IF this section becomes nothing more than an advertisement for a lure, board, or electronic then what is the sense. What I know I clearly wrote was that time on the water trumps time behind the keyboard. For me personally, this site provides thought provoking insight into tackle and techniques from other areas of the county. It has reaffirmed that what I am doing is correct and provided some ideas of how to improve my skill level. The day we stop learning is the day we may want to stop fishing.

I have never seen Champlain and doubt that I will. Don't care if someone is catching fish out of Converse, Port Henry, or along Split Rock. Don't care if people are using cell phones, smoke signals, or whatever to communicate between friends. The truth of the matter is that Champlain is 2 months ahead of my fishing schedule, your bait situation is far different than the waters I fish, and you get a lot more pressure. Even with those difference, our techniques and tackle are very similar. That a person is asking about trolling fast at some point in the season is what we do at times. I don't know if it will work there but a tweaking of your commonly used method may put a few fish in the boat. That is EXACTLY what I thought this was about.

Since I found this site, I have been in awe of your fishery. I meant no disrespect to anyone from what I wrote last night or now.

[dickbaker]

JDK? Glad you could get back to LCU. Born in Maine but now on NH/VT border but still fishing for salmon and "togue".
Todd seems to have opened the gate so I think we should take advantage of his Champlain experience this season. I understand that he is one of the best!
Dick

[hard knox]

Relax people perhaps winter has gotten to all of us we should all be willing to share a few tips to help are fellow sportsmen after all the future of the outdoor sports is of benefit to all of us .Besides its not like were fishing for bluefin tuna that are worth big money! GOOD LUCK TO ALL

[tamiron]

If for some totally unimaginable reason, someone doesn’t know who I am, I am Jim Martino owner and designer of Tamron’s HONEYBEE lures. I view this forum as a way to vicariously enjoy the sport of fishing which due to health problems , I find it difficult to directly participate in.

Obviously, the sales of my HONEYBEEs are certainly affected by related chatter in various threads. Or as some put it, I have skin in the game. But that skin, profit, is hardly worth the effort, if it were not for sharing past experiences and knowledge that can help current and future anglers. It is definitely the highlight of each day for me, and I hope for others, to visit this forum to check out the current status of other people’s efforts

With that all being said, I would respectfully encourage those who feel that they get more out of a another format or site to use those facilities. To this forum, I would ask that you bring only constructive criticism that will help others. You can certainly disagree and that even may be more helpful in the long run. But please, keep the negativism off the site. I don’t think it is too much to ask, to look at a thread, and if it annoys you, go to the next thread, or post a better suggestion that may contradict what already is published.

I will continue to encourage people to share , other than location, for those that could use the help, and for those that received help from other forum members in the past.
One of the things that current forum members may not have seen or remembered, was that I spent a lot of time trying to get people to create their own personal library of successful lures from all manufacturers that were mentioned on this forum. That included many specialty patterns developed by forum members and their children. It’s a better place for all people when information is shared. Manufacturers know where to spend their dollars to come up with similar successful color patterns or even exact copies (most lure makers won’t do this, to retain competitive differences). Anglers will at least have an idea of some colors that appear to appeal more to fish than others.
In my early years of fishing, I spent a lot of time learning from some incredible anglers. The very first “bit of advice” was to not tell anyone anything about lures, location, colors, etc. etc. For a while that was fine and our little group was very successful. We didn’t fish for sport, but we did fish for table fare. Nothing was wasted. Catch and release must of been in a foreign language because it certainly wasn’t in ours. Great fight? Good conservation practices? Teaching young kids (other than your own)?

Then a funny thing happened. The rest of the world seemed to become interested in fishing. All of a sudden there was the in fisherman, far-reaching conservation efforts to stock more exotic predators, spend money on hatcheries, provide more and more resources for more and more anglers to enjoy. It became the new order. These things along with becoming a lure manufacture out of necessity and a financial unavailability to purchase new products, my world changed.... For the better! I realized at a much later point in life, the critical necessity for all these newfound assets to continue, the success population had to increase from a handful to a crowd. It was the only way that conservation efforts could be funded, the politicians would pay attention to our sport’s needs, to entrepreneurs to spend tremendous effort and some dollars to bring out better and better fishing equipment. That continues today. Without growth in numbers, and numbers who are successful, the funding will dry up, the profits will fail, the entrepreneurs will leave, the incredible fisheries we know today may disappear forever. If you doubt this paragraph, check with your conservation people. I know they will back me 100%. They cannot continue to exist or to do the excellent work they’re doing without more and more successful anglers.

Long-winded, too verbose, opinionated, passionate about our sport, and many other faults define who I am. My only request is to keep this forum as a sharing medium. If you prefer Facebook, or another forum, I respect your choice. Please respect mine