Skunked again!!!

[plumberdan]

Launched out of valcour last friday with a friend. High hopes and expectations for this year has been catastrophique. Ive been out out on the main lake 5-6 times catching only 4 lake trout. Anyways headed out on the lake around 6 and headed out on the east side of valcour island in 90-120 fow seeing quite nothing exept the occasional little bait ball with practically no fish to be found. After an hour or two decided to cross the lake to fish the ferries on the vermont side. I always catch fish there!!!! Yet this time nada Continued fishing towards providence and stave charting nothing and more nothing. Into 4 feet waves and quite strong winds i started feeling sea sick. What????? I never get sea sick!!!! Simply a crappy day. Nothing went well and no bite what so ever. Im thinking maybe i should fish shelburne or around juniper but its quite a ways for me. But heck ot should be worth it cause i keep hearing about guys who get 20-30 fish in a single day. Man, any ideas anyone? I ran everything i had, riggers, lead, slide divers, spoons,stickbaits of every color????????

[keithm87]

Not sure what ur after but salmon have been hard to come by. Lakers however have been plentiful.
I was out yesterday and today north of juniper and landed 21 fish yesterday in 7.5 hrs, and 15 today in 6hrs losing another 8 or so due to waves and having my wife on the boat who had never reeled in fish trolling.
I have been running a 00 silver dodger like the ones at Walmart, with a single clown with green Mylar wing spin n glo in whatever the big size that fish USA sells. The other go to is the chartreuse and black dot speedy shiner. They have caught 60% of my fish this year. 10 ft behind ball with 24 inch between dodger and spin n glo, 5 small pink beads ahead of it, with a 1/0 super needle owner treble. I haven't really ventured away from the shelburne area yet, but my setup for every trip has been the spin n glo down 65, other rigger at 49 (thermocline right now) and slide divers 50 lead with 90-110 line out on the ultimate dive kit.
I have been crossing the outer edge of the shoal off the top of shelburne hitting the horseshoe and then running the drop off. That worked for a few weeks, but the fish are getting smaller, so I moved to juniper north in the area that is 70-80 and have hammered that area and been steadily getting fish.
I think if you can find places with similar structure to what has been producing you will get on them. 70ft shoals/tables that drop to 120-150 seem to be the ticket. Find little spots that bump from the flat of the table up a foot or 2 and hit them with the ball.

These are my maps from the last few trips:

[plumberdan]

Thanks Keith that is very very generous and kind of you to help me out. You know what, next time im out i'll hit juniper and shelburne bay. Ive fished lake champlain for a few years now and its by far my worst year yet. Things get only get better from now on.(they cant get worst hahah). See you out on the lake and thankx again.

[Sawyer]

When i lived in Alaska i had boxes of Spin-n-Glo But I left them there never thinking i would use them here. So you don't use any thing but a Dodger and a short leader and the spin-n-glo?
I would think a laker would rase havoc on them. Do they?

[keithm87]

Never had a problem with them destroying the lures. We lost 2 to broken lines, and had the third (which is my last in this color) pop up on the surface after another broken line and we circled the boat around to get it. None have been damaged though. I have been running 20lb flouro to the dodger from my main line about 2 ft so I can still run a cheater (havent been most oof time as they get in way) and then the dodger, and a 30 inch leader of the same 20lb through 4-5 little beads to the spin n glo and a 1/0 hook, as i catch fish i check the line when it is nicked I cut the nicks and retie the hook. Generally change the whole leader back to 30 inches once i am under 16-18 inches as I find that I get fewer releases if the leader gets too short. I had bought a few hammer head cowbells and had bought about 20 different color spin n glos after reading on LOU about them. the Spin n glos came in before the cowbells, and I had read that they worked with dodgers as well, so I rigged one up just happened to be the clown with green wings, and in 5 minutes it landed a fish, havent even tried the other colors or the cowbells yet. this is the one i have been using in 1 3/8 or maybe its 1 1/4 (not sure which I bought but doubt a 1/4 makes a difference.

[fishy1]

awsome of you helping out a forum member. i like your details to.

[keithm87]

Plumber dan I wouldnt spend much time in the bay at all. they were in for a short time, but never really stuck around. if you go there head straight out of the bay and keep going past the 3 red buoys when u get to the 3rd take a left and set up running up the ridge there that comes up to like 65-70ft and across the horseshoe. there is a little bump on the west side of that little horse shoe that comes up about 3ft above the surrounding area at the point, there are always fish on that spot this spring/summer. may not eat, but they are there and you will see them on the sonar. The bait was in really heavy a few weeks ago and has moved, but the fish seem to be hunkered down and I think that the bait is likely out in the deeper water off the edges. I honestly think that if you look at navionics and find similar structure the results will be the same. I would imagine the horseshoe south of 4 brothers where it drops would be a good spot, just south of valcour has some similar structure as well. With the thermocline set in, things could start to change as most of what I have caught has been down 65-70 and the thermo is set around 50 right now. If it gets deeper so will the lakers and the hunt will be on again.

[keithm87]

awsome of you helping out a forum member. i like your details to.

Prior to may of last year I had never caught a fish trolling this forum is literally the ONLY reason I catch any fish. I spent an entire summer getting skunked every trip, before posting and listening to the feedback. I am extremely grateful for the fact that everyone on here was so helpful when I was having trouble. The dock chatter is also a great thing in the cold water community. I am not worried that someone will go catch all the fish, and the broad lake is big enough to handle a few boats, and if we can get a fleet of fishing boats, it may keep the ****ing sail boats and pleasure yachters away lol.

[Sawyer]

Thanks Keith i will try the Spin N Glo some time soon. I like you have got so much info from the forum.
You have very informative post.
Thanks Don & Traci

[hard knox]

I dont think its the area you are fishing as i have fished out of peru all season and have landed hundreds of lakers in that area that being said only a few big salmon and rainbows ,browns . All fish have been on spoons its a mater of finding the depth that feeding fish are at then work that depth near deep water drop offs the fish up on the structure will feed and the ones out in the really deep water will just drive you crazy .You also need to adjust all day for the weather conditions and fish mode so try color , speed ,set back ,depth ,spoon size ,action .When all else fails catch a ride with someone to help speed up learning curve . And some days they just dont want to play.GOOD LUCK

[C-Hawk]

Keith, it's great to see you pass on your new info, as I said in a post a few months ago , it should be up to the new guys to learn, become expert, and keep the tradition of this forum alive.Otherwise things could get stale. But that being said, it is still great to hear from some of the origanals that don't post as much as they used to.

[digitroll (ron)]

We could be a week or two away from a solid summer thermocline setting up. I think part of the issue is there is too much cold water above the break to the surface to locate the salmon. With the lake going up a foot and all the rain it's prolonged this transition to the summer time thermocline. We need more lakers and salmon to be forced by warmer water down to there preferred temps. This hasn't occurred yet. One poster caught a nice salmon on 4 colors last weekend down south. Amazing 20 feet down for this time of year.

[fishy1]

We could be a week or two away from a solid summer thermocline setting up. I think part of the issue is there is too much cold water above the break to the surface to locate the salmon. With the lake going up a foot and all the rain it's prolonged this transition to the summer time thermocline. We need more lakers and salmon to be forced by warmer water down to there preferred temps. This hasn't occurred yet. One poster caught a nice salmon on 4 colors last weekend down south. Amazing 20 feet down for this time of year.

x2

[keithm87]

the thermocline is set in pretty good in the area I have been fishing. It looks like down by diamond where NWS probe is surface has been about 5 degrees lower than the gauges in burlington and colchester. I was finding 66 degrees at surface outside shelburne, and it was 63 all the way to 45-47 ft where the break started and it went to 52 pretty quick. That said sunday morning (like 830 am) we saw 2 fish fly out of the water which I assume were salmon surface feeding.

[Hairbone]

Great post keith! Pays to study and learm from other forums. This rig is great when you have to pound bottom to get them to bite.