Well, I guess it's time to dig up this thread again
4/15/18
There's not a lot of weather that will keep me from fishing, but the ice covering everything and still falling from the sky almost did the trick yesterday. Luckily, I came to my senses mid-morning. I started on the NY side fishing for salmon. Water temp near shore was down a couple degrees since my last trip. The water out in the bay was warmer than the shallows. It was pretty murky and choppy, and I quit after a couple hours.
I headed back to VT to scout for open water, hoping for trout and maybe even crappies.
The first spot I checked, one of my favorites for rainbows and big crappies both, had about 125' of open water along the north shore. It was sheltered from the wind, the water surface was glassy, and the water clarity was crystal. Right away, I saw some kind of animal on the surface. As I got closer I saw it was a big fish with its back out of the water! It swam off, but when it came back I saw it was a big rainbow. I cast to it a bunch but it wasn't interested in a spoon. In a rush, I took the spoon off my preferred casting rod and tied on a hook with a worm. He didn't want that, either. At some point there was commotion right by the shoreline and another big fish (could have been the same one) swam directly away from the shore, trailing milt. After a while, I started to realize that the big fish was struggling, and probably dying. At one point it was on its side on the bottom.
I moved on down the shore. Leaving the worm on my main rod, I tied the smallest size rainbow Kroc onto my crappie rod that had 6lb test, and cast from a few other spots on shore. That did the trick-- BIG fish on! Too big, it turned out, as I couldn't bring him in with the light tackle. By this point I knew that they were big spawning rainbows, though I suppose it could have been a laker. I wish I could have gotten it in closer to where I could have seen it better, but it's ok that it got off as I would have released it.
Then I cast my worm out, under a bobber, set down the rod, and reached for my spoon rod. Couldn't see the bobber-- fish on! I landed this one, a 20" male, all colored up. I feel remorseful for this: he really swallowed the hook. I don't want to keep spawning trout, but I'm not gonna waste a gut-hooked fish either. It was actually a really ugly trout, probably fresh from the hatchery truck, with a bulbous head and weird deformed fins and tail. The fillets are pale. Hopefully it tastes ok after it goes in the smoker. I looked at the state stocking schedule, and they'd already stocked the lake this year, but it said they'd stocked only small ones. Who knows, maybe they put in some big ones too without reporting it.
So after that I decided I don't want to target spawning rainbows anymore, and I leave that lake to scout for brown trout waters. No luck with that quest, so I return to the first lake and put my canoe in, for the last couple hours of daylight. I know of an impressive pile of brush in this lake, right on a dropoff. I don't usually expect to find crappies on brush this time of year, but I thought it was such a good dropoff that maybe I'd find them. On the way to the brushpile, a fish busted water, and I cast to it. Fish on! Another big rainbow! This one was beautiful, with all it's fins healthy and perfect. Nice kype, too. I got my thumb in its mouth and was able to release it without taking it out of the water.
Then I cast a jig at the brushpile and counted it down 1 missisippi, 2missisippi..... 12... thump! Pulled in a big ol crappie but it flopped off the hook as I pulled it out of the water. Don't worry, there were more. I managed two around 12", and two around 10".