12/23 Fairlee Lake

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keithm87
Posts: 641
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 5:28 pm
Species: Trout and Salmon
Location: Central VT

12/23 Fairlee Lake

Post by keithm87 »

With the warm and rain finding safe ice was a challenge, but after some perseverance Saturday I found a safe lake for Sunday. My buddy Sam and I headed to fairlee in hopes of getting on some perch and smelt.

I had never fished it, and sam had never fished it through ice. We were on 6 inches of clear black ice. We set to ups with medium shiners 1-2ft off bottom from a point out into 35fow. Most shallowest was about 8ft.

Fairlee is known for having some nice browns and bass, but being out of season we were set up for perch. But that didn’t stop the browns. I had only ever caught 1 brown through ice, and 2 browns in Vermont ever.

Before we finished setting our tip ups we had a flag on one of the shallow tip ups. I got to it and it was taking line, set the hook and knew immediately it wasn’t a perch. Got it to the hole and it was a 20 inch brown. A quick picture and it was on its way.

Soon after another flag, and we got our first perch of the day. Then another flag on the same hole as the first, and again not a perch, another 20 inch brown, pic and on its way.

At this point we knew it was going to be a good day. We finished setting gear and got some more perch, and finally got the jig rods in the water. The jig bit was slow, but we picked away at them, and flags kept us busy.

The highlight of the day was around 2:30 pm when Sam’s jawjacker went off, drag started to go and it was apparent again NOT A PERCH! After what felt like 10 minutes of playing it, we finally saw the fish at the hole, and it was the biggest fish of the day. On the ice it was a 22 inch brown pushing just about 5lb.

In all we landed 20 keeper perch for sams freezer, and caught 7 browns, 4 over 20 inches, and one small bass.
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Gecha (Gerry)
Posts: 4447
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
Species: whatever crazy enough to bite

Re: 12/23 Fairlee Lake

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Nice browns Keith.... Congrats.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
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Sawyer
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Location: woodstock, VT

Re: 12/23 Fairlee Lake

Post by Sawyer »

Nice pics and good browns. Thanks
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Reelax
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Posts: 5730
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:27 pm
Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: 12/23 Fairlee Lake

Post by Reelax »

Bam... Colored browns on glass ice... Love the report! Nice showing guys...
Matt B
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fishy1
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Re: 12/23 Fairlee Lake

Post by fishy1 »

awsome browns my favorites to catch. any size to the perch?
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