Caspian and Crystal report PB Rainbow

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

Caspian and Crystal report PB Rainbow

Post by keithm87 »

After spending most of last week trying to convince my friends that ontario was calling and failing to get any takers, I settled on a plan to prove to them that they were missing out. So we headed for the land of small lakers!
Saturday with a full boat that included my wife we hit caspian. After last years 22lb laker I had vowed to never fish it again, knowing that I had peaked there, but given my goal to prove that ontario would have been a better choice we launched. Immediately the launch showed me to be right as the crew waded knee deep in the 54 degree water to board the boat. We set a full range of gear and soon had our first bite, a bump and run. Then nothing for an hour. Finally we hooked a laker that came to the boat, a monster at 17 inches, it set the bar for the day, and 7 hours later and 10 fish in on our last fish we finally beat it with a 19 incher.

Success on day one, we decided to put around joes pond Sunday and drink, no fishing was accomplished but fun was had.

Monday with the plan to show my buddy that Long drives are better for big fish, we headed for crystal. Steve joined coming from St Albans. We arrived to winds blowing all of 15-20 from the south, and whitecaps. Small lake but still pretty choppy on the north end. We set gear and marked tons of fish with no takers on the first pass from north to south, then grabbed a small laker on a board turning back to the south. For the next 2 hours that was our only fish.

We kept at it fighting the wind and picking away at small lakers including my new Smallest laker ever at under 6 inches on a 4 inch moonshine lure.

At around 2:30 the sky started to darken and the wind cut off a bit, then it picked up like crazy and shifted directions to a west wind. As soon as this happened chaos ensued. We were working the road side of the lake when one of the boards went straight back. I jump up to grab the rod, and see a fish flying through the air on the 2 color lead. 1 jump, big rainbow, 2 jumps oh crap BIG rainbow! 3 jumps, then it digs down, we are in 75fow and it takes the board and goes deep. The planet board then starts to act like a crank bait digging down with the fish. I have Steve back the throttle off, a risky move with other gear out and going into the wind that’s cranking 20mph. But it’s enough to get some ground. We get the board to the boat and pop it off, then the fish switches tactics and charges the boat. I reel as fast as I can on the Penn 309 (not fast at 19inch retrieve) and the fish swims straight to us. It stays outside the other gear and reaches even with the boat still 25ft off the port side of the boat. Trying to swim past us I crank the reel as fast as possible trying to keep slack out and Steve gets the new net extended. He puts it out and the fish swims right into it.
After some excitement we got a weight and measured, we confirmed prior thought that it was a new PB for me. The slender fish was 26 inches and 5lb 7oz. After some consideration Steve decided to keep it for dinner.

All in all the weekend was a success. While we caught mainly dinky lakers the rainbow made up for it.
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Reelax
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Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: Caspian and Crystal report PB Rainbow

Post by Reelax »

Beautiful fish... you earned it with the chase... thanks for sharing Keith....
Matt B
Gecha (Gerry)
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Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
Species: whatever crazy enough to bite

Re: Caspian and Crystal report PB Rainbow

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Nice rainbow Keith. Beautiful colors on fish and filets. Thanks for sharing.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
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Crayfish
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Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:47 am
Species: All of them
Location: Jericho, Vermont

Re: Caspian and Crystal report PB Rainbow

Post by Crayfish »

Wow, Keith, I had no idea there were fish that big in Crystal! I haven't fished it for a few years, but it has been the land of small lakers (along with Caspian) and some decent smallies for us.

What a beauty .... Congrats!!
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