Mother Nature Interferes

[DreamWeaver]

After not making a trip out on Lake Champlain in sometime, my better half and I decided to fish for the whole day and the question we wrestled with was, do you travel by water our trailer the boat most of the way down. Our target destination the 4 brother islands. After reading the forecast on "WFO BTV Lake Champlain Forecasts" they predicted light winds out of the south with wave less than a 1 foot, so we headed for West Swanton to make our launch. As we reached the lakeshore road we realized the winds were not as predicted. We launched regardless around 08:00 and started heading south on the IS, the waves and chop, were making us rethink our final destination. So as mother nature had now interfered with our plans, we set up the lines north of Butler Island.

We fished the deep channel of water at depths of 35 to 75 feet over 100 to 140 FOW. With the headwind and the waves we trolled with the big motor and managed 2.4 to 3.1 MPH. We marked fish between 15 -105 feet deep. Interesting enough we noticed fish would come up to the balls, but not strike. (Note, I use an attracter system on my downrigger balls sometimes). We trolled until 14:30 and then got the warning of squalls and decided to pull up the lines and head north.

We did a little pan fish fishing in the West Swanton area, my wife hooked into something big, ran with her line and it bit through fluorocarbon leader. Figure a big pike. After that we packed it in and went back to the launch, as 2 more storm systems were looming. Mother nature has not made it easy this year.

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks for your post. Too bad you did not get any hits while trolling.
You are correct about Mother nature. We cannot control, just need to adjust.

[mudchuck]

Indeed Saturday afternoon was not the greatest for me either.
Launched at Van Everest to avoid the Dockside Derby crowds at the usual launches - as well as the weekend traffic (Mallett's was a zoo as usual).
Right off the bat I regretted launching there with no dock in place, water very low and had to get way out in order to get the boat to come off the trailer.
Trolled for smallies a little while, marked a lot of them, had (1) 12" perch hit, (1) 16" smallie & (1) 8" bluegill all hit a walleye fry lipbait running 18' down in 24FOW and then the squalls moved in with the wind and suddenly 3' chop in less than 5 minutes!
Back to the launch and getting boat back on the trailer was a big time headache.
Glad my trailer has a tilt feature, otherwise I'd have not gotten it back on.
Fished solo, so this was not a great time.
Wind and waves were slamming the boat up on the rocks, and with nowhere to tie off, I dropped anchor and wedged it in some rocks to keep from having boat drift off just long enough to get the trailer down the ramp into the water.
REALLY WOULD BE NICE FOR THE STATE TO PUT IN A PROPER BOAT RAMP & DOCK AT THIS SITE (VANTINES TOO)!!!
To the dude that was in the little I/O cruiser behind me while I'm waist deep struggling to get my little tinny on the trailer, thanks for nothing to you and your girl for not even offering to hold my boat line while I got the trailer in the water...you were already in the water about to do the same thing I was doing, and your girl just sat there. The both of you watched me struggle for 4 attempts and almost 15 minutes, yet I persisted, adapted and overcame with no help.
Will not launch again at VE anytime soon...

[Sheepdog]

Mudchuck,
Sorry to hear of your experience at the ramp on Saturday. Hopefully those two behind you experienced some difficulty as well, so a lesson may have been learned? I think that most people (myself included) would've been quick to offer you a hand, especially at that access area!

[Crayfish]

Sounds like the last time Perchbait and I launched at Van Everest. Haven't been back.

Dreamweaver ... sorry about the hand Mother Nature dealt you. Wish you'd had better luck fishing. I've tried salmon fishing south of Butler's before with no hits. I'm sure they are there, though.

We launched at Shelburne Bay and had to pick up and run around small rain storms a couple of times. Luckily a giant storm stayed south of us.

[DreamWeaver]

Mudchuck, the inherit sense of courtesy and kindness does not reside in all.

Crayfish, as for Mother Nature, better to be safe than sorry.

[Reelax]

Fun reads guys... sorry to hear of your launch difficulties... some help would have made it much better.. hope they learned a lesson and felt bad afterwards...

[mudchuck]

Update on my launch situation, my motor must've banged on a rock because now I have a small oil leak on the lower that I need to fix.
Bummer...

[Bearcat]

If it's a small crack, drain the oil, grind it out a bit, clean it well and smear some of that 3M 5200 sealant on it - if the surface is clean it will outlast the lower unit. It's more sticky than jb weld and I've seen it hold a 9 ton lead keel on a big racing sailboat after we unbolted it, had to use sawzalls to get it to drop and what a chore it was. Hopefully the jerk who watched you struggle hit the same rock and harder.