Fishing 9/20 and 9/21

[meangreen1]

Had a fun night of cat fishing on Otter Creek with my folks Friday night. No monsters but my parents landed a couple along with some bullpout. Headed out Saturday morning looking for some salmon... started out by Split Rock making my way across to Thompson’s point and then up to Converse. Nothing but a small laker and perch. No major bait clouds just scattered bait. It was early and I was not feeling to patient so I messaged my friend Toby for some local intel since I had not fished down there in a couple weeks He let me know where he had been doing some Lakers with a bonus sheepshead the previous week so we changed things up and headed out to try for some lakers and maybe a big old sheepshead. We found clouds of bait but most of the Lakers were stacked on the bottom. Wound up with only a couple tiny lakers, some fat perch and my girlfriend managed to land a whopper of a sheepshead... put up one hell of a fight! Those things are a tank to reel in!! The weather was perfect to be on the water Saturday. Not many more days like that left this year. Will have to switch my lines over now that the fleas are gone and head back for some prospecting to get back on the salmon bite! Been spoiled this year as it has been a Fantastic year of salmon fishing on Lake Champlain. Lots of fat healthy fish. Also nice seeing more smelt in their bellies than in the previous few years... but we should have a Fantastic fall salmon season this year... Will make it hard to decide if I want to fish or hunt lol.

[fishy1]

great report and looks like you had fun. i havent been over but should be soon. did you fish the cats your usual spot?

[meangreen1]

Yes we fished the same spot as usual. Going to try trolling them in a few weeks. Getting my Channel cat trolling rigs set up and ready.

[Reelax]

Great report and pictures. Love the smiles and the big sheepshead... sounds like we have a new trolling target on the lake. They are actively taking spoons suspended, that is the 5th one I have seen caught in the last 2 weeks... anyone top 32” yet???

I’m headed out to target them in a few min... will see if it continues...

Did yours come on a rigger line?

[digitroll (ron)]

I landed my first ever Sheepie trolling last week on a cheater at 40 feet about 8 lbs on the scales and released it. There must be a lot of them in the lake. We use to catch Cisco this time of year. I see Sure Strike charters has caught many in the past 3 weeks on Facebook. I did a little research on the Master Angler website for 2019 entries and found these two specimens high 19 lbs and a little over 20 lbs with both measuring at 32". Another one was 28" weighing 12 lbs. Looks like they are caught jigging. I checked the LCI Basin standings and they show the top 8 fish from 18-22 lbs and 31-34". Some big ones!

[fishy1]

they get big and are fun to catch. catch them on bottom all the time with crawlers.

[meangreen1]

Ours came 35’ down on the rigger on a rainbow honeybee. It was just under 28”. Saw some big marks suspended around a few bait balls and wondering if they are just big old sheepshead? I am surprised to as only a few years ago I used to catch many Cisco’s down there and last year and this year I have yet to catch one? I am hoping to get back down soon again to try for a few more.

[digitroll (ron)]

I marked several big marks just before the rod went off. Possibly big Sheep schools we went thru. I never measured the fish. Probably 26". Not interested in targeting them but it was fun until I realized it was a Sheepie.