VTFWD Fishing Reports

[vtfishbio]

Hey Everyone:

You may or not not have seen the "Vermont Fishing Report" blog I wrote last year from April through October, as part of my job as a Fisheries Biologist with VT Fish & Wildlife.

It’s a bi-weekly statewide report on fishing conditions. What's biting, what to target and how, what baits/lures are working, and where. The reports are intended to serve as motivation to get people excited about fishing and get outside and participate, as well as provide information to someone who's new to fishing (or ice fishing) might need to get out, try it, and be successful.

Just wanted to let you know that I've started them up again for the winter, and the first one was posted last Friday. You can see them here:

https://vtfishandwildlife.com/vt-fishing-reports

Once on that page, you can also sign up with an email to get the emailed to you directly in the future.

If you'd like to contribute to the weekly winter ice fishing reports, or the open water ones when I start those up again in the spring, please respond to me in the comments, or DM me with your email address, and I'll add you to my contributor list. You don't have to send something in weekly. Just whenever you think you have something useful. Check out last year's reports to see how I tend to write things up. What I'm looking for are up-to-date tips on ice conditions, snow conditions, and active bites would be appreciated. And, don’t forget PHOTOS! Grip ‘n Grin shots are fine, but lets get creative too once in a while. Sunrises and sunsets over the ice, gear, cookouts, snowmen, show folks how much fun it is!

I've always thought that active and avid anglers have a personal responsibility to be mentors in every way possible. We need to take it upon ourselves to introduce new people to the sport, and give them the knowledge and tools they need to have fun and become lifelong anglers themselves. These reports are part of that.


Feel free to forward this request to others you know are avid ice anglers.

Thanks.

Shawn Good

[Reelax]

Shawn, what do you think of the one eyed laker???

[riverrunner]

Great reports Shawn!

[vtfishbio]

Shawn, what do you think of the one eyed laker???

Not sure I've seen that. Can you send a photo?

[fishy1]

hoping to still include my shore fishing reports dont look like ill be gettting on ice after this storm

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks Shawn for your report. It would be nice if you could periodically share your findings on this forum.

[Reelax]

Shawn, what do you think of the one eyed laker???

Not sure I've seen that. Can you send a photo?

Its in the fishing report sent Tuesday...

https://www.lakechamplainunited.com/for ... =4&t=27028

many pics, and I have many more....

[vtfishbio]

Very interesting pictures of the one-eyed lake trout! Fish can certainly take their licks and keep on ticking. In this case, I'd guess that lake trout had a damaged eye at a young age/small size. Lots of things can cause this. I've seen eyes pop from mis-handling in the boat, a hook in the eye, a predator attack, and even our electrofishing can do something like that if the settings are out of whack. Being that it's healed over completely like it wasn't even there almost, it probably happened when it was young and as the fish grew, the skin covered up the eye socket. A damaged eye in a larger older fish would probably stay visible. I've caught a ton of fish in surveys (everything from bass, walleye, panfish to pike) with one milky white eye indicating it's blind in that eye. I've never seen one healed over like your lake trout. As you pointed out, it never seems to stop them from feeding effectively and growing. Thanks for pointing me towards this post!