Lake Champlain United - Forums

Launched yesterday morning with Homewrecker and DA.... a great crew who knows Reelax as well as I do, although it has been a while since Dean has fished....

We launched with Fathead right behind us with Seabill riding shotgun. Long lines on otter boards and shallow water was the tgt again today.

Brown trout challenger and anything green in a yozuri was active for us today... the venerable blue berry pancake was active till it broke off on a pig who jumped right in front of Crazy Ivan at around noon...with only 24 in existence in the world I think my chances of getting a replacement are not good. but I’m getting ahead of myself...


We setup at 1st light south of Fathead, and started getting fish right off. 3 salmon on 1st pass and the size is bigger than last week....

After an hr is so we got word Crazy Ivan was coming out to play with Molly running the rods....

So the 3 boat fleet had a bang up time pulling silver after silver from the lake. Dave locked on to a nice fighter... turned out to be a 22” beaut that came digging down most of way....

Yea baby we’re into the fighters!!! Wasn’t long till Dean had a corker on..
Fought to boat only to make a run.... yeeeeehaaawww...

Got it back to boat and he dug deep, so we took boat to 24’ of water and ran a while trying to get him to budge, finally he he comes... nice little video of the netting... best fish of year so far with a 24” piggy... I’ll try to post the video later...

All this before they even let me touch a rod!!? Well damn... it’s my turn.. I proceeded to break off a salmon and then finally landed a respectable 20+” fish that put a smile on.... and worked off the weeks frustrations..... all good ... time to spark up the bbq...!

1st up was hot dogs and sausages on rolls, next was warmed up salt pretzels and mustard... amazing how good the pretzels were on the cold lake....

After the mid day break we started to find fish in different spots as the sun spread them out a little.... what a great time with the other boats out and the calm waters stained green in places and brown in others from in Flo.... 8-

I’ll be fishing multiplied times per week as the weather permits and it’s looks like Florida is canceled, so some hardcore fishing will begin March 23... time to enjoy the SALMON bite.

Later in day we cooked up some Italian sausages, green peppers and onions and served them up on rolls with mustard... this extended our trip beyond 2pm with full bellies.

Not the hint of a lake trout today, they are not in this area mixed in, which is a pleasant side product... all in all the fish were MUCH bigger today with mutiple 22” fish landed and a pig for Dean to bring to MOMMA.

Thanks DA and Dean for a great day on the pond.. the stories and laughs will last till the next trip.... Monday?

Fish on!!!

awsome time thanks for the pics matt. your not coming to florida now

Awesome report and pic.

Great report! Beautiful fish!

Here is the last couple minutes of Deans tussle with a chunky salmon.

https://youtu.be/_xB3THKOj9k

Nice video of Dean fighting that hog.
Congrats Dean.
Always an adventure to read your post Matt.

Can I ask what kind of rods you guys are using really like them

fishy1 wrote:awsome time thanks for the pics matt. your not coming to florida now

Just let me know when you get back Matt... they are in your target zone and there’s is nothing I’d like to do more than to see you, hit a few secret spots from the water instead of the shore....

ATLSALMON wrote:Can I ask what kind of rods you guys are using really like them

I think Matt uses the Tica rods like Crazy Ivan and myself they are awesome year round . Fiberglass they don’t break in cold weather graphite rods do. They are meant for Kokanee salmon real light action 4-10 pound test but we run 12 pound or I do for main line . Never had a problem with them love them!!

Nice report Matt. Glad to see you guys out there .

FATHEAD wrote:

ATLSALMON wrote:Can I ask what kind of rods you guys are using really like them

I think Matt uses the Tica rods like Crazy Ivan and myself they are awesome year round . Fiberglass they don’t break in cold weather graphite rods do. They are meant for Kokanee salmon real light action 4-10 pound test but we run 12 pound or I do for main line . Never had a problem with them love them!!

Yessir best salmon rods on the lake!!! Almost indestructible... the blue ones with the graphite handle have 14 islets in a 8’6” rod you can load from grip to tip... love em.... and they will land a 13lb laker if required unlike the heartland kokanies...


Thanks to Fathead and CI showing me em... at around $80 they are some of the best value out there....


Fish on!

Wow Matt what a day with Dean and Dave. You guys really dialed them in!!
Sometimes being on Champlain will beat time in FL.

Michael

Thanks Matt and crew for sharing !!! WOW !! Great to see the salmon are there and growing.
As our governments shut down our borders for non-essential travel (like fishing), will continue to enjoy reports like yours, via this site.

Great report Matt! I'm getting my little diesel heater set up this week in the boat, and my immunocompromised self will be hitting the lake solo whenever I can starting next week. Great to see some nice fish in your boat.