Headed back up to Champlain yesterday with friends George and Steve. We launched at Westport hoping the water would be deeper at the launch than converse has been. Come to find out it was worse! Almost got stuck leaving the ramp and coming back to it. After that excitement we headed south to barbers and set for salmon. Could not find temp. Water was mixed bad. Surface temp was 64 and there was no break all the way down to 90. Marking no fish or bait we decided to pick up and head north. Stopped at basin harbor, dropped the probe, still no temp or fish. Ran to Thompson’s point and set up again. Found temp down 80ft. Trolled all the way to sloop and only had one release. Small laker. Picked up again thinking the north wind could have blown bait and fish into whalons. Set up and headed north. Marking few fish and still dealing with weird water. Decided to set up for lakers after talking to a local charter boat near by. He was kind enough to tell us what was working and what line to be on. Within minutes we were hooking up on lakers. After landing a few we moved north again and found more lakers sitting on bottom. I had landed a few fish (rare for me usually I’m driving) and asked George if he wanted a turn fishing. We swapped places and I was back in the captains chair. Not 5 minutes later a rod fires and George is up. He reels down and the fish didn’t even move. Just big head shakes. After a good fight and a netting debacle with the fish trying to pass the boat we landed him. A beautiful 13 pound laker. Around 3:30 we heard the thunder boom over Burlington so we picked up and made the run back to west port with the perfect score of 16 for 16! That doesn’t happen often! All in all a good day even though we struggled to find fish. Always fun to get out on a weekday!
We landed fish on anything BIG and green off the bottom.
Good luck out there team ReelInvestment will be back soon!
-Tom
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Nice report reelinvestment! We were up yesterday and I too can a test to the mixed water. We searched hard to find anything below 60 degrees. That and the fleas were just terrible, 3ft long globs making it a long day of cleaning lines! We did pick away at fish and had a dandy come to the boat around 11. This fish was caught at 55ft and was at the surface rocketing out of the water in seconds! We don't have a good scale on the boat, just an old rust spring scale and it read 7+lbs, personal best for me and 3 generations on the boat to remember it! Good luck on your next trip up
Matt
Great reports.... Seems we are into August fishing conditions already.... love the family pic with the pig silver Matt...Those boys smiles tell the whole story!!!
It is scary to think we were catching salmon at 25 feet 2 weeks ago and have to go to 60 to find em now.... I need some 14lb balls....
Fleas were bad down south and bad on the VT side. Sticking to our 30 pound line, for some reason the NY side had way less fleas. Great salmon! Congrats on a personal best, keep after them.
