Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Check and share here for the latest fishing reports.
Post Reply
User avatar
Detritus
Posts: 538
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm
Species: Anything we can catch
Location: Vergennes

Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Detritus »

It's been a very busy fall for this little (ha), Vergennes family, with athletics, the high school play, and myself starting the new Bass Fishing Team for Vergennes. Which by the way, was a ton of fun, and we learned a lot. Dilly Worm, and Wabbler from here were both coaches on the team, along with a couple of other friends of mine. Great time getting all of those kids out on the water.

But, what has fallen by the wayside, is one of our favorite fall, winter, and spring activites, cold water trolling. I did manage to get out there last weekend with Dilly, and saw a whole bunch of you guys out there at the barbecue after the shootout, and that was great. Fishing was pretty slow though for us, as was the time or two that we were able to sneak out with just Liam and I. Skunked for one of those trips I think, very warm water temperatures.

Today however, after letting our stage crew member Liam sleep in as per his request after last night's final performance of the play, we got the band back together. Brody, Liam, and I all set out to see who was biting out on the big lake. Launched out of our favorite launch again, Redgate. Quite a stiff current this morning, after all of our recent rain. After watching the boat for a minute as the boys backed it off and headed out to hold in the middle while I parked the truck, it did cross my mind that the retrieval may be a bit of a trick at the end of the trip. But, who cares right now, we were goin fishin'.


KIMG0022.JPG
KIMG0022.JPG (131.61 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


Quite a bit of sediment in the water here as you can see, and the surface temperature? 45F. Some chilly stuff. Funny how on the other side of winter, the conditions are flipped. Warm river running into a cold lake, as opposed to now, cold river running into a warmer lake. Check out the difference in water color.


KIMG0024.JPG
KIMG0024.JPG (134.98 KiB) Viewed 1187 times
KIMG0036.JPG
KIMG0036.JPG (75.42 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


After the struggle to find fish last weekend, today we decided to run around a little bit and look on the sonar, before we set any lines. First few spots looked awful empty. No bait, no predators, no nothing. But spot number 3, we saw a little of both. Since we didn't have a lot of time today, we had agreed to set lines on the first fish we found on the graph.


KIMG0031.JPG
KIMG0031.JPG (116.93 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


Not a great looking screen but, better than the polar bear in a snowstorm that we saw everywhere else. Funny after all of this time on this boat with this gear, and I mean hundreds of hours, we're still in the learning stages. I suppose you could argue every fisherman spends their whole life in the learning stage and that's part of the fun. Beautiful Day out though.


KIMG0028.JPG
KIMG0028.JPG (121.17 KiB) Viewed 1187 times
KIMG0026.JPG
KIMG0026.JPG (144.07 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


We set 2 lines out with 5 colors of lead on planer boards, 2 lines with 50' out, a 5oz snap weight, 50 more feet out, then sideways also on the planer boards. Those guys were all running about 30-35 feet down we were guessing. Second time ever using our new planer board reels and pulleys mounted off of my Craigslist fishing arch I spent a bunch of time modifying this fall. That stuff all works really well. Then, we set two riggers, 60 feet of cable out, running wingers, fish hawk probe, chamberlain releases, 2.6 neighborhood gps speed, to give us a little less than that at the probe. All of that junk as well as flea line put our probe at about 45 feet actual depth. Lures we were using was a variety of Honeybees, Crazy Ivans, Swimbaits, and some Youzuri pin minnows.

Once the spread was set up for the fish, it was time to set up the spread for us. After all, it had already been over an hour since the boys last ate. This one here is already over 6 feet tall in the 9th grade. When did that happen?



KIMG0030.JPG
KIMG0030.JPG (145.66 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


Just a light snack this morning, apples, hash browns, sausages, and some veggie buffalo nuggets for Brody.

Our first spot didn't produce any fish, so we ended up trolling straight across the deepest part of the lake over to the New York side. I had mentioned above that we were still learning how to use all of our gear, and always trying new things. Recently we started running Active Captain on a tablet for our charts, and synching with our plotter for waypoints and stuff. That frees up the left half of our Garmin 93SV to run sidescan sonar. I've always kind of thought it was just for looking at the bottom for structure that might hold fish, but, had heard that lots of guys use it for looking for actual fish out the sides while striper fishing in a deeper saltwater environment. The last couple times out, we have found that to work for our local freshwater fish as well. Check out this screen.


KIMG0034t.JPG
KIMG0034t.JPG (50.95 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


I set the range on the sidescan to look out to the sides a maximum of 330 feet, making our screen cover about a 660 ft wide swath of the lake. All of those white clouds you see are fish! we had found a good spot. Our rods started to agree with us.


KIMG0032.JPG
KIMG0032.JPG (172.61 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


Little salmon for Liam to start it off. Then a nice little laker for Brody.


KIMG0033.JPG
KIMG0033.JPG (138.54 KiB) Viewed 1187 times


Liam lost a much bigger Laker right at the boat, probably 8 lbs or so, and landed another about 4.5 lbs, but was bleeding, so no picture, just right back in the water. All fish were released with lots of energy, and kicked right down, probably due to the surface temperatures of 50F, and only coming from a maximum depth of about 40'. The only fish of the day off of a rigger was that little salmon. So definitely run some planer boards deep like this if you go out.

One cool thing about that sidescan, is it tells you which way to change your track for the next pass, closer, or farther from shore. If you see a great mark way off to the side too, you touch the screen, pause it, touch your mark, and you can drop a waypoint way off to the side where that fish or bait is. As long as your Active Captiain tablet is logged into the Garmin WiFi, the waypoint will pop up on that screen. Pretty cool stuff.

So, todays best lures were a Copper Speedy shiner, a small white, chartreuse, orange dotted skinnyish spoon, and a long skinny purple and silver DB Smelt, and a Blue, pink, and Silver hammered Stinger. 3 for 7 today in about 3 hours of fishing. Not non stop action by any means, but, when we did finally find the fish, it turned into about a fish or more per pass. We did at one point only have 3 lines in the water, since the fish kept hitting them before we could get all 6 back into the water.

All said and done, we only went 3 for 7, but, they all came in the last hour and a half of fishing. Glad to see the bite picking up out there some.

It's been a while since we did a report like this off of the Country Angler, and I'm glad that we had something to report. Believe it or not, my grandparents Jack (whom I'm named after) and Lenora like to read these, so, say hi to them if you want. Both of them will be in the 90+ club in a couple months.

Oh, and remember that wicked current I was wondering about when we launched? No problem for Brody. That kid gets to be a better pilot every time out.
"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
Gecha (Gerry)
Posts: 4448
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
Species: whatever crazy enough to bite

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Great report Jack, and very entertaining.
Glad the bite picked up.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
User avatar
Dilly Worm
Posts: 276
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:22 pm
Species: target salmon & catch togue

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Dilly Worm »

good to see you guys got back into the fish ! thanks for a good read.
I do not exaggerate when I talk about fishing - I underestimate, like I say "just one more cast honey, then I'll come home" !
Keep Calm and... Fish On !
Image
User avatar
Reelax
Site Admin
Posts: 5730
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:27 pm
Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Reelax »

Great detail Jack. Felt like I was aboard the country angler as part of the crew… did you fish the mudline at all???
Matt B
User avatar
Detritus
Posts: 538
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm
Species: Anything we can catch
Location: Vergennes

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Detritus »

Thanks guys.

We didn't fish the mudline. We didn't see anything on the sonar at all in the river, or as we exited, or crossed in and out of the mudline in the small area that we did. We did not drive out along its border out into the lake.

But I will say the fish are moving around some, because both of the major places Dilly and I found fish on the graph a week ago were empty this week.
"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
TruViking
Posts: 308
Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:25 pm
Species: Those who thrive in Cold H20
Location: Burlington, Vt

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by TruViking »

Always Dig your posts! Reelax said it perfect. :D
It's as if we are along for the ride.

Best,
Ej (TruViking) :geek:
troutcrazy
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Dec 28, 2015 5:21 pm
Species: crappie, trout, salmon, perch

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by troutcrazy »

Awesome post.
When I ran into you landing the fishing team and we chatted, I wasn't 100% sure it was you partly because it was a different boat, and partly because I'm awkward and forgetful.
I'm the kayak guy.
Hope to encounter you on the water soon.
User avatar
Detritus
Posts: 538
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm
Species: Anything we can catch
Location: Vergennes

Re: Country Angler's Bite Picking Up

Post by Detritus »

You weren't the guy with the yellow kayak with two downriggers were you? I thought you ran snap weights.

I'm having trouble remembering what day we crossed paths. I'm forgetful too by the way, and we had six scheduled practice sessions a week all season. So busy! But a lot of fun.

I'm not good with names or faces. I've introduced myself to parents of kids I've coached or scout led for sometimes years, as if I'd never met them before. Always feel so bad about it. Sorry if I did it to you too. I am however, much better with remembering cars, trucks, and boats for whatever reason.
"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
Post Reply