November Day of Trolling With my Boys

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Detritus
Posts: 538
Joined: Mon Apr 15, 2019 8:50 pm
Species: Anything we can catch
Location: Vergennes

November Day of Trolling With my Boys

Post by Detritus »

That would be Brody, Liam, Reelax, James, Dilly, Homewrecker, and a couple other fellow fishermen. Doesn't get any better than that.

This Saturday morning trip for us was much like the moment in the original Toy Story movie, when the mother yells up to the boy "Were leaving in 5 minutes!". The boy says "Five minutes...", and proceeds to set up a big elaborate thing playing with his toys, as if it's all the time in the world. We had to be in Maine to visit my grandparents at 5, and back in Vergennes to set up the Scout Christmas tree lot at 1 on Sunday. There was no time for a fishing trip. So what did we do? We went anyway.

We launched out of Converse at dawn, ramp was a little icy, so those of you who are still doing this thing, keep an eye out for that. I've got to get my sand buckets in the truck. I pushed the boat off, and tied it to the dock, a nice luxury we're not used to launching at Redgate all of the time. I left them to cold start the big carbureted Merc while I parked the truck. Most of us who read or write these reports know all about cold starting carbureted engines, but, it's a dying art for that generation of people. By the time I got out of the truck at the top of the hill, the old 2 smoke was rolling, and warming up. I guess Dad's teaching them a couple of skills here and there.

I jumped on, and we idled out to deeper water, where we spotted and talked to the Reelax crew for a minute before blasting straight over to the New York side to hit that spot we fished last week. I've heard over and over again from pro anglers "Don't fish history". So what do we do? Fish history. But hey, we can't help it.

I had heard it was going to be a beautiful morning, and Mother Nature did not disappoint.

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Didn't even matter if we caught any fish, it was so nice out. Heater was going, cockpit temperature was about 62 degrees or so, I don't remember the water temperatures at the surface and at depth, but, I do remember that we were in the 48-55 degree range everywhere we were dragging lures. We set out our big planer boards, with the plan to run our leadcore rods, and snap weights on two other rods sent out sideways as well. Then we set two rigger rods as well, cheater on 1, and none on the other that was running an attractor. Riggers were running about 60' of line out, actual depth in the 50' neighborhood, GPS speed between 2.2 and 2.6, fish hawk speed pretty consistent today, regardless of direction. Maybe it was because we were pretty far off of the shoreline with no wind.

First things first though, once we got the rods set, it was time to crank up the grill.


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Today's "Lighter Fare" breakfast was set to be sausage, egg, cheese, hash brown breakfast sandwiches. The plan was to cook some for us, and a couple for James and his daughter Lizi "The Pike Slayer" over on their boat. Lizi was an important member of our Bass Fishing team this year, and boated more total pounds of fish than any other member of the team all season. A good portion of those pounds though, was Northern Pike, hence the title. Her and Brody are both fans of wearing crazy socks. Here's Lizi's crazy socks for the morning of fishing.


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How did those guys get their sandwiches off of our boat you ask? Well you just drive towards each other while trolling, and chuck them over wrapped in foil. I had 1 shot to get this right. We were out of food to make more by the time those guys got out there, since the boys had already smashed all of the extra. The first toss was perfect, James caught it in his right hand. The second toss however, had me panicking a little as it flew mid-air, but, according to James, he channeled his old High School Lacrosse Goalie in himself, and did a fully outstretched single handed left hand grab for the second. I was impressed and relieved.

Then Shank the skunk finally woke up and did his job.


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Copper Speedy Shiner, 4 colors of lead down, all the way out on the planerboard. The first of many planerboard fish for us that morning. All but 2 fish I think, came off of the planerboards. They were either 4-5 colors of lead, or snap weight rods. The snap weight rods are kind of new for us, but have been very successful. We were 50' back, 4 or a 5 oz snap weight, then another 50-60' back, then out to the side on the planer. All rods were running Honeybee spoiled ham, copper Speedy Shiners, or other copper hammered spoons. Copper was the best for us that morning. We did have one fish come off of a Yozuri pin minnow, blue and pink.

Here's Reelax trolling by.


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The bite really picked up out there (Lakers anyway), best stretch of bites for us in months. Even had a doubles.


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As usual, a lot of fun hanging out on the radio with the fleet, talking with the guys, as well as The Pike Slayer. I'm not sure if all of you are familiar with the term "Flexing" on someone? Kids use it all of the time now. I take it to mean a version of showing off. Apparently Brody was talking to Matt on the radio about his breakfast at one point when I was out back messing with the lines. Matt responded with the list of stuff that was going to hit the grill on his boat at some point that day. I came back inside and Brody and Liam were laughing, and told me about how Matt was flexing on them about all of the food they were going to cook. All I got to say to that is this:

Way to go Matt.

But, Like I said above, we were in a wicked time crunch this weekend, and had to roll up our presentation and run home at 11:00. We started pulling lines, and the action must have triggered a hit, by Mr. Silver no less! As you heard, the same time as Reelax hit their two.


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A nice little 16" salmon for Brody. He'll be an even nicer one next year. Then a rigger popped for Liam.


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That would be another Master Angler Species for him this year. A 13" white perch. We didn't weigh it, but, I think it was Chessieman who had a 3lb-er? This one was pushing that I'd say as well. The thing was so big, it was hard to handle with all of it's spikes all over the place. It was like a small Sheephead. Another little oddity that we experienced while pulling lines, was a tiny Laker hitchhiking on the one rod that we never checked all morning for whatever reason. I guess we were just too busy checking all of the other rods, cooking, throwing sandwiches into other boats and what have you. I'm guessing the little guy was down there for a good 3 hours. Liam Said "Ah, we were just trolling for Champ". And he was right, it really did look like a live Spanish Mackerel rig set for huge Stripers.

Definitely a lot of action on our planerboards though, check out the releases on the Starboard one here. All of those fish Came between 21-30 feet down.


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So at the end of the trip, we went 13/16, 11 Lakers, 1 Salmon, 1 White Perch, and 3 unknowns that were lost. All fish released strong and healthy.
We finally saw Dilly right at the ramp, he was heading out just as we were heading in. Passed on what we learned to him, hoping he could use it to boat some fish.
"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
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Reelax
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Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: November Day of Trolling With my Boys

Post by Reelax »

Even though we didn’t find the BIG salmon, it was a great day of searching and working the spread to see what would play. Would be great to have some temp gradient in the lake, but that seems to much to ask for…love to chat with your offspring crew every time, Brody and Liam don’t know how blessed they are the have a dad who includes them in so many adventures. They help make the fishing day so
Much more fun when you can flex (lol) a little on the radio and share challenges and experiences.. we had double salmon and double lakers in one rod Sat. Sounds like they may be running in schools from that data?

Fish on!
Matt B
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Dilly Worm
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Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:22 pm
Species: target salmon & catch togue

Re: November Day of Trolling With my Boys

Post by Dilly Worm »

Detritus wrote: Mon Nov 22, 2021 10:48 pm There was no time for a fishing trip. So what did we do? We went anyway.
this is exactly the way it should be !

great report, sorry I couldn't hit the water sooner to meet up.
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 !
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Gecha (Gerry)
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Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
Species: whatever crazy enough to bite

Re: November Day of Trolling With my Boys

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Great report Jack. So entertaining to read.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
TruViking
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Joined: Sun Nov 15, 2020 10:25 pm
Species: Those who thrive in Cold H20
Location: Burlington, Vt

Re: November Day of Trolling With my Boys

Post by TruViking »

Reelax wrote: Tue Nov 23, 2021 4:41 am Even though we didn’t find the BIG salmon, it was a great day of searching and working the spread to see what would play. Would be great to have some temp gradient in the lake, but that seems to much to ask for…love to chat with your offspring crew every time, Brody and Liam don’t know how blessed they are the have a dad who includes them in so many adventures. They help make the fishing day so
Much more fun when you can flex (lol) a little on the radio and share challenges and experiences.. we had double salmon and double lakers in one rod Sat. Sounds like they may be running in schools from that data?

Fish on!
I agree with you Sir Reelax :) . Every post by Detritus is a showcase of the pride he has in his kids. I look forward to each one of his stories. I am blessed with three kids myself and as my girls don't go out much, my son is right in it with me. I often think about what he "will have in his memory bank when he's my age?" I don't take it fir granted and I want him to remember every fish, I want him to remember being dragged outta bed at 4am., bribed with a hot chocolate, even remember the awful feeling of losing a decent sized salmon right at the boat...... As much as I Love to Fish, it's never as Fun as it is when he's with me. Matt, thanks for the reply to his post, not that i needed a reminder but, it surely did reminded me of how damn lucky I am! :!: :D
Detritus, If you read this... I second what Reelax said, your a good man with great kids. Maybe someday we can chat out on the water and find some salmon for these boys! :geek:
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