9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

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

9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Detritus »

Ever since the end of last summer, I've had a group text message going on my phone consisting of 4 of my best friends who also make up the coaching staff of the Vergennes Fishing Team. That's how the group text started, but, even after the season was over, the group text has hung around. Usually at some point during the week, someone has started some outdoor talk, a picture of a fish caught, a boat bought, or birds and deer shot. Sounds great right? well it is. Three of them are members here, Dilly Worm, Wabbler, and Noreaster. The last one is our friend James.

This week sometime around Thursday, I had asked what was going on out on the water this weekend, and Noreaster was going to be launching his new to the family boat Saturday morning. Well, I wanted to be there for that, so I figured we'd join them at the ramp. Liam ended up choosing the time, 7:30. Brody had a birthday party to go to, so it was just Liam, Myself, and special guest Thunderdog. That's not a forum name, that's actually just the name of our family dog.

We got to the ramp dragging Strike Three, figuring we'd do a little warm water scouting in the morning. Splashed the boat as Noreaster showed up with his new boat. I figured it might take little bit for the first time launch, so I told Liam he could take the boat out and fish a little bit solo while we fooled around with that.

I'm guessing it was about 10-15 minutes later, I walked down the road with Thunder to find Liam and Jump on the boat. By that time Liam already had something in the boat.


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A 10.5lb 28" Sheephead. As he motored over to the bank to pick us up, there was a Tournament Bass fisherman from Pennsylvania working the rip-rap with a wacky rigged plastic worm. I apologized for messing up his program, but he said two things. "Ah no, it's no problem" and "Wow, that is a big Drum!" and laughed a little , as it was lying on the deck as Liam drove up. I asked him how he got that thing on the boat solo like that, and he said he just "did it like he saw the bass guys do it on video, you hold the rod in 1 hand, and net it with the other". I was like "Yeah Liam, but, most bass don't weigh upwards of 11 lbs!". But there it was. Fish swam away happy. By the way, I chose this picture to post so you could see Thunderdog poking her head our behind Liam's leg.

As I settled into our jigging program, I heard an unmistakable voice on the VHF, our buddy Reelax. Talked to him a bit, but, we have a pretty stubby antenna on that boat, so we can't be heard super far away. But it was still good to know there were more friends out on the lake. It wasn't too long before Liam was on the net again, this time for me.


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Just a little guy, 7.5 lbs. Lots of fish biting that morning, but, mostly White Perch. Since the addition of some rod holders this spring on Strike Three, it has given us the ability to troll on that boat. And boy, trolling with that Garmin Trolling motor is so nice. Just point and click with the remote from your beach chair. The Chairs were Liam's Idea this trip, and it was a great one. We had a live bait program running off of the back, and a lure program running off of the front of the boat. At first, I was sitting on the back, but, after a couple of minutes, I asked to switch spots with him.


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Those dumb perch wouldn't leave the crawlers alone for a second. He must have caught 20 of those things in 20 minutes. If we had time, we would have saved them for a fish fry, but, I knew we had a busy day ahead of us still. After a while, they even started bothering things they had no business attacking.


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Sometime around then we crossed paths with Noreaster, who was doing a drift program heading downstream. It occurred to me almost too late to get a picture of the new vessel, so that's why they're so far away. But, its a good candidate for frostbiting don't you think?


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At this point we hadn't packed a lunch, and I knew that the parts for the dryer were probably about to arrive back home, so we headed home to eat, and fix that. At 3 loads of laundry done a day at our house, the washer and dryer can't be down for long, or we start getting buried in dirty laundry.

After some grub, 1 seized Idler pully and broken belt replacement later, we headed back out to the water, this time pulling our cold water boat the famous Country Angler, Subway sandwiches in the cooler. I always tell the boys that we always have to be on our best behavior out on the water, because you never know who knows us. That means politeness and patience on the ramps, and friendly to everybody we meet. It's kind of like when you're out in public wearing your Scout uniform. You've got to represent.

Once again, it was just Liam and I, but this time we left Thunder home. She was getting a little annoying whining at the birds on the first trip. One of which by the way, was an Osprey that we saw grab a small walleye out of the river. Kind of too bad, but, it is their river after all.

As we were heading out for 48-55 degree water, I was down below shoveling rods out onto the deck, rotating the riggers out, and digging out the gear. Liam said "Somebody knows you", and pointed off of the starboard rear. A Blue Lund, a boat I didn't recognize, waving like they knew us. Well I waved back, not knowing who it was. I then went down and put the radio on 68, thinking it was probably too late, and we had missed a call. we were going out to meet up with Dilly Worm, and James in their boats to chase some Lakers and Salmon.

Liam had the boat up on plane stopping here and there to look for some good sonar returns, and saw a couple, but, we eventually just decided to set up a program. We were already pretty tired from the morning's trip, and just wanted to sit down for a bit. That's also the reason after 1 little Laker and an hour's time, we decided to just troll to our next spot instead of rolling up all of the gear, hopping over and resetting everything. How's that for lazy? But, another 30-40 minute drive at 2.3 SOG later, we hooked up on you guessed it, a cheater.


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You want to guess the lure? No, I'm sorry, it wasn't one of Todd's Sausage Gravy Milkshake spoons. You want to talk about famous, SGM is famous. (And yes, we were running one of those for a while). We ran a whole bunch of stuff, but there was only one spoon got us 3 hits on salmon, one boated.


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If you know it reply below. I know there should be one guy on here at least who knows it.

Had a lot of fun hanging with Dilly and James as usual playing out on our favorite playground. Talked to my friend Little Bear, who heard us making noise on the VHF as well. While talking with Dilly, I told him that we were recognized by that blue Lund I had mentioned earlier. Well over the airwaves came Controlled Chaos. He was the blue Lund, as I'm sure most of you guys know. But, we'd never shared the water with him. Hung out on the radio a while, talking fishing in Northern Michigan, Walleye, Salmon, and the beautiful day. Another typical LCU first introduction in my personal experience. Great guy.

Speaking of the beautiful day, it was coming to an end. It wasn't really the goal in the beginning, but, it turned out to be basically a 9 hour LCI scouting and practice trip. I think we got some good information, but like most other fishing trips, it just turned into another great experience and memory to hold on to. Liam asked twice to get a picture of the sunset. I had to oblige.


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"Country Angler" - '93 Trophy 2002 - Cold water boat
"Strike Three" - '04 Triton SF21 - Warm water boat
"The Dumpster" - '90 Starcraft SF14 - Camping Boat

Jack
tmcaul
Posts: 219
Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2016 10:26 am
Species: salmonids
Location: Charlotte

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by tmcaul »

You are raising those boys right, Jack!
Tom
"Tyee, Too"
18' Lund
Gecha (Gerry)
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Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2011 12:26 pm
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Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Beautiful report and nice pics. Congrats Liam on another great catch.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
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Reelax
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2011 7:27 pm
Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
Location: Fletcher, Vt

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Reelax »

Thanks for another great report. Glad to hear you got one after Liam landed his solo hog…
Matt B
pfu
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Location: Burlington VT

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by pfu »

Wonderful story where everyone will remember for years to come. Great teachings. This is what it is all about gentleman!
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Dilly Worm
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Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:22 pm
Species: target salmon & catch togue

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Dilly Worm »

Great post, I enjoyed reading the whole thing with the morning coffee !

Thanks for the tips on Saturday afternoon - I finally evicted the skunk from the boat with the advice from you & Liam and got 3 smallish lakers just before 8 pm. Beautiful day to get the fleet out on the lake again !
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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meangreen1
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Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:12 am
Species: salmon

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by meangreen1 »

Saw you guys out there Saturday afternoon. I was in my new (yes another new boat) white and blue Sea Nymph. Just after we passed you off of Thompson’s Point we hooked up with a nice Steelhead. My girlfriend had her hands full with that fish jumping like crazy but she managed to get it to the net and making it her 2nd nice steelhead in 2 years. She got it on a Crazy Ivan Bluemoon on a slider with the rigger set at 40’.
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User avatar
Reelax
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Species: Salmon, steelhead, brown trout
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Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Reelax »

Wow nicest steelhead I have sent is year! That is a great looking fish…

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

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Detritus »

No question. We've never caught one at all. Funny how you guys have those two monsters in back to back years.

No takers on the spoon guess? Well, I'm not too surprised, as that was a special custom spoon of his own design given to us by Homewrecker at the DYP. Thanks again Dean, that was the hot one for us that day.
"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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Dilly Worm
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Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2019 9:22 pm
Species: target salmon & catch togue

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by Dilly Worm »

meangreen1 wrote: Mon Jun 13, 2022 7:53 am Saw you guys out there Saturday afternoon. I was in my new (yes another new boat) white and blue Sea Nymph. Just after we passed you off of Thompson’s Point we hooked up with a nice Steelhead. My girlfriend had her hands full with that fish jumping like crazy but she managed to get it to the net and making it her 2nd nice steelhead in 2 years. She got it on a Crazy Ivan Bluemoon on a slider with the rigger set at 40’.
Good chatting with you at the end of the day at the Converse boat ramp. Congrats to your girlfriend on that lunker 25-inch steelhead !
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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The River Rat
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Location: South Eastern VT

Re: 9 hour LCI Dress Rehearsal

Post by The River Rat »

Very good stuff here in this post, I've seen that spoon... HomeWrecker custom tape? Or in a similar collection! Lol
A White
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