Wesport and south Saturday.

[Reelax]

Decided to trailer south to try to find bigger fish with SteelieJoe and Striper on Saturday morning at 1st light. Launched from Arnold’s with 2 boats out already at 530am!

Motored to Westport and setup 4 riggers with cheaters and 2 slide divers out 150. The riggers started from 24 to 55 down. Thermocline was 45 to 60 down depending on area. Colder water was higher the further south we went till we got to fishville and the temps went to hell.

Our target zone was beaver to barber for the day in 100-150 fow. Best fish came between 38 and 45 down.

Spoon of the day was white back autopilot and minklers from crazy Ivan. Joe landed a beauty 22” jumping salmon right off at 38 down 30 back in the morning light. Great way to get the skunk off with a nice fish. Next fish in was a small steelhead! Half way to a slam and it’s not been 7am!! By 9am our counter was at 9. NO lakers to the party yet:)

Then it happened, the forward starboard rigger fired and the rod stayed down and line started ripping. I was on it like stink on shit..

2 jumps into it we knew it was a PIG. This thing ran up the side of the boat as Joe cleared the
Slidediver on that side. Then it ran straight across the back of the boat like a pissed off Marlin will do sometimes in the blue water. What a fight. Damn fish broke the clicker on the 2nd run on my okuma cold water! John calls it a steelhead early due to the way it was running all over and the twin high jumps. When it came up in the wash it was obvious he was right.

Link to end of fight and net video: https://youtu.be/HfXa_YCisjA?si=j55qof97UU-2pZA9

We landed him after cheater removal with high fives all around for a monster in the boat:)

This fish capped the day. While we got more salmon and a few lakers we couldn’t match that battle.

Menu consisted of baked stuffed clams in the half shell followed by some strip steaks that were huge and tasty.

Early off with counter closing out at 14 fish. by 1pm… 2 steel, 4 lakers, 8 salmon…

Haven’t Thad that much fun since the last time:)

Thanks for the epic trip guys!!

[cpmaple]

Some nice fish you got into Matt, I've been sidelined since the lci with motor issue. Looking like it maybe rest of this yr out for me till its fix. But glad you had a great day on the water. Tight lines
Cpmaple

[Mistress]

Some beauties Matt!! In retrospect I should have gone south as you suggested but opted to conduct a salmon smolt survey on the IS yesterday instead. Another boat I am familiar with and was fishing near early got onto a nice pod of keeper size fish which were too big for my study so I wandered off to find our own bite which we found in 120 FOW and caught sixteen of the little duffers that were mixed in with some nice marks on the fish machine. Do you know how hard it is to target the little guys when the big ones are there too??? I think in one spot if I had a Sabiki rig I could have jigged up a dozen they were so thick. I am happy to report that NO fish were harmed during my study, and there are plenty to grow to maturity and all swam away healthy.

[finsntins]

Nice job matt and the relax crew,some real beauties there!!!!

[Bearcat]

Beautiful!!! Glad to see fish of this quality

[MAMU]

Wow great fish and report thanks!!

[Dipsey]

What a trip! Can't get any better than that!

[Hawkeye50]

Great catch Matt! Plan to fish that area for a few hours Monday with Bearcat then plan to give it hell on Tuesday with the Mrs. on board

[striper192001]

Great trip Matt and Joe. ! Matt ...I will try to keep my mouth shut when you are reeling as I am pretty sure you know what you are doing ....lol !

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks Matt for another great report and pics. These are nice fish.

[Zackle Box]

What an awsome fish! Trophy lake Champlain steel head. Did you mount it?

[Reelax]

What an awsome fish! Trophy lake Champlain steel head. Did you mount it?

Released so he could be caught by someone else:)

Have a 11.2 salmon, 8.2brown and 13.5 laker (from the 90’s when that was big) on my wall. A steelhead would go well with them but it needs to be be atleast 29”….

Fish on!