Lake Champlain United - Forums

Typically I try to fish January 1st as a tradition to start the new year on the right foot. Last year I had DA committed and Lightandvariable on board out of Converse. For our 2022 maiden voyage Homewrecker and Dreamcatcher jumped on for the 1st trip of the young year.

We launched south and motored to the area the big salmon hit in Monday. We were able to get the whole set out without a release and the lake started pretty flat for the 1st run and setup. Surface temp still around 40 and there is no thermocline at all.

We setup mainly spoons with a stick bait and fly mixed in here and there to cover the bases and see what worked best. Spoons were the ticket today. An inline led flasher the size of a dime that Deano brought that runs where the barrel swivel would be in front of the leader seemed to increase action, especially deep… It happened to be the 1st set to fire!!!

We picked away at small salmon and lakers all
Morning. Fished from Barber south past fishville and over to VT for a quick bait check… (which was a waste of time)

Todays menu started with fresh cranberry muffins made the day before. For early lunch we had shrimp kabobs with old bay seasoning, followed by a round of jalapeño poppers. Then to finish the day we had bbqed chicken breast fillets to ensure no one went home hungry.

Oh and YES that funky looking green wully bugger looking fly that Deano brought FIRED! It’s in the lakers mouth in the net pic! - they may be the next craze, as I
Couldn’t get a traditional fly to fire behind that dodger:)

The last fish on the day was a Cisco!! 1st of the year for us on day#1, after not seeing one all last year!!!

Things are looking up.

Fish on!

I think it is a Cisco…. What do you think?

Looks like good food and good times! Those shrimp look awful good. Why isn't the Old Bay in the pic? Wishing I had gone out again yesterday, as the weather forecast doesn't look promising. I agree on the cisco ID. A whitefish's mouth points down. Another great report Matt. Fish on.

right, looks like a Cisco. Very cool to catch one of more uncommon species.

Great way to ring in 2022 - Happy New Year !

That's a great way to start the year.
Thanks for sharing your enjoyable time with us.
Nice catches.

I don't know guys, I'm going to go with Lake Whitefish.

Look at the three pictures of the fish's full body. Deano's fish, then the cisco on the left side of the ID chart, then the whitefish on the left side of the chart. The Cisco's eye on the chart takes up a larger portion of the fish's head, and is closer to centered from top to bottom, but still more towards the top of the head. The whitefish eye on the chart is a smaller portion of the fish's head, and is closer to the top of the head than the bottom. Also, I know color isn't always a reliable identifier, but, the chart cisco has black tail fins. The cisco has a more uniform "Jesus Fish" shape like you see on the back of cars, where the whitefish has that bashed on the head look, where the body takes a hump up right after the head. I'd say you caught a young whitefish.

Here's the only one we've ever caught. Some of you guys might remember this picture from last year.




Nice job out there though guys. I don't know where you found sonar returns like that down there, but, it must not have been where we looked on friday. Very quiet screens down that way for us.

Great job on all those fish!

Sometimes I am not sure if I get more desire to fish, or hungry for food, reading these posts. I guess those two things don't have to be mutually exclusive!

Re: Cisco vs Whitefish - While I have NEVER caught either - so this is an armchair expert opinion - I will weigh in for the whitefish given the hump behind the head and that circular indentation behind the eye on the top of the operculum. Big give-away apparently is if the lower jaw stuck out beyond the upper (Cisco) or upper jaw over-hanging the lower (Whitefish). Either way its a nice clean looking fish and its great to get to see so many species here on this board.

*Also liked that vintage (Herters ?) camo pattern !!!

Cisco! Good eats, and a great day on the water. I should check my phone more frequently!! Happy New Year Matt, Deano and Ken. Well done!