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Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 8:24 am
by Detritus
After consulting with the Vergennes Outdoor Club AKA Vergennes High School Fishing Team Coaching Staff on Saturday night, Liam, James and I decided to head out Sunday morning and give it one last shot before the potential freezeout heading our way Friday and Saturday. Dilly was worried about his driveway, Norreaster didn't have it in him to dig out the boat late Saturday night, and Wabbler had a late night ski race to recover from. We launched at Converse to an empty parking lot, and a nicely cleaned and sanded ramp, thanks to the LCU winter warriors.


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The forecast was kind of iffy wind and precipitation wise, but, it turned out to be one of those days when you chance it, and are so glad that you did, you just have to start sending the fish pictures to your fishing buddies like a cat yowling at the window with the dead bird they bagged. We didn't pack a big meal for grilling because of the forecast, instead James brought breakfast sandwiches, Gatorade, Donuts, and hunter cheddar popcorn. We considered running around a bit to find bait, but as we were talking about it, it showed up on the screen. It wasn't long before the first fish was boated.


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Big wild spawned laker. I don't know about you guys, but we swear that the wild ones fight harder than the hatchery pigs we catch. Another observation that Liam made yesterday, and I agree with, is they seem to calm down in the boat if you burp them. It also helps for releasing them.

It was 28", but unfortunately, we discovered our scale had gotten wet, and frozen, and the lcd screen just said "bye". Rather fitting. But, we're guessing this fish was in the 7's, what do you guys think?

It wasn't long, and we boated another.


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And another,


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and another,


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and so on,


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and so on.


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It was fun reeling in fish, and we all agreed that this morning would have been a good one to take a new kid out or something, who would be excited about every fish, and lit of action on every pass. We decided however to head over to NY to see if we could boat a couple of those silver shiny fish. We considered pulling lines, but, on Liam's suggestion, we just troll across the abyss. Getting close to split rock, we had our first hit on the dipsey of the day, and James noticed a suspicious drag on our planer board. Here's what they were.


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Couple of nice salmon. After promptly releasing those, I got a message from my wife asking how fishing was going. I sent her a pile of these pictures. She responded, "Any keepers?". We took that as a hint we should bring a salmon home, and decided to keep the next one. Which unfortunately, will probably be sometime in the spring, since we never boated another one. Just more of these.


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But hey, how can you complain with a morning like that.

At some point along the way, we hear the unmistakeable crackle of the VHF, with a guy on the other end asking who the other truck was in the parking lot. It was none other than Instigator. He said he was going to go after some perch. A little later he told us that they weren't biting, so he was headed out after some salmon. We checked in later on to let him know we were heading off of the water. He came back with a "Yeahhhh, I have to get going soon too. I've got to get home and take a nap, because I have to get up and watch football later". It sounded like he had a plan.

So as for the techniques we were using, we had 4 riggers out, from 28 - 46 feet, and most caught a fish. Lots of pink and white and blue, since that's what we were running our last trip out. The salmon came off of our port magnum dipsey, on a stainless wire rod, 112' back, and the other salmon came off of a rainbow trout speedy shiner 4 colors down and one out off of the starboard side. We ran cheaters on all riggers, a variety of colors, and two cowbell attractors inline on the two deep riggers.

Thanks to the ramp fairys that have been keeping it clean, nice talking to you Instigator, and we'll see you all out there next time.

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 3:34 pm
by TUnamas
I'm becoming the "Old Guy" with estimates, and personally I hate to doubt you and the kids, especially after the great year you've had, but my guess would be 4.5 - 5.5, maybe 6 but short of 7.

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 6:30 pm
by Reelax
Gotta love the story and the pics. If that was the last troll before freezout, you guys sure did it right;)

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:44 pm
by Dilly Worm
great report Jack, nice to see all the Country Angler is still hauling in the fish this late into winter !

I agree about the wild lakers, maybe 9 times out of 10 they fight harder than the ones with the clipped fins.

Nice job getting in one more troll this year. Now it is time to sharpen the ice auger !

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 9:01 am
by finsntins
great job jack and the country angler crew!!!!

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:34 pm
by tmcaul
Great report. Fishing with your sons...fantastic!

Re: Last Troll Before Freezeout?

Posted: Wed Feb 01, 2023 3:20 am
by digitroll (ron)
Great outing Jack with the kids! Warm up next week lets see how much ice in converse there will be by Monday and will a south wind take it out next week?

.SATURDAY NIGHT...Southeast winds 5 to 10 knots, becoming south and
increasing to 30 knots overnight. Partly cloudy in the evening, then
becoming cloudy. Waves 1 foot or less, building to 4 to 6 feet.
.SUNDAY...South winds 35 knots. Cloudy. A chance of rain or snow
showers in the afternoon. Waves 6 to 9 feet, subsiding to 5 to
7 feet.