Lake Champlain United - Forums

My lady and I fished out of Converse today and we launched at wife o’clock (8:30) and the sky was overcast with a 10 mph wind out of the north giving the lake a nice 1’ chop. We started on the west side and before I could get the 4th line set we had a fish on and it ran from starboard to port side like a freight train with some strong head shakes. I swore I had a decent steelie on the way it was acting but in just over a minute it turned into a Red Wing boot. Yup, GREASER!! Back it went and before I could get the line reset another rod fired and you guessed it, another slimer! Meanwhile Reelax was picking away at salmon in the general area and I was more than happy to keep clearing the lakers out of his way, TWELVE of them to be exact and after the second time I had to wash my deck down we decided to head east in search of silver.
As we trolled across the abyss I asked my better half which way to go and I turned in the direction she pointed and 15 minutes later we had our first salmon over the rail, a slim 21” bullet that gave a respectable fight, and before I could put the net back in the holder another rod popped and another salmon came aboard. We were on them now, a whole HERD of them We worked that area for another 1 1/2 hours and racked up a total of 12 salmon in the boat and dropped 4.
Nine salmon were caught on spoons, traditional colors and longlined off boards, and 3 were caught on a spoon I was running in the prop wash 20’ off the stern in 20 FOW, and all were 17” or better.
Another excellent day on the water !

Wowsa Pat,
Sounds like there wasn't much you tried that didn't work! And you didn't get to sit down much either!
I think your gonna need a bigger clicker.
Taking photos through the isinglass sure makes for some interesting distortions. Very artistic.
Are you finding good temperature zones or are these fish just all over the place?
Nice report.
As you may also notice I am still confined to the wrong side of the Connecticut River. And what we consider a respectable Winnipesaukee outing is a 9 fish afternoon that includes not just salmon and lakers but bass in the mix as well. Still in ice out mode over here: Slow trolling live bait in the 45 degree shallows.
I love those round salmon with the small heads Champlain makes...Fast growth!

Jump

Also still itching to pit those rigger rods, I bought from you, against those Laker/Greasers in front of the Winooski. Or maybe travel further West to see how they feel about Lake O Kings. Although I haven't monitored that fishery for several years and it is a LONG haul from "Not-so-sunny Northfield, NH.
Speaking of which, and this probably belongs under a different heading but how goes the Spring Brown Trouting in the Eastern Basin? So many water bodies so little time. And leave us not mention fuel prices!

Jump

Funny how we stumble upon things inadvertently such as isinglass photo art which came about as a result of my fair weather first mate getting too comfortable in the boat enclosure and not wanting to unzip it and come out for a picture
With regards to finding the spring bite I call it the two degree difference (not to be confused with the global warming talking point crap) and a lot of times if I run across a surface temp increase rather suddenly I set lines and usually have decent results. In Saturdays case we were seeing 44-46 degrees all over and when we hit water at 48 while scouting to get away from the lakers that’s where we set up and won silver.
Can’t weigh in on the Brown Trout in other waters, maybe someone else has some intel they could share??!??!
I’m looking into an Ontario trip in mid July, perhaps you might JUMP in?

Nice job pat!!!some healthy looking fish