Plattsburgh, New York

Got to hit the ice this morning to target some lake trout and I managed to land two! These were both on the smaller side, but it’s still quite the fight pulling these things up from almost 97 feet of water! The first spot of the day had the clearest ice I’ve ever seen and was well over a foot thick. I could even see the fish fighting from almost 30 feet below the surface!

This morning I got another chance to target some aggressive lake trout through the ice. I tried last Friday and managed to get about 7 bites, but unfortunately, I missed each fish. Today my luck was a little bit better as I finally landed one fish, after missing four others. It was a bit on the slower side since I spent about 10 hours on the ice today, so bites were coming only every 2 hours. This gorgeous lake trout came in at 24 inches long, which makes it the largest fish I have ever caught through the ice. I have a feeling this record won’t last long as there are plenty of bigger lake trout roaming around.

Caught a gorgeous little pike yesterday afternoon on the jerkbait. It’s getting cold up here so I’m hoping to get on some lake trout soon, but I’d love to get a 30 inch pike before winter rolls around.

The stars aligned today! I was starting to lose hope in landing a musky after a few unsuccessful attempts this year. Today was quite the opposite. On the very first cast of the day, I watched a giant shadow follow my swimbait, he struck the bait before I could even process what was going on and I set the hook. The fight was on! This guy took some serious runs and I successfully opened my bail to let him pull line with my thumb. A trick that I failed to do properly when I lost a pike of a lifetime. Finally I managed to pull this beast to shore and land him. He came in at 37 inches, a new personal best! Another hour and a half went by with no bites, but I had plenty of confidence with multiple deep pools ahead of me. All of a sudden, I noticed an open mouth behind my swimbait right near shore. The fish had missed, but slowly crept into view, still interested in my bait. I turned the bait hard to the right and he engulfed it. The fight was short as my 12lb line overpowered him. This guy came in at 31 inches long! While unhooking this guy, he thrashed and chomped down on my thumb. He left my hand covered in blood and gave me a gnarly wound. No complaints here though!

Tried for musky this morning with no luck. Ran into Ryan Jones and apparently he had quite the exciting yet disappointing morning. After losing the most expensive lure in my tackle box, I switched tactics and tried to target some brook trout. Pretty quickly I managed to land a little brown trout and a gorgeous Brook trout on my little roadrunner. I am unsure if this guy was wild or stocked. Yesterday I also managed to land a nice smallmouth and loads of yellow perch.

Got a little baby sunset pike yesterday. Watched this little guy chase my x-rap in and just sit at my feet after I brought my lure in. Dropped it right on his head, twitched it once and he annihilated it! This surprisingly was the only bite yesterday after a very successful outing at the same spot a few days ago. Unfortunately I lost a nice jerkbait on a submerged tree but I was quickly rewarded with a free husky jerk hanging in a tree next to me.

Got a stud largemouth today on Lake Champlain! My biggest out of the lake in 2 years, coming in at 4lbs! Also caught a nice smallmouth out of the river earlier in the day on a 1 inch swimbait while trying to catch fallfish.

Stuck out the rain today and landed another quality Northern Pike. This fish came in at 27 inches and put up quite the fight. I was definitely outgunned on my medium light rod, I had no control over him the whole fight! He inhaled my jerkbait and had my line in his teeth during the entire battle so I was lucky to get him in. Soon after landing the pike, I got a little largemouth and found some hungry white perch. Got about 15 white perch and another solid healthy pike to end the gloomy day.