Lake Champlain

Woke up at 3am today to head out for some lake trout. I ran into a lot of people over the weekend that said they had been having the most luck at 4 in the morning. My buddies and I arrived to the spot around 4am but decided to try for some salmon first. We quickly gave up as we were only hooking weeds and knew the lake trout were waiting for us. They weren’t really waiting for us. I didn’t end up getting my first lake trout until almost 7am and it was a tiny one that ate my spoon. The conditions were pretty brutal; 20mph winds and the snow that started the night before didn’t slow down. I had ice forming on my eyelets every cast. However, I had one trick up my sleeve. I tied on my baby whale, and they couldn’t resist. I even fooled a blind one into eating! In the 2 hours that followed I landed 6 more lake trout before we all called it quits due to lack of sensation in our fingers.

The third straight day of fishing for lake trout and today was the most successful one yet! It was the first snowfall in town this fall and thankfully there wasn’t much wind. I caught my first fish of the day after only about 5 minutes of fishing on a purple spoon. I managed to land 5 in total with the other 4 eating the baby whale. Looking forward to getting back out there ASAP!

Another successful morning of lake trout fishing today! The early morning was pretty slow, as I couldn’t get any fish on my spoons. I watched people pull them in left and right and the only bites I was getting were from some hungry rocks. After about 3 hours, the sun started to come out and the swimbaits started to get some action. My first two fish came on back to back casts, and by the end of the morning I managed to land two more. Had to stock up on some more spoons because I’m planning to hit the water again tomorrow and fish in some snow!

Laker

Toughed it out in the brutal wind today for my first Lake Trout of the season! Spent about 3 hours fishing and an hour waiting for a dive team from UVM to look at the trout. It’s supposed to be about 50 degrees tomorrow morning, so I’ll be heading out bright and early again!

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!

Wild lady right here