Ed accompanied me today on the lake to see if he could get a few trout for dinner. I thought our best chances would be on the fly so we trolled streamers the entire day. The air temps hit 70 & the water warmed to almost 55 degrees with the sunshine making it just perfect. Little to no wind was present as we trolled smelt patterns both high & low only to have the deep line constantly firing. I was quick to change the high line for another deep line and began getting hit on that one as well. We covered a lot of water, but concentrated on a couple of off shore shoals because of all the action. This was unfortunate though as all of the hits turned out to be bass! Just as I said that this was to be our last pass, both reels screamed within 5 seconds of each other & Ed was into another fish. I just let the second rod stay in the rod holder and concentrated on the fish at hand. This time it turned out to be a lake trout none too soon! We had been trolling a deep edge from 10 to 30 feet and were both happy to see it in finally in the net. I told Ed to grab the other rod while I put the fish in the livewell in case it might be another trout and sure enough, it was. Wow, a double header! We continued to fish this area a little longer after landing the trout but soon left after we continued catching smallies. The next spot proved to be no different as we only caught bass over the deep water and relocated once again. After a couple of missed strikes & a few bass landed, Ed fought what we thought was another bass until both of us caught a glimpse of the fish by the boat. All of a sudden, this salmon came alive and went crazy. Ed wasn’t quick enough to let the fish run & the hook just pulled free. From what I saw, the fish was 4 to 5 pounds and no longer attached to the fly. Oh well, can’t win em all! The rest of the afternoon was spent covering water that apparently was void of trout & salmon because all we caught were the odd bass. Although we only managed to land a couple of lakers, it was still action packed. I wish the bass would start to move shallow and leave the deep water to the trout real soon. All in all it was still a great day on the water!

Frank & his uncle Antonio joined me today on a smaller body of water in pursuit of lakers & browns. I was informed that there were no salmon in this lake and would have to settle for the other trout instead. The air temps were cool in the morning but soon found their way into the 70’s by afternoon. Blue skies & bright sunshine made this a picture perfect kind of day as we trolled fly rods for the trout once again. It didn’t take long before the reels were going off, but they weren’t trout. Instead, they were bass from 20 to 30 feet of water. The surface temps were perfect with 47 degrees, but the trout weren’t what we were getting into. I quickly moved off this area hoping to locate some of the larger trout somewhere else, but kept catching the smallies everywhere we went. We covered a few miles of lake with nothing to show except destroyed, tandem streamers. I hadn’t tied over 100 of these flies for the bass to mangle and was beginning to get frustrated. One of the reels finally screamed hard and I saw a salmon go air born way behind the boat. It was the long line and Frank grabbed the rod giving the fish slack only to have it come unpinned. As quickly as it was on, it was gone! Oh well, there goes the no salmon in the lake theory, I guess. We trolled for the rest of the day looking for another taker, but all we had to show for our efforts were aggressive smallies. It was almost impossible to keep these fish away from the flies even if we were over deep water and baitfish. They were suspended all over the lake and eating everything in sight! We caught them in as little as 7 feet of water to as deep as 50 feet. I did mark plenty of baitfish schools that were most likely smelt as well as some fairly large hooks that resembled trout, but were unable to convince them to eat anything we trolled. It’s too bad about the salmon getting off, but that’s fishing. All in all it was a great day on the water despite the absence of trout & salmon!!

We all met at the ramp this morning at 8:00 and shortly after, were back on the water trolling once again. A light rain quickly disappeared and left us in the clouds for a while but soon gave way to partial sunshine. Unfortunately with the sun, came a strong wind from the west gusting above 25 knots at times. This made trolling flies for the trout & salmon a challenge, but we gave it our all. Without a touch in the first hour or so, we decided to cast jigs & jerkbaits on deep water shoals and hooked a few fish. Unfortunately, they were the wrong species once more and relocated slightly deeper yet again! It was here that Marcel locked up on a big fish with a deep diving jerkbait & I knew that this was finally what we were looking for. I netted the laker after a short battle and realized that it was a decent sized fish of at least 8 pounds. We immediately released her into the livewell, as Marcel would be taking this beauty home for a later B.B.Q. Two other fish were landed out on this shoal, but they were both bass. Ironically one of them was a largemouth that was obviously lost as it was completely out of its element. Back to trolling we went when the wind just made everything almost impossible to be casting. It was actually swirling and seemed like the wind was coming from 2 different directions at the same time. It was a little while later that Marcel managed to grab one of the rods from the holder and land a slightly above legal sized salmon that we also placed into the livewell. I thought we were onto something and really believed that we were finally going to get into them, but was disappointed to find out that this was to be the last one of the day. The next few times the reels were to fire were when smallies ate the smelt streamers. Although we weren’t able to catch any other trout or salmon, it was still lots of fun hearing the reels go. I would have liked to troll the areas I knew held fish, but was unable to get there in the conditions we were faced with. Safety always comes first and when it’s not fun, it’s just not worth it! We would have been trolling in 3 to 4 footers and taking a pounding just trying to overcome “Mother Nature’s” cruel punishment. I can’t wait to get even!!

Andre, Jim & Marcel fished with me today for a shot at some trout. We trolled with fly rods & had chances at 5 fish in the first 15 minutes. Misfortune was all we had to show for our efforts however as we continued up the lake searching for our first fish. The weather was spectacular & sunny with a high reaching into the 70’s Water temps were 47 to 53 degrees depending on where we were & no wind was present. There were plenty of fish caught trolling smelt-like streamers all over, but not the species we were looking for. It was almost impossible to troll through some areas without the reel screaming, only to find out they were either jumbo perch or smallmouth bass. Andre finally locked up on a nice brown trout late in the afternoon and we were happy to finally see one come aboard. The light 5-weight fly rod that accounts for over 50% of the salmon usually taken came through once more with a brownie of nearly 7 pounds. This was to be the only trout today, but not for lack of trying! Tomorrow we’ll hit another lake, searching for salmon & hopefully have better luck with the right species. All in all it was still a great day to be on the water!

We headed back to Champlain once again to try our luck at a few more salmon & trout this morning. Despite the bad weather forecast, I thought it would be worthwhile and decided to go never the less. With rain showers, high S winds and temps not expected to surpass the low 50’s, it was going to be a real challenge today! Our arrival was met with rain as we headed out and it wasn’t too warm either. Trolling in this crap without an enclosed cabin is really unpleasant, to say the least! I’d like to say that it was worth the early arrival to the lake, but we went over 2 hours before the first reel fired. The good news is that we did lock up and were finally on our way to getting into fish. We had to work hard for each and every bite we got and it was the deep lines that produced the best in the beginning. Three out of the first four fish came on a line that was running 10 to 14 feet due to the lack of aggression on the part of the fish. I was marking them plenty, but they just weren’t active. I believe, it was when the rain finally stopped and the skies began to brighten that we started to have a little more action. It was still very overcast, but at least we weren’t in misery anymore! I knew that the fish were coming alive when one of the high lines went off and another salmon came aboard. We finally had a limit of salmon and even a bonus 3-pound brown trout in the livewell. Every time we hooked a fish, I returned to the same area afterwards and monopolized by getting into a few more. We never really had a double header, but we did catch bottom once and while clearing the lines to go back for it, hooked into another salmon. By one or two o’clock, the sun began to show and I knew things were going to change for the better. We had the same show going with other reels firing and each time we turned and went back, we got into more salmon again. I was rather disappointed that my favourite 5 weight fly reel had never gone off and tried everything to get it to go. I ran the line close to the shore on sharp turns only to have the opposite side lock up. I even changed lures to see if this would help, but the opposite rod was getting all the action. It was definitely a mystery as this rod usually accounts for 50% or more of the hook ups on a daily basis. Well, it finally went off and Christiane was into a bigger fish this time. It turned out to be a brown trout of 3.5 pounds and another bonus brownie went into the livewell. This was the start of something good as the next 3 fish also came from this line as well. When a deep line got hit and line began to scream from the reel, Christiane thought it was bottom once again. She was however into something much heavier that usual but unfortunately brought a northern to the boat. Talk about a disappointment! We trolled for a little while longer catching a few more fish but decided to call it quits with the 20 to 30 knot S winds blowing strong. It was finally nice to see very few boats around me and I was able to troll the patterns required to fool these fish into hitting. I don’t think that the other fishermen did very well as I never saw any of them fighting any fish. I hope at least that they were able to get into something, as there’s plenty of salmon out there to be caught. Despite the foul weather and conditions today, I think we fended fairly well with over a dozen fish landed and another 5 or 6 either lost or missed all together. It was still a great day on the water!!