After a 2-day rest from fishing due to minor motor adjustments, I was back on the water once more for Ouananiche Salmon. My wife, Christiane & I headed to Lake Champlain with great expectations! Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite what we anticipated as we were soon to find out. The weather had changed, but not for the better with air temps only hitting 50 degrees and water temps dropping over 5 degrees since the last trip two days earlier. Cloud cover hung over our heads all day long with winds from the S/E at 15 knots and occasional heavier gusts. The weekend boat traffic was also unbelievable with people everywhere! It was difficult to troll any one specific area with boats constantly in your way, but I managed nevertheless! About 5 minutes into our troll one of the rods screamed for a brief instant, but immediately went silent. I hate when they short strike! Not long after, another rod fired and we were into our first fish of the day. A small brown trout was soon landed and immediately released. We continued trolling the areas that had produced so well on the last trips for quite a while before I realized, it just wasn’t happening. I began searching deeper water for baitfish and fish markings with my electronics and once I found what I was looking for, set the lines out again. Rods began firing almost immediately, but it seemed like all the fish were on the smaller side and we just released them. Several more short strikes got our attention but they just kept getting off! This was to be the day of the short fish, I thought! Due to the excessive amount of boats occupying all the best areas, I decided to get away and try deeper water. We were able to cover many different depth levels with the set up I had and one of the lines was running as deep as 10 to 12 feet. Finally, the deep line fired and produced a decent Salmon. A little later it fired again and another fish came aboard only to be ¼ inch too short. Back in it went once more! I finally managed to locate a concentration of both bait and fish over 25 feet of water near the end of the day. We managed to get into 4 more salmon in less than an hour with 3 of them going into the livwell. More browns and a couple of short salmon later, we called it a day. The winds had increased and the weather looked dismal, so we knew the rain was soon to follow. Back at the boat ramp I spoke to a couple of people and found out they scored a big zero for the day! I really hadn’t seen very many fish hooked or landed amongst all the boat traffic and knew we had probably done better once more. I only wish I had made the move earlier and brought the numbers up a little higher. The final head count was 7 browns and 6 salmon landed with at least twice that much in short strikes. A potential 30 fish day might have occurred if it was a perfect world! Unfortunately that’s fishing and not catching! Still, a good day was had and nobody got hurt!!! With about a week left for me to fish Champlain this spring before I head to Derby and concentrate on lake Memphremagog, I strongly urge anyone interested to give me a call! Once the weather changes and the sun comes out again, these fish will definitely be back on fire! Worst-case scenario, I have to concentrate back in deep water once more to have multiple hookups and amazing “Niche” fishing days!

What an unbelievable fishing experience for Jay, today! This was definitely the best fishing, so far this season! It was a double-digit day within the first couple of hours. With the sunshine out all day and the air temps reaching into the 70’s, I knew we had a winner! I don’t think we had the lines out for more than 3 minutes before the first rod fired & Jay was into his first salmon. After netting the fish and placing it into the live well, Jay thought he would celebrate with a cup of coffee. Big mistake! Another rod fired off and he had to drop everything to grab it. A third rod went at the same time and two fish were on for a few brief seconds. Unfortunately, only one of them stayed pinned as Jay landed his second salmon of the morning. Rods continued to fire off every five to ten minutes with some of the fish coming off before Jay could even get to the rods. I don’t think we went more than 15 minutes at the most without some sort of action, all morning long. The best fire-drill of the day had to be when rod # 2 fired and I yelled, “Fish on 2” then “Fish on 3” then “Fish on 4”. Jay didn’t know where to turn as he grabbed the second rod. I grabbed the third, then the fourth before I realized, there was nothing I could do with my hands so full. I decided that I would just place them back in the rod holders and concentrate on landing one fish at a time. Remarkably, Jay did just that! All fish were eventually brought to net and we both got a good laugh at this ordeal. After we regained our composure and put the rods back in the water, another fish was on and Jay was about to land a beautiful brown trout. This was definitely a bonus fish! Several salmon later, he landed an even bigger brown trout once more and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the size of it. It was all of five pounds and more! Another bonus fish for the day! There were 14 fish landed and several more missed strikes before noon. We had to take a ten- minute break for lunch, as we knew it would be an impossibility to eat & fish. That would definitely be a recipe for disaster! The winds had gotten stronger when we returned to fishing and this definitely made boat control more difficult. We were still catching fish, but the 2 to 3 footers that were bouncing us around, were really annoying. Many more salmon and another big, bonus brown trout were landed during the afternoon with every one a fire drill. Lines were tangling from the winds while fighting these fish and netting them was a real treat too! We endured all that “Mother Nature” had to offer and fished till about 4:00 in the afternoon before calling it quits. By days end, I had recorded a surface temp of over 50 degrees in some of the areas we had been fishing. It’s no wonder that Jay had the time of his life, landing 22 fish by himself. What a “Great Day on The Water”!!!!! I can’t wait to get back!

I was back on the water once again today with my wife, Christiane and fished for almost five hours until the winds kicked up too bad to troll. The day began with sunny skies and air temps above 50 degrees. Winds were from the S/SW at about 10 knots but increased to 25 knots after noon. Our first trolling pass produced 3 salmon with plenty of action. The fish were hitting the short lines this morning, which was unusual. Normally, the longer lines get most of the action, but not today! The winds made fishing a little difficult, but not impossible as we were seeing slower action, but action nevertheless. When the shallow bite died off, I decided to troll deeper water looking for a school of Salmon. Two rods went off at the same time as soon as I made it to 20 feet but only 1 stayed locked up. There were definitely more fish deeper as they moved out with the cooler shallows. The warmest I could find there was 42.5 in the morning and 43.5 in the afternoon. The further off shore you went, the worse the winds were, so I tried to remain in a fishable zone. It was definitely slower than yesterday, but the conditions weren’t as good either. We trolled until about 1:30 PM and called it quits when it just got too bad. Our rewards for today were 7 salmon & 1 brown trout with at least 4 lost fish and a few missed strikes as well. We had the potential of equaling or bettering yesterday’s total, but fell short due to the winds and duration on the water today. All in all it was a good day, with plenty of action in a short time. Several other boats were seen fishing the same area, but we never saw any of them hook up. Oh well, better luck next time! With the weather continuing to warm, any stable weather day will be a productive one. From now till the end of the month, every day should be a “Double Digit Day”!

After an exhausting attempt yesterday, to find someone willing to fish today, I came up empty. Nobody was willing to take the day off from work and fish, Niche. Big mistake! Fortunate for my wife, but unfortunate for everyone else, she had a couple of days off and took advantage of it. The weather was calling for sunshine and highs of above 60 degrees for today. I knew it would be a great day! Winds were light from the S/SW at 5 to 10 knots and the water temps ranged between 41.5 and 44 degrees depending where you were and what time of the day it was. Once the four rods were finally set out, it didn’t take long for the first reel to fire. Christiane was into a beautiful landlocked salmon that was to be just the first of many more to come. All day long we had action with every rod catching fish. One fish even hit while we were letting line out again! Spectacular jumps and line screaming runs from most of these fish were frequently occurring and we loved it! Christiane went 9 for 9 before she actually lost her first Salmon as I told her that the number 10 was always tough to hit. Another lost fish, one or two missed strikes and still no 10th fish! Finally she locked up on what seemed like a huge fish and it fought like a lake trout sounding for the bottom. Several minutes passed and we had still not seen the fish. When I eventually caught a glimpse of this thing, I was sure it was a big trout! Unfortunately as it came up more into my sight, I realized it wasn’t any trout but just a northern pike of 5 to 6 pounds. What a disappointing moment when I netted this thing and unhooked it. I don’t know how it didn’t break off as the bait was completely inside the mouth of this toothy creature. Oh well, still no number 10 yet! This was about to change though, as another fish screamed off reel number 4. This was definitely a salmon as it made an unbelievable aerial show for all to see! Number 10 and number 11 were almost back-to-back as another reel fired within minutes. This one also came to net and was released immediately afterwards. We continued to troll for about 20 minutes longer and contemplated packing it in for the day when one of the rods fired off again. When Christiane grabbed the fly rod from the holder, another reel screamed and I had to take the rod. This was our first actual double for the day and both fish were to soon be landed. Thirteen Landlocked Salmon landed, 4 or 5 lost and several missed strikes were today’s total. A potentially 20 plus fish day was what we were blessed with today! All I can say is wow! What a great day to be on the water! Expect more of the same in the next few weeks with the water warming up and the fish getting more active. Everyone should take advantage of this spectacular Ouananiche fishing, as it really is unbelievable!

I fished with Dave & Jeff today on Lake Champlain for Landlocked Salmon. It was a chilly morning with the air barely above freezing when we arrived. I don’t think it ever reached 48 degrees by the end of the day and with the wind from the N/NW once again, it felt more like 38. Water temps were between 39.5 and 42.5 degrees, depending where you were. I thought it was going to be a great day when Dave hooked into a fish while letting the line out on the first rod. This was a first as it wasn’t even two minutes into the day and we had our first hook up! What an initiation into this technique as a beautiful bonus brown trout came to the net. It was quite a while before the second rod fired and Jeff was into the first Salmon of the day. It gave him quite a fight as the fish tangled into another fly line during the battle. Luckily, we were able to land it even with the mess that occurred! A couple more fish managed to get off shortly afterwards due to short strikes. I think they were lightly taking the tail of the baits as some of them just came off during the battle. No doubles today, but still good fishing nevertheless! Five Salmon & one brown were landed with a few others lost and some short strikes. All in all about 10 or 12 possible fish with about half landed. With this cooler water, it’s not uncommon to have a day like this. Warmer weather is ahead of us for this week and the fishing will only continue to get better as the water warms. Multiple hookups and double-digit days are soon to come and I will be there to take advantage of this. It’s “Niche Season” and the Ouananiche Salmon are coming alive with the water temps on the rise. The next couple of days will be the best so far with sunshine and 60 degrees forecasted for both of them. Hopefully someone will take advantage of this weather pattern and experience some of the best Salmon of the year. Tight Lines to all!!!