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!!

I decided to give Lake Champlain another try today and headed there with Christiane, once again. Overcast skies and winds from the S/E at 10 to 20 knots were what we were faced with for most of the morning. Periodically the sun popped through a hole in the clouds and changed the air temperature, but only for a brief moment. The water temps had dropped drastically since last weekend and were no longer around 47 degrees. At best, I was able to find 43.5 degrees and the fish were gone too. I trolled all over looking for some warmer water but wasn’t able to find anything better. I did however manage to locate bait in deeper water and amongst them were a few fishhooks as well. With a couple of deeper running fly lines, I was sure we would be able to scratch up a few bites and worked them over for quite a while. All of a sudden when the sun came out, one of the reels fired and then went silent. I hate short strikes! Moments later with the aid of the sun, the long line went off and we were finally into our first salmon. The skunk was officially gone as I slid the net under the salmon and released it into my livewell! We worked this area for a long time afterwards without any success and I decided to relocate. I began trolling over 20 to 30 feet of water when I found 45.5 degrees and it didn’t take long before one of the deep lines went off and another fish was on. I realized that without the aid of the sun, I was going to stay deep and continued trolling this depth. We had several hook-ups with only a few fish actually coming to the net. They just weren’t active! When the sun finally came out for good, the fish came alive! I was getting strikes on every rod and fish were finally cooperating. I trolled a deep pattern and swung into the shallower water now & then as well. Every column of water held active fish and we finally had the action we wanted. We were even able to get that bonus brown trout of 3.5 pounds on one of the deep lines late in the afternoon as well. By five o’clock we decided to call it a day and headed back to the ramp. Overall, we managed to land about 10 or 12 fish and lost at least half that many more as well. The hooks just seemed to be pulling out on many of the fish for whatever reason. I think they were short striking the baits and barely getting a hook in their mouths. It may not have been as fast & furious as the weekend before, but it was still a lot of fun!