Bobby & Francois joined me today on a trophy lake for lake trout due to the incredible winds on Memphremagog once more. This has been the 3rd straight day with north winds in excess of 25 knots. To say the fishing was tough would have been an understatement! We tried everything through the day and still only came up with one laker and another lost at the end of the day. Even on a smaller lake we still had waves of 4 foot or better in the late afternoon. The air temps may have been in the upper 50’s but the best we could find for the water was barely 41 degrees. It’s a good thing that the sun was out all day, as the air temps would have felt more like the 30’s instead of what it was. Better days ahead!!

I fished with Brian for a few hours today and started at the crack of ten! We tried to get on Memphremagog, but due to the 15 to 20 knot winds from the north had to settle for a smaller body of water instead. The water temps were still between 37 & 40 degrees depending on the areas we fished and the lake rolled with 3 to 4 foot waves as well. Within the first 3 minutes, there was a lake trout of around 4 pounds in the livewell and shortly after, another closer to 6 pounds lost at the net. One shorter laker was caught after and a few more hits and follows, but with the strong winds, tough fishing was all we got into. By 4:00 we were ready to get off the lake as waves of 3 to 4 feet were all over. I hope this north wind blows itself out real soon, as conditions really need to change in order to have those incredible May days of fishing.

I fished with my buddy Frank & Gilles today on two different lakes. The first lake saw water temps as high as 50 degrees and a boatful of enormous perch. Most of these fish were in the pound class and some were closer to a pound and a half. There weren’t too many bass landed, but a few were caught in the same areas as the perch. We tried several places looking for more of the bass only to come up empty or with 1 fish. The water temps were mostly in the low 40’s with the exception of the 50 degree area that the perch were being taken. Winds have been from the north causing the water to cool instead of warm for this time of year. On the second lake we were looking for lake trout and came up short once again. Out of a possible 7 or 8 followers, only one was actually hooked into. Unfortunately, the fish came off before it could be netted and we left the lake empty handed. Here the water temps were mostly 37 or 38 degrees and one small area actually saw 40 degrees. With the ice only coming off a few days earlier, the fish are still in the winter mode and the best is yet to come.

I fished with Alain and Cindy today on Lake Champlain for Landlocked Salmon. It was the second trip of the year and the results were significantly better. Only a few days earlier I had gone 3 for 4 with just 4 hits all day. Today’s water temps were only registering 45 degrees at best, but the fish were plentiful if you knew where to look. We began trolling the shallows with only 1 fish in about an hour and moved out to deeper water afterwards. This was where we were to finally get into them good! Both Cindy and Alain had many salmon grab hold of the baits and fought numerous fish for the next hour or so before it all went silent again. We trolled shallower as well as deeper trying to locate what we had been on before that even produced the first double header of the season with little success. All we cold find was smaller browns and an occasional rainbow. These fish were so plentiful that I had to actually leave an area because too many of them were hitting our lines. We picked a fish here and there until a little later in the afternoon when we got into them once more. Alain even managed to fight a nice brown of around four pounds in between more salmon. Cindy caught the first salmon of the day and while we were clearing all the lines at the end of the day grabbed another rod that fired to fight the largest salmon as the last fish of the day. This fish was a nice salmon of about 4 pounds making all the fish in the livewell, quality sized. All the salmon were between 18 & 20 inches, which is not the norm for Champlain. We had all lost track of the total count but were sure it was close to 25 fish for the day with at least 15 being salmon. This was an excellent day by anyone’s standards!!

After a lengthy period of cold weather, we finally saw a break in the weather enabling us to fish for steelhead again. Jay had been thinking of catching more silver bullets since our last trip some three weeks earlier and couldn’t wait to get back. We decided to arrive the night before and take advantage of the two mild days forecasted before the cold settled back once more. The morning saw temperatures in the upper 20’s with even warmer temps soon to follow. Sunshine and no wind was an added bonus we could definitely live with as well! Float fishing with fresh roe would definitely be the ticket needed to entice these chrome beauties I thought and just how right, I was soon to find out. Jay was soon tight to a fish and well on his way to having a day of incredible action. Many more fish were to follow as he hooked fish in every spot we were to fish. Most of the steelhead were dime bright, but a few of the larger males were putting on their war paint in anticipation of the spawn soon to come. Jay got to hook into 15 fish today with the largest landed going around 12 pounds. As usual, there had to be a couple of fish that were too big to handle that just got away! He even landed a beautiful brown trout of about 5 pounds as an added bonus fish! In the end, Jay was to go 11 for 15 landed today. What an incredible day for lots of action. Day two saw the weather changing considerably with clouds and dampness in the air. There was a wind from the S/W at 5 to 10 knots as well making line control a little more challenging. The fish weren’t as cooperative as the day before and Jay had to work for every bite he was to get. Some smaller steelhead were eager to take the egg sacs as he landed a couple of skippies before hooking into a decent sized fish. Unfortunately, it was to be short lived as the steelhead just came up to the surface rolling and then pulled off. I believe it was to have been around 7 or 8 pounds, but we’ll never know! A little while later, Jay hooked into anther monster of a fish and was soon about to see just how quick this fish could move. In less than a minute, the fish covered so much water back & forth that it was almost impossible to keep up. Soon he tucked in behind some larger rocks and rolled on the surface, breaking the 6-pound leader. I estimated this one to be in the 15- pound class when we both got a pretty good look at the beast. Too bad, as it would have been a personal best! After a quick lunch I thought we would try a little walk into an area that might have untouched fish. It was to prove to be very interesting! Along the way, Jay stumbled and stopped himself from taking a header by submerging his arm in the water to the elbow. He had the rod & reel in the same hand too! It was a partial baptism, but a baptism nonetheless that usually follows with some sort of reward. It wasn’t long after we regained our composure that Jay was once again locked up on another large fish. I decided that the net wasn’t needed with this long hike and was beginning to second-guess myself when I saw just how powerful the fish really was. Fortunately, Jay had played with enough fish this trip to be able to muscle her out of the current into a slower pocket of water where I was able to tail her with a glove. She was a little darker than hat we had been seeing, but had a beautiful purple lateral line that made her just spectacular. I knew that the day was not to get any better and ended it on a high note! In the two days of fishing Jay had hooked into 21 fish and landed 15 of them. Our timing was bang on once more! I can’t wait to get back there again and tangle with more of these special winter steelhead myself!