Today was a slightly better day on the lake but equally as windy too! Danny, Stephan, Sam and his brother joined me for a cold windy day on lake Memphremagog for bass. The winds were still from the north at 25 knots and the water temps were close to 50 degrees in some of the shallower bays. The offshore structures were a little cooler and very hard to fish under these conditions. The bay on the other hand was a little easier and had some fish willing to cooperate. All of the guys managed to hook up and some better than the others. There were about 30 or so fish caught today with about half of them being smallies. There were even a couple of largemouth caught as well. Our air temps were a little cool as well but with the sunshine it wasn’t too bad at all. Still a tough day on the water!!

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!!