Sunday, June 5, 2011

River Trip

So I went for a great fishing trip with my buddy Shane today. We ended up starting out at a few spots on the Ausable River. Right away we started landing a few small trout in a shallow stretch of fast moving water, however it seemed there were no larger fish in the area so we decided to move on. After a few more spots and no more luck we ended up locating the old covered bridge on the river that Shane remembered fishing from his childhood. As soon as we put our lines in the water we started getting nibbles. We ended up probably catching ten fish apiece there most were small but a few medium sized trout. We were fishing strictly catch and release except for a few fish that swallowed the hook and started to bleed out. After we had our fill of fishing the fast moving water for trout we ended up deciding to go looking for some smallies.
The 20 Incher!

Hook Swallowers!

Shane modeling a nice small mouth
          We ended up driving to an extremely coveted and secluded fishing site in Wilsboro on the Boquet river. This spot was great, it had a small rapids section with a drop off in to a deep pool with fast moving current in the center and slower on the sides of the river. We decided the idea would be to cast our lines just to the edge of the rapids. As soon as we cast our lines there we had our hands full. It took me but 30 seconds to hook the first bass. Now normally its pretty simple to bring bass in but the way our fishing area was made it a little more complicated. Shane and I were situated on a rock jutting slightly out over the water so to bring fish in there meant we risked getting our line cut on the rocks, so our best bet was to walk the lines over to this gradual rock slant that went in to the water. Anyways with this method we closed the day out each landing about 5 bass, Shane also brought in a few decent sized trout there as well. My favorite catch of the day was my last bass, it ended up putting up a decent fight, and when we measured it it was a pretty decent sized 20 incher. Another successful Sunday fishing trip in the books.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

A Pike Obsession

Pike have long been an obsession of mine, probably because I enjoy catching big, strong fish, pike known as the freshwater barracuda are no exception. Lake Champlain was once known for its crazy abundance of pike, in fact pike shooting became very popular on Lake Champlain. Now, however the pike population has declined but that is not saying that there still aren't plenty to be caught.

here is a great sort of how to video on catching them:

Intro

I made this blog for two reasons 1: there is not a whole lot of good fishing advice on fishing on Lake Champlain

and 2: I wanted to document my fishing adventures as i go out on lake Champlain with nothing but a poll, a 9'4" inflatable boat equipped with a trolling motor, and a goal of catching many of the different kinds of fish that lake champlain has to offer.