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!

Opening day for trout in Quebec finally arrived and I was off to Magog with Dave for the day. I had high expectations for getting into some trout & salmon and planned on running fly rods and several of the recently tied, tandem streamers. With a beautiful sunny day ahead and temperatures reaching the mid 70’s, I thought the fish should be feeding near the surface for sure! Little to no wind was what we were faced with throughout the day and T-Shirts were being worn by afternoon! Most areas on the lake had water temps around 37 to 38 degrees and that was rather cool by comparison to last weekend’s high of 47 degrees. Different lakes with different altitudes will have a major part in determining when the ice leaves and Magog was only a few days gone. We trolled several areas all over the lake without any success, changing depths and flies as we went along. From deeper water to shallower bays, nay a touch! I was really beginning to wonder if we were ever going to hear the reel fire! In a last ditch effort, I even went to a tiny minnow bait on one of the rods that I do so well with on another lake, hoping to get bit. I continued looking for warmer water all throughout the troll and eventually found a bay that went almost 47 degrees in one area. Once again I was sure we were going to find them there, but was disappointed when we never had a hit. It was getting on in the afternoon and I thought I would just take a chance and run far back in a bay to see if I could find the warmest water anywhere and eventually stumbled onto 53 degrees. This area gave me the confidence to spend a little time looking around and finally, one of the reels fired. Dave was at last into something and we were pumped! Although it wasn’t really big, it was at least a fish and that was great! It hit the minnow bait and eventually came off when it neared the boat, but not before we both got a look at it. It didn’t take too long afterwards for another reel to go off and Dave was once again locked up. I had changed the fly to another minnow bait and was glad when we finally netted a nice rainbow. At last, the skunk was out of the boat! Eventually I trolled everywhere in this area just looking for water temp and any sign of life. I finally found it, but I was over 100 feet of water when another reel went off and a salmon took to the air. This one also made it to the net and joined his buddy in the livewell. One more salmon a little later, also over 100 feet of water and that was all she wrote. We had spent all day looking for fish and found some in the last 2 hours of the day. Too bad we hadn’t started here! All in all a pretty tough day, but by not giving up we were able to put a few in the boat. Tough season opener!

Well, it’s finally here! It’s niche season and the beating began today on Lake Champlain. The beating I’m referring to was on the fish and oh how we did just that. With my wife’s birthday only 1 day away, we decided to head to the lake to see if we could catch a few trout & salmon and have some fun. Neither of us realized just how much fun we were about to have as we slid the boat in and headed to our first spot. I’m not sure, but I think it was about 15 minutes into the troll when the first reel went off and we were locked up. While Christiane was bringing in the fish, another reel fired and I grabbed this one. I had a screamer and knew instantly that this was the real deal. I swapped rods when I saw that hers was a white bass and passed her the one with the salmon. After a short battle, I slid the net under the fish and we had the skunk out of the boat! Into the livewell it went and we were officially on our way! It didn’t take too long before other rods were firing and this was the way it was to be, all day long! I don’t think we went more than 10 or 15 minutes between bites at the worst and most of the time it was even less. At one point, it was hard to actually keep all of the lines in the water with so much action going on. Other boats saw this and decided to move in on us making my life difficult! I guess they just wanted to hook up and didn’t care how they did it, so my trolling pattern became almost impossible. I eventually had to leave the area I was catching just to be able to fish properly and soon started locking up once more. This was once again interrupted as some of the other boats saw the action and slid over to where we were catching. All I could do was suck it up, keep fishing and continue catching all around them! Fortunately for us but unfortunately for them, we were the only ones into fish and I’m sure they were wondering what we were doing that they weren’t. In the mix of salmon we caught there were also a couple of nice, bonus brown trout landed that went about 3.5 pounds apiece. In the almost 6 hours of fishing, we probably landed at least 25 fish with about 10 or 15 more either lost or just missed altogether. What a way to spend the first day on the water, just catching & releasing salmon all day long! Water temps reached 47 degrees and the air temps were in the upper 70’s with a light N/E wind.

Although it’s been too long since the last report, I have managed to wet a line here & there! The Steelhead fishing has been pretty good if you could dodge the daily weather changes. I did get snowed in once when 49 inches of the heavy stuff fell in a 24 hour period. Yes, I did say inches! In between steelhead, there have been a few walleye ice fishing trips that have helped me keep my sanity, but barely. Shovelling snow every other day has caused me to look foreword to the ice melt even more than usual this year. I hope to be able to get the boat back on the water for the season opener for trout & salmon at the end of April, but who knows if the lakes will still be frozen! I will also be fishing Memphremagog, Massawippi and a few other smaller lakes for trout & salmon as well and am taking bookings already. Having the right boat surely helps with the different styles of fishing that I am planning on doing this season. The 621 Ranger Multi Species rig is equipped for everything that I want to cover from early trout to late fall Walleye & Muskie. The bass fishing will not change as my priority, but now I will expand on the other styles and species of fishing as well. My bookings have already begun and there will surely be more to come when the weather finally warms. If anyone is interested in some great early season action, I suggest that you get in touch with me as soon as possible. As with past seasons, it’s first come, first serve! This boat can take a maximum of four people, plus myself, but I still prefer only three. It’s a safety factor and nothing else! Tight lines to all!