Fishing Labor Day on Lake Champlain

[pierre]

On the Lake Saturday the 3rd and Sunday the 4th. First time this year in around Port Douglas. On the water by 7.30, my wife and I started slowly trolling in the northern direction trying to get clean water. The water was merky like soup and full of debris in 2 to 3 and some 4 foot waves and lots of loose grass in the water. After an hour or so of fishing, my wife started to feel the waves and not feeling so good. Gerry and his wife joined us around noon on the water with his toy. After a few hours going north we turned back south facing the waves (heading south in the pounding waves but no luck, only a few white fish and some perche. It's not very easy to clean the lures of all the grass in these waves. The day ended in a nice supper with Gerry and his wife sipping a glass of wine back at the motel getting ready for the next day of fishing .

Sunday back on the water but this time going south. The waves are somewhat smaller but the water is as merky as the day before and a lot of grass on the lures, you have to keep cleaning your lures every 15 minutes or so, then slowly the water is getting calmer and cleaner, then suddenly I hear thunder in the background but the sky apears to be clear and then more thunder and darker skys. Oups! and then a strike, my first salmon of the weekend, 14'' or so it's a start, back in the water he went and then another one and another one, approximately all the same size, and then the thunder and the rain started pourring down; so we picked up all the gear and headed back to the ramp as we were constantly getting worning messages from the weather chanal of sever thunder storms with high winds and possibilty of hail. As we got half way to the ramp the sky cleared so we set up the fishing gear again and I made one more small salmon and thas was all for me. We were out of the water by 1 pm, it was a very pleasant two days even with the rain and wind. Hope to be back soon for the big catch.

Pierre

[digitroll (ron)]

Pierre,

Thanks for the report and photos. I am wondering how the water might be in Willsboro bay? If it's calm Wednesday it might be worth a run for us out of the Coast Guard Station? I haven't fished Willsboro in 20 years. Maybe I will see Trolling Tina.

He has some nice fish on his website caught in Willsboro this season. http://www.lakechamplainfishing.com/

[raz]

Thanks for the report Pierre. Glad you enjoyed your trip.
I noticed the display unit for your probe is mounted on your downrigger. Interesting.
Is that unit sealed well enough to take rain and water splashing during rough conditions? It looks very convenient to have it located there as long as it can handle the conditions.

[pierre]

I installed the unit on my canon downrigger so I wouldn't have too many wires all over the boat to plug in and out. This unit works with the downriggers, to install this unit I made a wooden bracket which I installed with stainless steel screws and then I could screw the unit on so as to stay permanent. I filled the hole with silicone under my downrigger and therefore got the power directly in the downrigger so when I plug in my downrigger it automatically has power. I only have to press the on button when I want to use it plus I taped the antenna directly on the downrigger's shaft. It's been on my downrigger for almost a year amd no problem so far it works very well.

This way I only place the proble on the cable and press the on button and everything starts to display the depth, the temperature and the speed and it's amazing some times to see the current in the lake at certain depths. On my sonar is diplayed 2.6 mph and on the probe it shows me a diffrent speed 3.2 mph or different temperature and that's what makes the difference sometimes .

Here are a few pictures.

Glad to help
Pierre

[raz]

Pierre...thanks for the explanation and pictures.
That's quite creative.

[pierre]

It a plasure Raz.

[digitroll (ron)]

Cannon (Johnson Outdoors parent company) should pay you for that idea to patent.

Cool.

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Thanks Pierre for sharing some wonderful time with us this weekend.
The fishing conditions were not the best, but it is always a pleasure to be on the water and spend some valuable time with friends.
On Saturday, as you mentionned, water was choppy in the morning and my 'autopilot" Lilianne had some hard time steering the boat because of the wind and waves. It was her first time fishing Champlain. She went through a lot of crackers trying to avoid turning green. As the wind settled, she regained some colors, but she was pretty drained. In the afternoon, I lost my "autopilot" for over an hour as she took a nap and recharged her batteries, since the weather got much better.
During that solo period, I managed to boat 3 ciscos.
We ended the day with 5 cisco and about 125 lbs of grass on the lures and rigger balls.

Sunday early morning we were back on the water.... still choppy, so we headed south trying to find some smoother water close to Wilsboro Bay.
Around 10am, the sky turned dark and we could hear thunder closing by. Got the tarps on and the lines off the water as it started pouring down. It only lasted a few minutes than the sky cleared and we went back to fishing. After a few more crackers, my "autopilot" batteries were drained again and she went to sleep mode......
Now she thinks I should invest in a "modern" electronic autopilot....
Around 2 pm, wind seemed to start picking up again, so we decided it was time to stop. We ended with one yellow and one white perch.
Other boaters we met at the ramp were also unluckly at boxing a keeper.
As we got ready to leave, WallyAndre arrived at the launch for an afternoon trial.... With his experience, I hope he did better than us.

It was a nice ride back home. We arrived at 6pm and unpacked everything just a few minutes before the rain arrived.
It turned out to be a fun getaway weekend.... leaving the kids home on their own for the first time.
This was my first outing this year where I did not bring any fish back home... ... on the bright side, no fish to clean....

[digitroll (ron)]

Great report Gerry! I was heading over to Willsboro bay today with my sister, however, with 1" of rain expected today moving from south to north and another 1" tonight from the tropical storm remnants I think it will be a honey do list today. We will regroup and try next Wednesday the 14th. It's been that kind of year for us.