Nice last trip for 2015 - Shelburne Bay 12/26

[tiny]

Went out with dw61 early today and headed to the coast guard launch. We ran in to popster and digitroll there and we all headed over to Shelburne Bay. I'm not actually complaining about the warm weather, but I brought one of my ice rods out to protest the fact that I can't ice fish yet. We ran a bunch of different lures from the surface down to around 40 but most of the action came at 15-25'. Ended up 5/6 with two nice browns, 2 17" salmon, and a nice laker. First brown and the two salmon were both caught on the ice rod, which was pretty silly but still got the job done. Full moon, beautiful sunrise, perfect weather, three species of fish, and a little bit of a sunburn!

Full moon, popster, 30" ice rod


Sunrise


First fish on the short rod


Fat 19" brown!


Dave with the first salmon, also on the short rod


Getting slimy out by Dunder


Champlain triple

[digitroll (ron)]

Nice job guys! Some great photos too! Our last trip as well as I have conceded to put the boat away on a high note with great weather!

7 boats on the pond today and mostly spread out on a picture perfect day. We had to turn the heater off about 9:30 am with the sun streaming in with the green house effect. It was a great run in December with dry roads / great fishing / spectacular weather! The boat has been winterized as of late yesterday afternoon.

3 months now till the first week of April.

Fish on!

[fishingmachine]

love the ice rod! wished I thought of that,went out with my friend Sam Shulstis in his boat near westport and landed 6 lakers and 1 salmon,lakers were nice ones about 6-8 lbs. and salmon around 18" beautiful day on the water,flat and fishy.there were 6 boats around there but no bird action and few salmon.All fish are still swimming happily along like nothing ever happened.

[Black Ghost (Ken)]

Very slow day down in th Split Rock area. Three of us on the Black Ghost with only 3 fish (just one landed). Everyone else we talked to had about one fish per person so we were pretty much on average.

However, we couldn't complain about the weather!

[popster]

Nice pics Joe & congrats on the Browns. It was a great day to be on the water with a beautiful moon set. Almost like a mini derby around Shelburne! Good to see Tiny, Dave, Digi, Andy (Bottom Dollar) & Mark (Registered Kayak).
We worked the east side of Shelb Bay in 45-60', boating several small Salmon up to 17". Lots of bait. Also, worked the area NW of Proctor and Juniper, before ending the day in the trench. Afternoon bite got hot again with some nice Lakers in the mix. Our setup was Small Slide Divers back 50/out 60-80' & shallow riggers. Blue/nickel, Glo/red, Sausage Gravy all worked.
Amazing that DEC 26, the water temp is 44F throughout. Gotta love it. Happy New Year

Hey Joe, we saw that same moon!!

[dw61]

Picture perfect day. Sad to say I winterized my boat yesterday so that's a wrap. Gut check the salmon and brown from in Shelburne bay had small but many smelt the brown and laker outside the bay had 1-2 smelt but they were larger smelt. Can't wait for some ice. BTW thanks again Ron!

[BottomDollar]

Slow solo day for me yesterday. Just a couple of lakers after a late start. But boy what a beauty of a day! Great to see all you guys in the bay. It's also been very nice to meet a bunch of you and put faces to the names here. I'll be picking my days out of Burlington until the ramp ices in. See you out there! Cheers, Andy

[Matt]

That's hilarious Joe....ice rod on the boat. I've actually done it while jigging off a boat for yellows. Can't imagine how funny it was with a salmon on!

[Gecha (Gerry)]

Full moon, popster, 30" ice rod

Love how you secured that ice rod to the boat

[fishhuntadventure]

?.. boat has been winterized as of late yesterday afternoon...

Please define this obscure term, "winterized." Does that mean you broke down?

Ya, I'm just being dorky.....

My hands have been tied with life and work, depending on the month, but after nearly two years of very little fishing and all the warm weather this winter I'm really getting antsy to fish, and a lot. Stinks my old faithful "office" motor doesn't run dependably anymore, but the new boat should do fine. Missing being out there! Missing people!

Anyway, nice seeing the reports. I've been antsy to fish for a few months now, especially after missing the Frostbite Shootout fun. Then I got a couple of wooden boat books for Christmas presents and after reading for two hours last night it got me frustrated and I had to log in this morning.

On the bright side, after the 1st I have my hands untied for a month or so. Really hoping my 320,000Btu construction heater can knock down the chill in the barn enough so I can make progress. The 90HP is halfway hung, needs to be bolted and sealed, controls rigged, cables and electrics run, etc. Then the hardtop carpentry can commence, along with wiring install, etc etc. etc. and at some point need to diagnose the 6hp trolling motor. That goes on the OMC spring-loaded bracket you were nice enough to sell me, Ron!

MC/HNY everyone

[tiny]

Love how you secured that ice rod to the boat

I was hoping somebody would notice that! Short rod with a smooth handle was pretty sketchy in the rod holder. That's my pike jigging rod so it was actually plenty stiff for moving the bigger brown around and getting it netted.

[digitroll (ron)]

Your welcome DW61! Great seeing you guys at the ramp launching and retrieving.

Mark: I winterized the motor and boat for the big winter sleep late Saturday afternoon after fishing till 11:00 am that morning.

Or Websters definition:

win•ter•ize (ˈwɪn təˌraɪz)

v.t. -ized, -iz•ing.
to prepare (something) by various measures to be functional in or to withstand cold weather.

[dw61]

The new Vermont dictionary

Win-ter-ize
To prevent the polar vortex from damaging your boat while staying ready to launch when El Niño returns.

[digitroll (ron)]

The new Vermont dictionary Win-ter-ize To prevent the polar vortex from damaging your boat while staying ready to launch when El Niño returns.

That's it!