HOT fishing on Caspian

Share info and fishing reports from waters other than Lake Champlain.
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keithm87
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HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by keithm87 »

Forecast looked a little windy for my liking on the big lake, so me and my buddy Vin continued our trolling education with a trip to Caspian. I have fished it frozen and caught lakers, and know that it has a large population, but failed miserably in my attempt to troll there last year. Being trolling masters after a few successful trips now we figured why not give it a whirl, and try for some revenge. We hit the water at 6:15 launched and set gear. We trolled around the rocks and out to the back side of the lake, we were marking fish like crazy they were darting off the bottom in 60-80 ft up to our gear which I had set at 30 and 40. As soon as they darted up they would dart down. We kept along the left side of the lake following the shore and moved a little shallower and saw a rod start to dance. It was vin's rod with a dipsy and he landed a nice 20 inch laker. we looped the area as all the marks meant there must be more where it came from, and as we were dropping back down off the ledges one of the rigger rods went crazy, and then a second later it released and 30ft back of the boat was a flying fish. I hopped to action and started to fight it while Vin grabbed the net, the acrobat went airborne 3 more times before making it into the net. It was a beautiful 22 inch 3lb rainbow that was as silver as they come. After that fish we landed a few more small lakers and then the action just stopped. We tried everything, with no success we marked fish coming up, following for 10-20 seconds and then diving back down. We did a full loop of the lake and caught nothing, then as quick as it shut off we were on them again landing 4 fish in a matter of 15 minutes all small lakers with one keeper. Then it steadied for the rest of the day. We landed 13 lakers and a rainbow, and had only one missed fish.

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Gecha (Gerry)
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Gecha (Gerry) »

Thanks for the report Keith. Looks like a similar fishing pattern we often get on Champlain. Glad you were able to dial on them and get some nice action.
Gecha (Gerry North of the Border)
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Reelax
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Reelax »

That's some of the best trolling action I have heard of off that lake...

WTG!
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Crayfish
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Crayfish »

Nice job, Keith! Sounds like you are getting your trolling game dialed in. What were they hitting on? My son and I fished up there 2 months ago and it was slow. We caught 2 small lakers on stick baits. Couldn't find any rainbows. The water was really cold, though, and I figured things would get better when it warmed up some. We just haven't made it back up there yet.

Congrats on a great day of fishing!
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keithm87
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by keithm87 »

They were super picky all day long. We had gear set down on the riggers 30-40 ft with cheaters on both riggers and then a normal and small dipsy out In the morning we landed a couple on a silver speedy shiner holo with red dots on the normal size dipsy. I lost that lure when I hit a hump and had to break it off when it got stuck, and the rainbow came on my trusty chartreuse with black dots speedy that seems to excel on sunny days it was set as a cheater at that point but I moved it to the ball in the afternoon. We landed one fish on a pins minnow in a holo brown trout patter on the small dipsy set on 3 to run off the side, and another on a red and orange mousamaloo on the bigger dipsy. and then the rest of the afternoon pick up was on the chart speedy shiner on the one rigger at the ball. I moved it around depth wise and still caught fish on it. I have like 8 of those speedy shiners in that color, but my pride kept me from putting more than one out, so on the other 3 rods we went through probably 12 different color sticks, 15+ color ivans, honeybees, stingers, and other color speedy shiners, and several swimbaits and dodger fly setups with no success. even running at the same level with identical set backs. We were running vertical flashers in the morning on both sides, but took them off in the afternoon after the dry spell and ran davis's off the ball that had the speedy shiner, but even that setup was dead for over an hour with at least 4 other lures before I moved the speedy to the bottom. So the trusty speedy was the magic lure of the day. It is truly crazy what a difference the lure can make is. In my limited time trolling this is the first time I have had success with the same lure I had success with on a prior trip. The first trip out this year I caught salmon on super dupers, went and bought 15 to build a collection, and havent caught a fish on them since, second time out I caught so many fish on the speedy that the paint wore off a brand new lure by the end of the day, and then nothing with that pattern the last 6 times out till yesterday. Had a day where all they would hit was stick baits on friday in the same weather pattern... The good thing about the inland lakes is that in 1.5 hours you can cover the hole lake and find the fish then you just have to make them bite. Champ is more challenging with its size, you can go hours without a single good mark.
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Hairbone
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Hairbone »

That's a great color pattern for the dog days of summer!

Now I know where I know you from seeing your t-shirt arms cuffed in... your that guy on the TV show cops that they coined the wife beater t-shirt term after. :mrgreen: keep up the reports and trying out all kinds of junk!
Sleepswithdafishes
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Sleepswithdafishes »

Great report!! Caspian can be very challenging !! You fellas threw a lot stuff at them and the hard work paid off!!! At one time the lake had one of the highest catch rates in the state!!! But the last few years its seams at least to me to be a little bit slower! A number of years ago I caught a Very pretty 5lb rainbow trolling a crawler.anyways thanks for the report and pics!!! Sleeps
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Crayfish
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Crayfish »

You certainly worked for them, Keith. Figures ... that's the ONE color of Speedy I don't have! :lol:

Congrats again!
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browntown
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by browntown »

That is great detail! Love to here from the NEK. Will be heading up to Seymour sometime in the next few weeks I hope.
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keithm87
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by keithm87 »

I have never trolled Seymour, but iced fished it opening day 3 years ago and hammered little lakers. Doesn't it have a line restriction?
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Crayfish
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by Crayfish »

Yeah, I believe it is only 1 line / angler. With "cheaters" you can get 2 lures. We fished it last year for the first time in open water and didn't have any luck. Marked lots of fish and had a few followers in ~80' of water in the big bay on the northwest corner. Tried plugs, spoons, cowbells, etc, but nothing would bite.
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keithm87
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by keithm87 »

Note to anyone ever thinking of fishing Caspian on a hot weekend day:


DON'T DO IT!!!!

We went back on sunday trying to follow up the good day last monday. fishing was slower but we caught a few, but the place was a mad house. We got there early and were the second boat in the water. As the day got hotter it got busier, then the wind kicked in a little and all the sudden out of nowhere a bunch of tiny sailboats were cruising around trying to see how close they could get to hitting me and other boats. By the time we left the parking lot was jammed full of people mostly beach goers and kayakers. My truck was almost parked in due to people not taking the fact that I have a 102 inch wide 23ft long trailer into consideration when parking so close to my truck I could barely open the doors. Needed a spotter to clear the rigs when pulling out forward and came mighty close even then to clipping the cars on both sides while trying to avoid hitting the car ahead of me. people were tying down their boats on the ramp and examining them for 10 minutes while other people waited for them to move. I got cut off as I was backing down the ramp by a truck that needed to use the ramp to load his 30lb kayak and spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to use a ratchet strap while 3 boats waited to get loaded up. I politely blocked his truck on the ramp as I had nowhere to go, and then went and loudly complained to my friend holding my boat 10ft from him about how little etiquette people there had. Then I just stared at him for about 5 minutes hoping to gain some sort of super power that would make him burst into flames....

Lesson learned
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C-Hawk
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Re: HOT fishing on Caspian

Post by C-Hawk »

I have witnessed this same behavior at Chittenden Resevoir. These accesses are paid for with fishing license money,yet they have to hog the ramp. Put one bungee on the kayak and get out of the way.
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