We’d set up 4 of our 6-rod spread to a georgeous sunrise Sunday morning when a beautiful Salmon hit a Crazy Ivan Homewrecker on a fixed cheater at 26’. Brian was on the rod, while Pat & I took care of business. Pandemonium ensued..... relocate the other 3 rods, steer boat, realize the fish had wrapped all the other lines.... cheaters and main lines, place all of those reels into free-spool mode and retreive riggers. The fish put the brakes on just behind the engine sounding several times. At one point, I saw many lures and Elberta releases, all in a bundle of spaghetti about 1’ below the rod tip, attached to the mail line. Potential for total disaster. The line was actually sliding up & down through all that mess! O yeah, the fish swam into a Rigger weight. We knew we wouldn’t be able to land the fish with the “normal” net so out came the Ego Net fully extended to 108”. That, plus some major teamwork, allowed everything to fall into place. Once in the livewell, the hooting & hollering woke my wife up in Burlington!
We caught the fish at 4:45 am and weighed the fish in at 5:37am at Point Bay.The 8.64 lb 27” Salmon gave Brian the well-deserved 3rd place award. A fun weekend with good friends.
Congratulations to Chad Lambert & crew for their 2nd place 8.7 lb Salmon, taken in the same spot about 8 hrs later!
Hats off to VTFG for the amazing premier Salmon fishing we are enjoying on Champlain. 10th place Salmon was 6.0 lbs. Fantastic.
Minutes before hooking up (FATHEAD in the background) 4:44am
5:02am
Releasing the Salmon for someone else to enjoy
