Active Lakers and Expensive Mistakes
Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:43 pm
Me and my buddy vinny launched from shelburne at 6:45 and headed out of the bay in search of some active fish. Having checked the valcour buoy I was expecting temps to be at 70ish fow, but was pleasently surprised to find 56 down only 48feet. We set 3 riggers and a slide diver, and trolled accross the shoal. there was one boat jigging on one of my hotspots but otherwise the area was clear of boats. We joked early on about how I enjoy fishing trips with him as things usually go smooth and we always catch fish together. Yesterday disproved the first but confirmed the second.
First release of the day came on the first pass, a 23 inch laker. made another pass with nothing, and said to vinny that we would need to go hunting. We crossed the shoal heading toward juniper as I was going to circle juniper, and we had a release on the shoal. and then another. I had a really nice fish on, but my 4 year old magda that has seen hundreds of lakers caught decided it didn't want to allow drag, and the fish broke me off, luckily I had more of that same lure and quick retie it was back in the water. We decided since they were waking up to stay on the shoal and pick away at them.
Vin's step dad had also made a voyage to the big lake with his new to him boat, he was solo and hadn't really dialed in his electronics. at around 11 with us having landed 9 fish to his 0 we decided to help him. My initial effort to keep trolling and have him motor next to us and tie off ended with my rigger cable caught around the back of his motor. after a few moments of chaos we freed eachother and decided that a stationary docking was in order. I borded his boat and after 20ish minutes had his 2 fish finders set up so that he could see fish and see his maps.
We got back to trolling and trolled east across the shoal. There is a yellow buoy on the shoal that I have never known what it was marking as it is in almost 70fow, but is in an area that I have done well, so we decided to troll across that sections. This was the expensive mistake. All summer I have trolled that section of water with my gear where I had it, but yesterday was the one that got me. I had my spin n glo rigger down 68 (always set it there) and the bottom started to come up as I expected. usually it comes up and the rigger is just clear, or barely makes a single tick, but this time with the lake almost 2ft lower than the last time I was out in this area, it was just low enough. It hit and the rigger made a good bounce, I told vinny to raise the rigger but it was too late, we were caught. I had my new minn kota running for steering at 1.5 speed setting, and the big motor pushing. We took the big motor out of gear, but I forgot about the minn kota, which was in the middle of a turn. by the time I noticed that it was still running it had turned us in a small circle over where we were stuck. I got that shut off but by then it was too late. We had tried to pull up the other 2 riggers and one came up no issue, but my probe one that was set at 50 ft was caught on the rigger that was stuck on bottom. My probe rigger is set with braided line, and before we could react the braid cut, and the probe went to the bottom. Slide diver met the same fate. In all the losses were:
2 10lb rigger balls
2 chamberlain releases
1 x4d probe
1 slide diver with ultimate dive kit
3 spoons
totaling around $470
At this point we were now basically on the buoy and could read it… it marks a ship wreck that is part of champlain historical dive something or another, perfect place to hang up gear! Turns out what makes them good structure for fish also makes them good ball grabbers. If anyone knows anyone who dives these wrecks I would love to offer up a reward for the recovery of the probe and ball attached haha.
Frustrated and deflated I told vinny the trip was over, but after a couple minutes of sulking and calming down and a quick trip to FishUSA’s website to rebuy the lost gear I decided to not quit in defeat. We spent a few minutes finding all my backup gear that is stowed randomly around the boat, and worked to reset the riggers. The payoff was pretty immediate, as we started catching fish again. We stayed trolling until around 1:30pm having landed close between 15-18 fish (lost count) and then decided to play with the trolling motor settings and try some anchor lock. The feature was pretty slick, but my jigging skills and motivation are minimal in 90 degree direct sun. Spent 20 minutes on that endeavor with no success. Reset riggers and trolled across the shoal and headed in. Off the water at 2:45.
All in all the day was a good day of fishing. Learned a lesson the hard way, but got on the fish. Lure of the day was the trusty large clown with green mylar wing spin n glow with 3 small silver beads and a size 2 treble tied 14 inches behind a 00 jensen dodger silver with the shiny reflective tape on it, which caught most of our fish.
First release of the day came on the first pass, a 23 inch laker. made another pass with nothing, and said to vinny that we would need to go hunting. We crossed the shoal heading toward juniper as I was going to circle juniper, and we had a release on the shoal. and then another. I had a really nice fish on, but my 4 year old magda that has seen hundreds of lakers caught decided it didn't want to allow drag, and the fish broke me off, luckily I had more of that same lure and quick retie it was back in the water. We decided since they were waking up to stay on the shoal and pick away at them.
Vin's step dad had also made a voyage to the big lake with his new to him boat, he was solo and hadn't really dialed in his electronics. at around 11 with us having landed 9 fish to his 0 we decided to help him. My initial effort to keep trolling and have him motor next to us and tie off ended with my rigger cable caught around the back of his motor. after a few moments of chaos we freed eachother and decided that a stationary docking was in order. I borded his boat and after 20ish minutes had his 2 fish finders set up so that he could see fish and see his maps.
We got back to trolling and trolled east across the shoal. There is a yellow buoy on the shoal that I have never known what it was marking as it is in almost 70fow, but is in an area that I have done well, so we decided to troll across that sections. This was the expensive mistake. All summer I have trolled that section of water with my gear where I had it, but yesterday was the one that got me. I had my spin n glo rigger down 68 (always set it there) and the bottom started to come up as I expected. usually it comes up and the rigger is just clear, or barely makes a single tick, but this time with the lake almost 2ft lower than the last time I was out in this area, it was just low enough. It hit and the rigger made a good bounce, I told vinny to raise the rigger but it was too late, we were caught. I had my new minn kota running for steering at 1.5 speed setting, and the big motor pushing. We took the big motor out of gear, but I forgot about the minn kota, which was in the middle of a turn. by the time I noticed that it was still running it had turned us in a small circle over where we were stuck. I got that shut off but by then it was too late. We had tried to pull up the other 2 riggers and one came up no issue, but my probe one that was set at 50 ft was caught on the rigger that was stuck on bottom. My probe rigger is set with braided line, and before we could react the braid cut, and the probe went to the bottom. Slide diver met the same fate. In all the losses were:
2 10lb rigger balls
2 chamberlain releases
1 x4d probe
1 slide diver with ultimate dive kit
3 spoons
totaling around $470
At this point we were now basically on the buoy and could read it… it marks a ship wreck that is part of champlain historical dive something or another, perfect place to hang up gear! Turns out what makes them good structure for fish also makes them good ball grabbers. If anyone knows anyone who dives these wrecks I would love to offer up a reward for the recovery of the probe and ball attached haha.
Frustrated and deflated I told vinny the trip was over, but after a couple minutes of sulking and calming down and a quick trip to FishUSA’s website to rebuy the lost gear I decided to not quit in defeat. We spent a few minutes finding all my backup gear that is stowed randomly around the boat, and worked to reset the riggers. The payoff was pretty immediate, as we started catching fish again. We stayed trolling until around 1:30pm having landed close between 15-18 fish (lost count) and then decided to play with the trolling motor settings and try some anchor lock. The feature was pretty slick, but my jigging skills and motivation are minimal in 90 degree direct sun. Spent 20 minutes on that endeavor with no success. Reset riggers and trolled across the shoal and headed in. Off the water at 2:45.
All in all the day was a good day of fishing. Learned a lesson the hard way, but got on the fish. Lure of the day was the trusty large clown with green mylar wing spin n glow with 3 small silver beads and a size 2 treble tied 14 inches behind a 00 jensen dodger silver with the shiny reflective tape on it, which caught most of our fish.