Lake Champlain United - Forums

Recent weather seems to have pushed many waterfowl south. Had a couple weeks of fun chasing divers but was unable to scout any birds late last week.

Scouted the fill on Saturday and saw a fraction of what was there a week or so prior. Bit snotty out on the fishing grounds so I declined to troll (last trip l landed 4 Lakers in about an hour).

Decided to launch at Ft Cassin mid-morning Sunday. Figured the salmon fleet might stir birds up and give me some opportunities.

Nope. Watched the Country Angler run from Westport north to the river mouth and barely move any birds. Not worth rigging out.

With snow approaching from the south, I decided to troll for a bit and continue "scouting."

Simple spread -- 1 rod rigged with 3 colors of lead and a CI Army Truck and the second rod rigged with a torpedo weight, CI SGM (deep), and a CI Wonder Bread (on a fixed cheater).

Trolled from the green can to the NY side and nabbed a small laker while making a sharp turn.

Crossed towards Diamond and started marking bait. Once I passed Diamond, the action picked up. Every other baitball resulted in a strike. Maintained a NE course and picked up 4 more Lakers and 1 salmon. Several misses too.

3 fish on the Wonder Bread, 2 fish on the SGM, and 1 on the Army Truck. Baits at 12 to 45 feet.

Did have 1 flock of mallards/blacks fly over while it was snowing. Pretty sure they intended to loaf off Diamond.

Only fished about 1.5 hours and pulled the lines when the snow slacked off.

Not a bad way to salvage the weekend.

A trolling-duck boat? Man, I've got to stay on Santa's "Nice" list next year!
Can you share a picture of the inside of the boat in hunting & fishing mode?

We did the Town Farm Bay, Diamond Island, Porter Bay waterfowl circuit and were begging for fishing boats to stir it up the whole time. Saw you come out of the creek, Country Angler heading North, and that other boat zipping south. Everything flying seemed very educated.

I'll try to snap some pictures next trip.

We saw both of you guys out there, didn't know it was you though. Do you have VHF radios? We're always on 68.

Liam has always had his eyes glued to the rods, or fish finder when we're trolling, and more often than not is the first one in the boat to see the fish hit. But this trip, I think his eyes were on the birds just as much as the rods. He's been asking me to take him hunting for a couple of years. This year he asked again, and I said "well, get your hunters safety done". 3 days later he comes back up to me and goes "I passed hunters safety".

So we built a blind for our 14' boat, and Randy (Surprise) the Addison County Santa Claus of outdoor sporting gear gifted us a pile of decoys. I'd never hunted waterfowl before. We went out goose hunting with our friend James and he shot one.

Well, that was it, he's fallen in love with another outdoor sport. We've been out 10 times in between fishing trips, and we're really going to try to get out once more. I'm not sure how it's going to happen though with the weather and school and everything. But, I think we should have duck hunted Sunday since our friends couldn't make it out, and the season is almost over. Kid just spent his life's savings on that shotgun, and just loves duck hunting now.

But Joe's right, the birds have been wicked smart the last few times out in our experience.

Jack,

You do a fine job keeping those kids interested in the outdoors.

Kudos!!

A few pics of the setup:
The boat has full gunnels and a front deck. Under each gunnel is a shelf. To port is space for a blind bag, the electronics, a paddle and the shotgun. To starboard, I have two sets of horizontal rod racks.

The cockpit is 42" by 96" with a full flat floor. I have 5.5 dozen decoys pictured under the spray dodger.

In the fall, I use Scotty rodholders with risers (to clear decoy bags).

I have Cisco tracks mounted too, but only use those in spring and summer.

Nice rig!

... and a suitcase dog ....

Beautiful dual sport rig

I didn't even see the dog. I was looking for a brown one.