Smart Troll System to track Divers.

[VermontHabitatEric]

I have both systems on my boat. X4D on right rigger and smart troll on right divers and right coppers. No more guessing while fishing…

Using line counter reels and slide divers.

Port Side: The X4D is telling me not only speed and temps, it gives me current directions. Salmons faces current above the thermocline and cannot resist a bait going down…
Port Side: The smart troll gives me water temp and depth on my Slide divers and coppers.
The Starboard equipment is 10-15ft lower than the port based on line counters.

2023 Season with a 8-10 rods spread:

Champlain (5 trips): 112 Lakers, Stealheads and Salmons. More lakers than anything else, but a fantastic season. Majority released.

Lake Ontario (8 trips): 168 Kings, Cohos, Stealheads and Atlantics. Majority were kings to 32.6lbs. Majority releaded.

All this to say that the guessing is completely over…

[VermontHabitatEric]

Fantastic setup Ron!

[digitroll (ron)]

Thanks for sharing Eric! Ontario was amazing this past season! Everyone did well! It was a runner up year for us for results going back 42 years.

Data is power and knowing where your divers are running is very cool! I haven't had this much fun since my first Auto pilot in 2005! I could never return to running divers blind now!


Today's view from the newly stripped down version of my boat running a 4 rod program here:

[VermontHabitatEric]

Ron, you have a fantastic setup I love to watch your videos! I have not yet mastered Catching Atlantics with consistency on the Champlain. Caught more Atlantics on Lake Ontario than Champlain this year.

My Smart Troll probes are set above the slide diver and slides with the slider. Hope not to loose a probe and slider from a snag or big fish

[digitroll (ron)]

Eric,

Do you have a photo of how you attach to your probe so that it slides down with the diver? I attach mine at the beginning of the 25 ft piece of 30 lb. Big Game Berkley line the diver slides up and down. If the line breaks on a caught diver on the bottom I will still have the probe attached at the beginning of the 30 lb leader. If the wire breaks it's game over.

[Mistress]

Jeez guys, I guess I have to catch up with today's technology! How do you argue with results like 280 fish in 13 trips for a 21.54 avg catch rate!!?!

[VermontHabitatEric]

I would say that technology has played a big role in the fishing consistency. But no comparison ton Ron… I need a 8-10 rods spread to achieve these numbers and I struggle at catching salmons on Champlain. I have had trips catching 20+ lakers at 2.5mph and up… I must be doing something wrong or I need to paint my boat black like Ron’s boat

I will take a picture of the probe setup.

Was thinking of heading to Champlain this weekend. Will come back with a report. Do not expect much Salmons… My boat is cursed with Lakers…

[digitroll (ron)]

Time on the water = results.  Being retired since 2016 I sometimes believe fishing all that flat water waiting for nice days hurts our catch rate rather than when we had to fish rougher water on a day off.  This season we have seen 3X the legal salmon landed over last year's poor season.  Our fin clip data shows there is a very strong year class from the US Fish hatchery in Bethel (no clip fish).  These fish are very fat with nice length topping out at 21-23" since August.  Should be a great upcoming frostbite season!

[Mistress]

That is one nice fat and healthy unclipped salmon! The unclipped salmon I have caught this season in the NW part of the lake were very healthy as well, seems NFWS has a good stocking program with an excellent genetic strain and is very encouraging. I checked my boat log and since April 4th and through Labor Day weekend I had 18 trips and put 109 hours on my boat. I typically run 4 rods (NEVER more than that, too much to mess with) and my season average catch rate per trip is 4 salmon if you include all sizes. Considering I fish the northern part of the lake exclusively I suppose that is not horrible but still far from the numbers we were seeing 15-20 years ago when my avg was closer to 8 per trip. That being said I have decided to "expand my horizons" and am going to pull the trigger on a Fish Hawk X4 for the next season.
On a side note I am thinking I will poke down to Converse to check out the Frostbite Shootout. Can you tell me exactly where the weigh in is? I know the announcement says Point Bay, is it the marina? I found Converse on the map, clueless on the rest of the area

[digitroll (ron)]

90% of the people launch out of Converse. The weigh in and BBQ is at Point Bay Marina just south of Thompson's point way in the bay following the shoreline. Docks are empty so just tie up your boat and walk to shore from the dock. Up on the hill. 1 pm sharp is the weigh in deadline.


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[Mistress]

Thanks for the above and beyond info Ron! I would launch from Converse and I did know roughly where the access was as our company had done work on it many years ago when John Guilmette was still with Vermont F&W (great guy, I could go on and on about his work). I am pretty sure Kingsbury performed a complete rehab since then and plan on a scouting mission this weekend. If I do go down to fish the shootout I will do my best to cull any white perch and other unwanted species for you all!

[VermontHabitatEric]

Fished the NY side today. Slow start, lines were down at 10:30am… The small family I took on my boat today landed 4 Salmons, 14 Lakers and a small mouth bass. The majority of fishes were released at the boat. One of the salmon was chunky at 24 inches. Lakers were small (approx. 2 to 5 pounds). I stopped at around 2 pm when the wind changed direction.

How:
I programmed my autopilot to zigzag; Salmons were caught on the outside turns while lakers on the inside turns.

I fished a temp brakes (66.2-67.9oF) I found way out in 160FOW. Bait and active fishes were visible on the sonar on the warm side of the brakes.

Majority of lakers were caught 25ft down using snap weights behind side planners. All salmons were caught on riggers 69ft down at 55oF (X4D), and slide divers out to 55F (Smart Troll).

As always, there was no boat around me. Boat were all hugging the shoreline while I was way out.

[digitroll (ron)]

Great outing Eric! That 24" salmon would likely win the shoot-out this Saturday! Well done! A rare fish for October indeed! Are you fishing the Shootout this Saturday? Lots of details and great report!

[VermontHabitatEric]

Next year I need to put this event on my bucket list.. Main reason would be to meet great peoples in person.

However, if I had been in the tournament; I probably would not have caught those nice salmons…

[digitroll (ron)]

After 3 months with my Smart Troll system after shoot out I am putting the probes / tablet and the Lite Bites away till next May when we leave for Ontario. Mini discs / Lead Core / Riggers / inline small boards are the delivery system now from November thru May. Nice job Jeremy on 4 colors of lead in the Shoot -Out! I am very pleased with my Smart Troll system and many times if one of the divers aren't running correctly I will reel it in and reset. Great to know if it's hung up on another line or dragging a small fish or even the line is not set properly on the diver. There are many good outcomes watching the dive numbers to know your running correctly all the time! A great investment! No buyers remorse or regrets!