Thorny's Datillios report

[Thorny]

Hi Guys
First time in a couple years I've been able to fish in Jimmy's Classic. One of my favorite derbies of the year. This year I was lucky enough to have Cowboy,Cas and my buddy Don on board for the weekend. We went south on Sat. We landed many Salmon 3-4 lbs but like the story goes, we lost our chance at a screamer. Mottled green mp6 ruled the morning in low light and Charlie Brown did it in the afternoon in the hot sun.

Sunday we went almost as far in the other direction as possible and still be on Champlain. We had a tough time hanging on to the Salmon in the morning. We went 0/4 with another screamer slipping through our fingers. Very Frustrating!!! As the sun got high the bite died. We fished some shallows in 20 to 30 fow looking for lakers. They were not there like they were a couple weeks ago. So we followed the contours out looking for bait. The screen lit up at 80 to 90. We dropped down some green spoons and landed about a Dozen Lakers to finish the day.

Thanks Jimmy for giving me and my friends a great reason to spend a beautiful weekend on the water. Congrats to all the winners. I will not be able to fish the the Rotary or LCI this year. Good luck to every one who does. Please keep looking for Left vent clipped Salmon with an Adipose fin still attached. We had 4 on sat! DNA kits are now available at Dattilios and Norms. Please ask for them at counter. Thanks for your support in the research to help improve our fishery.

Enjoy the pics and be careful out there. Still some big debris floating around!
Capt Thorny

My favorite time of the day!


A little celebratory toast before we clean up and head home.


Yoshida soaked Venison Backstrap for lunch on Sunday! Yuuuuuuumy! Thanks Cowboy!

[JoeCotton]

Whatever's in that pan looks yummy, Capt. Thorny. Congrats on a fine day on the water.

[Phantom (griz)]

Rob great job out there.It was a great weekend down south for all of us who took the trip. Are we seeing a lot of salmon with Lamprey hits this year ? It seems that way and they seem to the bigger variety.

[Reelax]

Great report Rob, it was a good time fishing beside ya on Sat... Heard the rods firing during the fish cleaning pass... Never fails!!

Fish on!

[JoeCotton]

Phantom, I agree that there might be more lamprey hits this year. Not that we get up to the lake much, but we landed four of four on our one trip, and three had wounds. One of our salmon came in with the lamprey still attached. It was about six inches long and not quite as big around as a little finger.

[Thorny]

We are seeing 2 generations of lamprey in Southern Champlain this spring. We seem to be seeing a decent number of large adults that are leftovers from last year. Hopefully their life cycle will be over soon. We are also seeing very small ones like you are describing Joe. Those are new hatches fresh out of the streams this spring. But from what I have seen the numbers of small ones seems lower than what we have seen in past years. I Hope!!!

[Fishdawg]

Thanks for the report Rob! Good to see you guys got out after them and as always, had a great time doing it. Fishing out of Converse on the weekend, probably half the fish we caught had scars on them. Two fish had lampreys removed (the smaller ones) and exterminated. One of the larger salmon boated had 4 recent scars on it. Sorry to hear you wont be fishing in the Rotary Derby this year. We'll try to pick up the slack!!

[JoeCotton]

Fishdawg, that is a grim report. I hate to think that we're losing ground in this battle.

[Heijac]

Damn, that meat looks good! Sorry you cant make the rotary this year, we'll miss you out there!

[plantstone]

Awesome glimpse at a fun filled weekend. Glad to here the big ones can run circles around the professionals too. I've lost plenty, but there are two fish that got away that I'll always wonder about... Keep at 'em.