Post by bluelund on Jul 20, 2009 6:59:21 GMT -5
Well I finally made it up to Champlain to try my hand at some salmon fishing. I started fishing thursday evening after setting up camp at Button Bay state park. I couldn't get on the water until about 6:00 since storms blew threw most of the afternoon. I started fishing right west of button island about 40 foot down and ended up hitting yellow perch. A couple nice ones to bat! After about a half dozen perch I decided to move out deeper and drop the balls further. I ended up with one shaker around 7:30 and called it a night at 8:15.
The next morning I took advantage of the calm waters and shot up to the diamond island area and fished there early. I hit 6 shakers between 6:00 AM and 9:00 am. They were all between 40 and 50' down. I was back on the water around 10:30 after making breakfast and trolled until about 3:00 when the storms came rolling back in again. I did quite well off of diamond island on shakers. I also caught one about 16 inches and lost one that ran about 20 inches or so I am guessing.
Saturday morning I shot up to split rock and fished over some bait fish with several other boats. I briefly talked to a genteman on the "Pumpkinseed". I ended up with only one shaker and one large smelt. After breakfast I headed out and concentrated my time around the drop off of button Bay since the wind was up a bit and I didn't want to go to far with my 16' boat. The fishing was very good. I landed over 20 shakers, 2 lake trout, and one fat 17 inch brown. I found several schools of bait and kept making a trolling pattern within and around them. That was paying off good for me.
I found speeds of 2.3 to 2.6 to be the most productive on my trip. I had my balls between 58 and 68 foot down (not sure how deep they really were since I lose them on my screen after 30 feet down). I exclusively used top gun spoons from AJ bait and tackle out of New Hampshire. The hammered silver and silver/blue were my most productive. I also found the chrome rainbow pattern to be effective too.
I would have liked to have hooked more larger salmon on this trip but I have abolutely no complaints. I went somewhere new and caught a ton of fish. I still have tons to learn but I will be back up in September for a 4 day trip!
Once again thank you to everyone who gave me pointers and put me in the right direction before my trip.
The next morning I took advantage of the calm waters and shot up to the diamond island area and fished there early. I hit 6 shakers between 6:00 AM and 9:00 am. They were all between 40 and 50' down. I was back on the water around 10:30 after making breakfast and trolled until about 3:00 when the storms came rolling back in again. I did quite well off of diamond island on shakers. I also caught one about 16 inches and lost one that ran about 20 inches or so I am guessing.
Saturday morning I shot up to split rock and fished over some bait fish with several other boats. I briefly talked to a genteman on the "Pumpkinseed". I ended up with only one shaker and one large smelt. After breakfast I headed out and concentrated my time around the drop off of button Bay since the wind was up a bit and I didn't want to go to far with my 16' boat. The fishing was very good. I landed over 20 shakers, 2 lake trout, and one fat 17 inch brown. I found several schools of bait and kept making a trolling pattern within and around them. That was paying off good for me.
I found speeds of 2.3 to 2.6 to be the most productive on my trip. I had my balls between 58 and 68 foot down (not sure how deep they really were since I lose them on my screen after 30 feet down). I exclusively used top gun spoons from AJ bait and tackle out of New Hampshire. The hammered silver and silver/blue were my most productive. I also found the chrome rainbow pattern to be effective too.
I would have liked to have hooked more larger salmon on this trip but I have abolutely no complaints. I went somewhere new and caught a ton of fish. I still have tons to learn but I will be back up in September for a 4 day trip!
Once again thank you to everyone who gave me pointers and put me in the right direction before my trip.