Lake Champlain

A cold and windy morning out on Lake Champlain brought me another monster Lake Trout today! I arrived in Vermont at around 6am, and to my surprise, there was about 7 other people fishing the jetty. Everyone was casting towards the south side of the jetty, so I made the decision to cast the opposite direction, into the wind. Very quickly, this decision proved to be a good one as I hooked into a large fish on my baby whale. After a long battle, I hauled this 35” Lake Trout to shore, just an inch shy of my personal best! This unfortunately was my only Lake Trout of the day, but I eventually hooked into another fish. This time it was a Lake Whitefish, one of the rarer species to catch off of this jetty. Still though, a 35” Lake Trout is probably more uncommon than a Whitefish.

Fished for 12 hours today and landed my second biggest lake trout ever! I sailed over to Vermont this morning at 6am to fish the infamous break wall for lake trout, but the winds were not in my favor. There were gusts of 30mph all day and I could hardly stay on my feet. My plan was to stay out here as long as possible today, so I packed a dehydrated meal for lunch. I hooked into my first fish of the day after about 30 minutes, a gorgeous 31” lake trout. My second fish came an hour later, and it was a giant. This fish came in at 34 inches long, and was likely 12+ pounds! In the 5 hours that followed, I landed 3 more lake trout and 2 nice smallmouth. The winds were so harsh I had to double the weight of my usual jighead. From 12:30 to 6 pm, I landed no more fish, and concluded my day of fishing that started before sunrise and ended after sunset.

This morning I had the opportunity to cross paths with one of the less common fish species of Lake Champlain, the Lake Whitefish. I landed my first one last December, and I was hoping I’d have another shot at one this fall. The first fish I hooked this morning was a whitefish, but unfortunately I lost it at the bank. I was bummed but I knew if there was one, there had to be more. After landing a few lakers on the swimbait, I finally hooked into another whitefish and successfully landed it, making this one my third ever!

Had a great morning fishing in Vermont for some lake trout! Got to the spot at around 6:30 and in the 2 hours that followed I managed to land 9 lake trout. All but one were caught on the swimbait.

Headed out for a few hours at sunset to go after some lakers. The parking lot was totally full and their were more people on the jetty than I've ever seen. I landed 3 fish, but none of them had the hook in the mouth. This one that I took a photo off had the hook in his face, but I probably snagged him as well. Just replenished the spoons today didnt have any single hooks to switch on. I also lost a pb laker, probably pushing 34", as both me and the guy netting it saw it. It was massive, easily the biggest fish I've seen out there, and the spoon was near the face, so there is a chance it actually took my lure. I had my drag too tight, and after about a minute, he spit it with one headshake. Just gotta get back out there, but the fish are definitely there.

Decided to do some trout fishing for the first time in a while and lucked out with two gorgeous wild brook trout and a brown trout on the Panther Martin!

Yesterday evening I wanted to head out to fish for some lake trout, but first, I had some unfinished business. A few days ago I missed a musky twice on my swimbait by pulling the hook right out of his mouth after he bit. I decided to head back to the same spot where I saw him in hopes of landing him. I made my rounds with the swimbait to no avail, so I switched to the chatterbait, a bait that has yet to fail me this fall and has landed 11 musky since September. It took one hour to coax this fish into biting, and I successfully brought him to shore. I am unsure if it was the same fish I encountered a few days prior, but it was definitely in the same spot. After this successful mission, I crossed into Vermont to fish for some lake trout and only came away with some yellow perch.

Had some time after class to fish off of the kayak in hopes of catching another musky today. Luck was on my side again and I managed to land this beautiful muskellunge. Hopefully I can get out and target them one last time before laker season, but man my toes were cold after this one.