What a great morning to be on the lake. The lake was at it's finest. Love mornings like this one. Anyway Dana and I set up on a pile of bait that wouldn't end. First rod off at 40' in under 5 minutes. Smallmouth out over 60'. OK set back up and drag thru the bait some more with slashes everywhere from 30-60'. No hits. After several passes with no takers we moved on. Lost the bait but still marked fish. Finally a core rod fires 8 colors and a laker comes to the net. Then more searching with not much to show for it. Around 10 we found the fish. From 10 till 11:30 we worked a 1/8 sq mile of lake and smack dab in the middle of the tracks we would hook up every time. White perch and salmon believe it or not. Mixed in. Pretty good day overall as the spot saved the day. Only one runt and two very nice salmon. Almost the size you'd expect from Champlain. We called it when the boat wake chop became unbearable.
Never saw so many boats trolling Winni in the dead of summer. I think I counted 22 in sight at one time.
I was one of those 22 boats Saturday morning. What a friday and saturday on "Tessie". My son and I boated 20 fish with a few lost on way in. biggest disappointment was the "one that got away" on his down rigger. I've never seen a donw rigger hit so violently and then after the realease look like its still hooked on the ball. We were both over excited and ofcourse screwed it up! LOL, sat there for awhile afterwards thinking what it could have been!!! Caught a good mix of Salmon, rainbows and lakers. almost evern on leadcore 5-7 colors and downriggers at 45-35'. Db smelts with black and purple, or orange and black dots did most of the damage. All released to fight another day. Surprised how well the fish all looked too. great 1.5 day trip. Off the water Saturday around 10:30 because of family plans in the afternoon. Have a good week everyone
I was one of those 22 boats Saturday morning. What a friday and saturday on "Tessie". My son and I boated 20 fish with a few lost on way in. biggest disappointment was the "one that got away" on his down rigger. I've never seen a donw rigger hit so violently and then after the realease look like its still hooked on the ball. We were both over excited and ofcourse screwed it up! LOL, sat there for awhile afterwards thinking what it could have been!!! Caught a good mix of Salmon, rainbows and lakers. almost evern on leadcore 5-7 colors and downriggers at 45-35'. Db smelts with black and purple, or orange and black dots did most of the damage. All released to fight another day. Surprised how well the fish all looked too. great 1.5 day trip. Off the water Saturday around 10:30 because of family plans in the afternoon. Have a good week everyone
Rick
Had the samething happen to me last year on Sebago. More than likely it was something submerged or suspended in the water (water logged log, limb etc...). Boy but when it happened I thought it was a monster but when you think about the releases we use being so sensitive....for the downrigger itself to shake something submerged might have hit or tangled with the downrigger cable itself.
