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Author Topic: First Open Water Fish of 2017  (Read 3212 times)

Offline perch bait

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First Open Water Fish of 2017
« on: Mar 03, 2017, 03:38 PM »
                My Mom and Aunt were planning on heading into Burlington on Tuesday, so I asked them if they could drop me off at the Burlington Fishing Pier (per FlyPredatorVT’s suggestion). When we arrived, it was a beautiful 50 degrees out with a light southwest breeze. The barometric pressure was on it’s way down before Wednesday’s storm and I had high hopes that the fish would be biting. I jumped into my ice fishing bibs, slid into my winter boots and threw on a jacket. I knew that 50 degrees on shore means more like 40 on the water this time of year, so extra layers were in order. I grabbed my rods, one 6’ 6” Medium action (for big spoons and stickbaits) and a 6’ 9” Medium-Light action (for small spoons and plastics), my tackle bag, and my net and headed for down to the water. I have never fished off from the pier before and was surprised to see that it was a good 8 feet above the surface of the water. Thank goodness I brought our big extendable boat net or I wouldn’t even be able touch the water!

         The first lure to take to the air was one of my favorite early season spoons for lakers, a 3/4 ounce red and silver Dardevlet. This would’ve worked great if I wasn’t standing so high above the water. Even if I let it sink almost all the way to the bottom on it’s initial descent, the spoon would work it’s way back up to the surface only 1/3 of the way into the retrieve. I made a couple more casts with the laker slayer, before changing it out for a good ol’ fashioned silver Kastmaster. With the spoons hydrodynamic shape, it would sink rapidly on the pause, allowing me to keep it at a comfortable running depth. After I lost confidence in spoons, I switched to deep diving stickbaits, such as Deep Husky Jerks, to no avail. I had been fishing for two hours now and knew that I needed to make a change.

                 I had a tube jig all rigged up and ready to go, so I put that on my ML rod to try dragging bottom. Maybe there was a lazy smallmouth just sitting on bottom, waiting for a meal to land right in front of his face. I moved towards shore and directed my casts parallel to the giant steel seawall. The wind ended up taking my first cast right into a tree and as I was attempting to get it out, an older fellow approached me and asked if I had caught anything? “ Nope, just the tree,” I replied as I snapped my rod tip, dislodging the Gamakatsu hook from the branch. The plastic made a SLAP as it shot into the water at high speed. He asked me what I was fishing for and that started our two hour long conversation about our favorite fishing spots and stories. As we talked I continued to make casts, varying my distance away from the wall. My technique was simple, just flick it out there, let it sink to the bottom, and hop it back, making long pauses every so often. While I got hung up a couple times, having the jig head completely surrounded by plastic allowed me to break it free of the snag with just a swift sweep of the rod.

                   About 30 casts into fishing this spot, I felt my lure stop dead as if it had fallen into another crevice, only this time, the crevice fought back. My hookset was wimpy, I’m not gonna lie. I hadn’t had a fish slam my bait for over 3 months and I acted like I was trying to pin a size 14 hook into the roof of a bluegills mouth. Within seconds my rod was doubled over and the fish started pulling drag with big headshakes. I asked Jay, the gentleman I was conversing with, to go down to the end of the pier and grab my net. My throbbing rod and ticking drag had drawn the attention of two other anglers and they started walking over to see if I needed any help. After a minute of fighting the fish, I saw it’s faint outline in the cold tinted water. With white accents on its fins and a long slender body, I knew that it was a Laker!! Jay returned with my net and reached over the railing. The end of the net just scratched the water, not quite deep enough to safely net the fish. He quickly handed it off to one of the other guys (Kyle) out there who had longer arms. By this time the Laker was tired and was slowly pedaling on top of the water, trying to get away. I gave the line a little tug and turned the fish’s head into the net. The rest of his body flopped into the net once Kyle began lifting him out of the water. I wasn’t able to appreciate the size of the fish until she was hoisted onto the cement pier. She was long, somewhat skinny, and had beautiful coloration on her back. I removed my tape measure from my bibs pocket and laid it on her. Thirty and a quarter inches long! “Thank you God.” I had landed the first Master Angler fish of the year.



            A special thanks to Jay and Kyle for aiding in the capture of that fish, I couldn’t have done it without you, especially since the jig popped out in the net! Thank you Kyle for being my photographer and net man! I hope that you enjoyed the fresh caught laker, Jay, and thanks for the company! I hope to see both of you on the water again sometime.
Perch bait- a small minnow that can have big results in the ice fishing game.  :icefish:
My Blog: https://jacobcrawford8.wixsite.com/pboutdooradventure

Offline fishingidjit

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #1 on: Mar 03, 2017, 03:48 PM »
PB, Nice laker and a great post as always !

Offline jillybird

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #2 on: Mar 03, 2017, 03:57 PM »
Great job.  Terrific post.  Catch em up.

Offline thefishingweatherman

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #3 on: Mar 03, 2017, 04:21 PM »
Nice laker! Good to see you can catch them out there this early in the season near shore. And even more impressive job netting it there!

Offline dtefft

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #4 on: Mar 03, 2017, 04:37 PM »
Great catch and excellent description!

Offline woodyvt

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #5 on: Mar 03, 2017, 05:11 PM »
Great story! Nice fish!!
The closest flag up may be the one that is behind you !

Offline mudchuck

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #6 on: Mar 03, 2017, 05:19 PM »
Nice catch PB! Way to Go.

Offline lowaccord66

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #7 on: Mar 03, 2017, 05:41 PM »
Very cool and we'll deserved. 

Offline FlyPredatorVT

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #8 on: Mar 03, 2017, 06:02 PM »
Awesome fish PB! Glad my intel worked out for you! 4 more for the pin!
Avid fly angler, rookie ice fisherman, lifetime fish geek

Offline peteinvermont

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #9 on: Mar 03, 2017, 06:33 PM »
Despite this being an ice fishing forum, this is my favorite thread of the year.  Atta boy PB....I love the fact that you had the attention span to patiently work the area. 

Offline Jschumacher

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #10 on: Mar 03, 2017, 06:54 PM »
Thats the way to start the open water season off. Nice job PB
Hard water Tight lines Flags up. Doesn't get any better than that

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Offline lowaccord66

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #11 on: Mar 03, 2017, 08:50 PM »
Thats the way to start the open water season off. Nice job PB

Gives you some ideas doesn't it jeff....

Offline troutcrazy

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #12 on: Mar 03, 2017, 10:02 PM »
Nice! 
Lol, I can relate to being surprised by a big fish after jigging panfish for months!  Same thing happened to me the other day, only I lost the fish because of it! ;D

Offline Honest_John

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #13 on: Mar 03, 2017, 11:02 PM »
Way to go!

Offline MarkNJBass

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #14 on: Mar 04, 2017, 06:17 AM »
 :) Nice fish!

Offline spot

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #15 on: Mar 04, 2017, 07:08 AM »
Nice one!
May the fish be with you.

Randy

Offline fishy1

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #16 on: Mar 04, 2017, 07:09 AM »
nice pb congratulations thats a nice laker.

Offline Vrmontrout

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #17 on: Mar 04, 2017, 07:32 AM »
Nice fish and write up as usual PB!

Offline flagfishon

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #18 on: Mar 04, 2017, 07:55 AM »
Great fish PerchBait!  A good reward for your perseverance.

Offline Spoondangler

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #19 on: Mar 04, 2017, 08:11 AM »
awesome!  thanks for sharing and congrats!

Offline lingcod

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #20 on: Mar 04, 2017, 09:21 AM »
Way to go ! A well-played fish and a well-written report.

Offline Hess

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #21 on: Mar 04, 2017, 09:23 AM »
Nice way to start the open water season!!  Enjoyed the write-up too!

Offline Jschumacher

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #22 on: Mar 04, 2017, 10:11 AM »
Gives you some ideas doesn't it jeff....

Ahh Yup.
Hard water Tight lines Flags up. Doesn't get any better than that

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Offline bootstrap

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #23 on: Mar 04, 2017, 10:40 AM »
way to go PB. that beats bullhead gumbo. laker linguini?

Offline perch bait

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #24 on: Mar 04, 2017, 11:08 AM »
way to go PB. that beats bullhead gumbo. laker linguini?
:) I think Jay was planning on baking it. If I see him again I'll have to ask him how it was. I'm sure it was delicious, especially coming out of 35 degree water. Although Champlain Lakers can taste a little weird sometimes, mainly in the summer, they should be fine during the winter.
Perch bait- a small minnow that can have big results in the ice fishing game.  :icefish:
My Blog: https://jacobcrawford8.wixsite.com/pboutdooradventure

Offline perch bait

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #25 on: Mar 04, 2017, 02:58 PM »
Despite this being an ice fishing forum, this is my favorite thread of the year. 
At least I was wearing ice bibs and the water was cold. I kind of felt like I was ice fishing, my hands were FROZEN after handling that trout!  :)
Perch bait- a small minnow that can have big results in the ice fishing game.  :icefish:
My Blog: https://jacobcrawford8.wixsite.com/pboutdooradventure

Offline ZW

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #26 on: Mar 04, 2017, 04:55 PM »
nice catch! well deserved trophy!
Take a kid fishing!!!

Offline dave b.

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #27 on: Mar 04, 2017, 04:56 PM »
Subscribed to the blog so I won't miss any adventures. Good job keep the stories coming. Now you got to get out there and catch another one.

Offline perch bait

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #28 on: Mar 04, 2017, 05:52 PM »
Subscribed to the blog so I won't miss any adventures. Good job keep the stories coming. Now you got to get out there and catch another one.
Thanks for the subscription Dave b.!!!  :thumbsup:
As for catching another one, I'm planning on heading back to the pier on Monday. I got a whole line up of baits to try and I'm hoping that at least one of them will do the trick.
Perch bait- a small minnow that can have big results in the ice fishing game.  :icefish:
My Blog: https://jacobcrawford8.wixsite.com/pboutdooradventure

Offline IceDog88

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Re: First Open Water Fish of 2017
« Reply #29 on: Mar 04, 2017, 06:59 PM »
Job well done.

 



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