Northern Lake Champlain (VT) 1/21/07

[Bob_D]

Between the kidney stones and some type of bug I picked up during the week, I have not been feeling too well. I had planned to do some night fishing with Blaine on Saturday, but I knew by midweek that I was not going to be up to the challenge so I backed out. Good thing to since it was sub zero temps and the wind was blowing 20 MPH+ and I'm not talking about gusts.

I figured that I'd give Champlain a try Sunday for a few hours and see what was going on. VTBowman was going to join me, but he ended up backing out because something came up.

I go most of my gear ready Saturday night and loaded up about 7:00am. When I was driving to the lake the temp was -1F, but there was only a light wind so it was not too bad.

I got to where I wanted to be and started drilling holes a little before 8:00am. The ice was not very even and I had 6" in some spots and 2.5" in spots with a lot of snow cover. I picked my hole locations so they were on bare ice since going for a swim when I was alone was not what I really wanted to do.

The flags came in groups of 2 or 3. I missed as many fish as I got because by the time I got one fish in, the other had stolen the bait. I managed to land 6 pike and a couple dozen perch on the jig stick between flags. No big pike, the biggest was around 26" and the smallest was around 20".

I did not get much for pictures since I was alone. Setting up a tripod in that weather was not a good option, since I'd probably end up killing the fish by the time I got a picture.

Here is the first fish. It like to flop on the ice, so I had to dip it to clean it off. The fish after this I never completely removed from the hole.

I forgot my heater and the focus motor froze on my camera after that picture. So, that is it for pictures.

I was back at the house by noon and ready to thaw out a little. The midday sun felt warm and it was kind of funny to see that it was only 9F.