MY NEW FAVORITE PET!

I think I just found my new favorite pet.

I'm sure he'll fit in just fine,,,

 fishing on Lake Champlain!

How could you not LOVE this little guy?

I think I'll call him "NOT Landlocked"

Fish on, fish H8 me.

MY NEW FAVORITE PET!

Smoked Salmon

One of the ways we enjoy our catch of Landlocked Atlantic Salmon from Lake Champlain is to smoke them over a cool smoke (less than 200° F). 
For smoldering wood, I like to use apple if I can find it.  If not, I use hickory.  Either way, I soak the wood chunks and chips overnight in clean water.  This helps the wood smoke and smolder, and reduces the instances of ignition.

I soak my fillets in a brine solution (see below) overnight in the refrigerator, taking care to be sure the fillets are entirely immersed in the solution. 
After a good overnight soaking (at least twelve hours), rinse the fillets well under cold running tap water.  Place the fillets, skin side down on a drying rack.  I like to use the racks in the kitchen oven as drying racks, and I line the bottom of the oven with newspaper to catch any drips.  With the fillets spaced on the drying racks so they don't touch each other, brush them generously with pure Maple Syrup. 
Try to get real pure Maple Syrup! Being fortunate enough to be in the state of Vermont, we always have Pure Vermont Maple Syrup around the house.
Once the fillets are brushed with syrup, let them dry for at least an hour, I like to let them sit for three or four hours.

Smoke your fillets as cool as possible,  the cooler the smoke, the longer the fillets can tolerate the smoking process without becoming overdone and dry.  I monitor my smoker and don't let it exceed 200°F.  If I can smoke fillets for longer than 5 hours (depends on thickness of fillets also) I'm happy, and so are the fish!

The most recent batch will be competing with Turkey and all the fixings at the annual Family Thanksgiving Day Feast.  Two very nice Lake Champlain Landlocked Atlantic Salmon have been smoked, vacuum packed, and are awaiting being set out and served as appetizers!

Brine Solution:

Be sure to use a glass bowl for the brine solution!

2 quarts water, 1 cup white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup molasses, 3/4 cup non-iodized salt.

I like to use an electric mixer to completely dissolve the salt and sugars.

Fish on, fish H8 me.

Smoked Salmon

Voices For The Lake Survey: Share your thoughts and ideas about Lake Champlain

Voices For The Lake Survey: Share your thoughts and ideas about Lake Champlain

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If you love Lake Champlain, use Lake Champlain, or have concerns about Lake Champlain, please follow the above link and participate in this important survey.


Fish on, fish H8 me.

Voices For The Lake Survey: Share your thoughts and ideas about Lake Champlain

Big Salmon Are Being Caught on Lake Champlain.

Lake Champlain is giving up some real nice Salmon lately. 

Check out these pigs!

Jeremy with a beautiful Landlocked that weighed in at 6.4 pounds.

Al with a real nice pig.

Big Fat and Clean!

6.2 pounds

24 inches long

14.75 inch girth!

Reggie with a beautiful 5.7 pounder

Cathy with a 5.5 and a beauty just under 7 pounds.

Congratulations Cathy.

Bill with a real pig at seven pounds!

Todd's monster at 7.6 pounds

Paul's HUGE 25" beast

Jeff with two real dandy Salmon

Mike and his six pounder

Rob's beautiful 21" salmon.

The first decent fall fish from the Inland Sea

Todd's 22" and 26-1/2"

NICE!

Bill with a beauty

Kevin's Shootout winners

Yours truly and a personal best six pounder

Fish on, fish H8 me.

Big Salmon Are Being Caught on Lake Champlain.

Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout a Great Success!

The First Annual Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout held November first on Lake Champlain was a great success.  Turn out was more than anticipated for the first year of this annual event.  Things went very smoothly from the launching of boats on a single ramp, the shot-gun start, right through the awards ceremony and "tailgate" party that followed.
If I have my numbers correct, there were 25 boats filled with nearly 70 participants.  Channel 68 on the Marine VHF was quite a buzz during the six hour tournament.
Nearly 900 dollars went out to the top three places in the event along with some very nice prizes including custom rods and salmon specific tackle and gear.  On top of the prizes for the winners, many of the participants went home with some very nice door prizes.  New "toys" for the next trip out!

The overall winner was able to take home a beautiful trophy designed by Randy Colomb.  Randy put his heart into this trophy as is very evident.  This beautiful trophy will have the winners name along with the date of the event, engraved on a brass tag.  The trophy will then be passed on each year with the latest winners name added.  Beautiful job Randy, hopefully next year you can "take it back home"!

Here are the WINNERS of the FIRST ANNUAL FROSTBITE FLEET SALMON SHOOTOUT:

First place: Kevin Favreau with 2 Salmon, total weight 7 lbs, 8 oz.
Second place: Tim Bird with 2 Salmon, total weight, 7 lbs, 6 oz.
Third place: Frank Kurant with 1 Salmon, weighing 2 lbs, 5 oz.

The biggest fish of the event went to Kevin Favreau with a beautiful Lake Champlain Landlocked Atlantic Salmon that measured 22.5 inches and weighed 4 lbs, 9 oz.

Congratulations to the winners!

The winning bunch along with Trophy creator Randy.

Kevin Favreau, the over all winner with his winning Landlocked Atlantic's.

Fish on, fish H8 me.

Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout a Great Success!

Six Pound Landlocked Smashes Personal Best

A 24 inch, six pound Landlocked Atlantic Salmon SMASHED by personal best by more than 1.5 pounds today while fishing solo on Lake Champlain. 
Granted, I've only been fishing the lake since 2004 but this fish hit and stuck!! When the net slid under him, I'm sure my whoops and hollers where heard from one end of the lake to the other.

The fish hit a Tamiron Honeybee number 1575 at 40 feet down, over nearly 200 feet of water at 2.4 miles per hour GPS.

I didn't see the release, as I had just reset the rod after releasing a nice Lake Trout and was making corrections to my course.  The lure hadn't been in the water for more than 60 seconds when the big bruiser hit.
The fish made a magnificent jump, completely leaving the water and catapulting through the air.  He then dug, hard, for all he was worth.  At one time during the ten minute battle, I was worried he may pass the boat, out about 20 yard on the port side.  Digging, pulling, stripping line, bowing my rod and stressing my line.
I worked him, ever so gently, knowing this was a nice Champlain Landlocked.  Nice indeed, what I've been after since taking on these great, flashy, leaping fish in 2004.
After a bit, he began to tire and started to slide back behind the boat.  I began to work him up towards the stern of the boat and began to reach for my net.  I think he sensed what was inevitable and decided he wasn't ready to be conquered, not just yet.
I could see the fish... and then in the flash of an eye, he pointed his head towards the bottom, his tail waved, and the tip of my rod pulled hard toward the surface of the lake.  My reel began to scream once again and the line pulled ever so tight.  Sixty seconds or so went by and he began to relax, I could see my line rising out behind the boat and knew he was tired.  Soon he neared the surface, back 50 or 60 feet behind the boat, just under the surface, not wanting to touch the air.  I could see him, shiny, silver, beautiful!
I kept my rod tip high, worked him toward me gently, always keeping steady tension on him.  No jerks, no slack...steady as she goes.
I grabbed my net, laid it down just below the surface of the water and steadily pulled this beautiful Lake Champlain Landlocked Atlantic Salmon over it.
IN THE NET!
Safely in the boat!
My whoops and hollers then began...
Out loud, inside, and on the radio.

The fish gods owed me and my time was due. 
I've lost a bunch that "felt" the way this one did. 
But, up until today, I wasn't able to feel them...in the net!

Fish on

Fish H8 me™

Six Pound Landlocked Smashes Personal Best

Frosty

Winter is on the way.
I stopped and took a couple photo's on the way to work the other day.  The air temperature was in the high twenties and the water temperature is in the mid fifties.

This is looking toward the "narrows" from inner Mallets Bay.  Frosty.  It'd be nice on the water. Fishing.

Inner Mallets Bay

Fish on

fish H8 me ™

Frosty

October 18th on the New York Side of the Lake

  Sunday, I had the pleasure of fishing on Rob's boat along with Bill and Mike.  We left  Burlington Harbor just before sun up with air temperature hovering around 28 degrees and headed out across the lake to the New York shoreline.  We began to set up just as the sky was beginning to show some light.
  We got set up just out side of Willsboro Bay and headed South.  Fishing was slow and we finally found some fish that would hit our lines near Ligonier Point.  We trolled around Ligonier Point  for a while and then decided to head further south towards the Mouth of the Bouquet River.  Entering the River Delta, we had a salmon hit, a "barely legal" fatty that was released to be caught again another day.  We trolled out around the shallow delta, trying to stay on the ledge and found a few more fish just south of the red buoy.  Nothing big, but enough to keep us active and happy.
  After a few passes in this area we decided it was getting near time to head back.  We pulled our lines and headed over to make a pass or two outside the Burlington Breakwater.  Rob was setting out a lead core line, only had half a color out when a salmon hit. "Hey Fish On" he yells.  We thought we'd be into them good at the breakwater but it wasn't meant to be.  That was the only fish netted on the Vermont side today.
  Time to go we agreed as Mike and Bill had other engagements to attend.  All in all not a  bad day.  We didn't "smoke 'em" but had a riot.  Great company on a Great Lake! We ended up netting 8 Salmon and 1 Lake Trout.  We lost 4 or 5 other fish that didn't want to stay hooked.  We kept a total of 3 Salmon and the Lake Trout for the grill.
Lead core set ups, 4 to 5 colors seemed to take most of the fish.  The fish were hard to find and finicky, and most of them wanted small red and white spoons today.  The laker took a larger blue and white Magnum spoon from Tamiron.

The fishing should get better from here on out.  Get out there if you can.

Fish on, fish H8 me.™

October 18th on the New York Side of the Lake

Are the Salmon Beginning to Fall Back Into the Lake?

It's still early in the fall for the cold water species fishing to kick off in Lake Champlain but it looks as though it has begun.

Indications are that the Salmon are beginning to return to the lake after their annual migration up the tributaries.  Some of the local fisherman have been out since late summer, mostly catching smaller, immature fish that were stocked this spring.

However, recently some bigger, nicer landlocks are reportedly being caught.

"CrazyIvan" boated 14 legal Salmon and lost at least 10 during a recent outing.
Take a look at this beautiful 24" Landlocked Atlantic landed by CrazyIvan, fishing solo, in heavy seas!

Congratulaions to CrazyIvan on his impressive catch.

On another boat, a crew of three managed an impressive GRAND SLAM.  An outstanding catch of the four Cold Water species that Lake Champlain has to offer. Landlocked Atlantic Salmon, Brown Trout, Lake Trout, and Steel-head!  AMAZING!

Congratulaions to all!

Of the Salmon, this trio netted 22 legal sized fish. A great day on Lake Champlain.

Kicking off the fall "Frostbite Season"!


Fish on, fish H8 me.

Are the Salmon Beginning to Fall Back Into the Lake?

Two More Sponsors Join the Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout

Two more sponsors have jumped on board to help with goodies for the FIRST ANNUAL FROSTBITE FLEET SALMON SHOOTOUT.

Lake Champlain International and Fish 307 have come aboard to show thier support for what is to be a very exciting event.

Fish on, Fish H8 me.

Two More Sponsors Join the Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout