FROSTBITE FLEET SALMON SHOOTOUT 2010

And the winner is...

Ron Winter of Essex Junction Vermont with a dandy 23 inch Landlocked weighing in at 5.11 pounds.
Congratulations Ron!
Ron caught the winning fish on one of Champlain's hottest lures, a Honeybee from Tamiron Sporting Goods.

The second annual Frostbite Fleet Salmon Shootout was an absolute riot.  A fun FREE event with a Bar-B-Que at the end to wrap up the day.

It's tough to find the big fish in open water at this time of the year on Lake Champlain, but three dandy, leaping, bright silver, powerhouse, Lake Champlain Landlocked Atlantic Salmon made it to the weigh station after the five and a half hour event.

Second place in the event went to a new comer, Bill Snell of New Haven Vermont with a 4.14 pound landlocked.  Congratulations Bill!

Lucky for me, I was able to get a decent fish in the box and headed for the weigh-in scheduled for 1 PM.
A beautiful football shaped 4.12 pound salmon hit my line about 45 minutes before time to "quit".  Ben of Dockside Outdoors was on-board with me and netted the beast.  We whooped and hollered and headed in once the fish was safely boxed.  Thanks Ben!

The fish was good for a third place finish.  The trophy won't set on my mantle this year, but the memories of a fun filled event with a great bunch of fisherman will last the rest of my lifetime!

364 days to go untill the next Frostbite Salmon Shootout and I can hardly wait.

Until then, I'll keep at it, often solo, enjoying the jewel we call Lake Champlain and it's wonderful fishery!

Tight lines to all!

Fish on, fish H8me.
Raz

FROSTBITE FLEET SALMON SHOOTOUT 2010

STEELHEAD RAINBOW TROUT

On Sunday, Cathy joined me for a few hours of trolling on Lake Champlain's Inland Sea. We had it tough, we kept dropping fish, just couldn't keep them on the hook.  We ended up going three for seven on salmonids. 
I could only get the down-riggers to fire once, no matter what I did!
Everything else was on 1.5 to 3 colors of lead-core, or the lite-bite slide diver set at about 22ish.

Last fish of the trip, the slide diver fires again. We've decided this was our last run. Cathy doesn't normally want to fight the fish but as soon as the rod fired, I said "here, you take it,,,c'mon"

She wrestles the rod, the fish, and the slide diver and does very well.  The fish made two nice runs and she hung on, each time her eye's lighting up and excitement in her voice.  Several times the fish, carrying the slide diver, rocketed out of the water.
Finally:
Netted...STEELHEAD!  The first on the Razzle Dazzle!

 
Steelhead or Rainbow Trout are in Lake Champlain, they're just not as prolific as the other salmonids.
When one is caught, it's exciting news!
 
In 2004 when Cathy and I bought our boat, she put the first Landlocked Atlantic Salmon in it.  Now, she has the right to claim the first Steelhead!
She's a keeper!
 
Fish on, fish H8 me.
Raz

STEELHEAD RAINBOW TROUT