As the cooler temperatures of late fall arrive and the Atlantic salmon spawning run winds down on Lake Champlain’s tributaries, some salmon anglers have thoughts of retiring their gear for winter. Most large trolling vessels are shrink-wrapped and in storage, in anticipation of the approaching chill. Many outdoorsmen are ignoring the water, entirely focused on the woods. What some fishermen are unaware of is that some of the best salmon fishing occurs on the broad lake from late October, until the mid-winter ice forms. With a modest boat and motor, the proper tackle, and an enthusiastic mindset for brisk fishing, a hard-core Lake Champlain salmon angler can take full advantage of the year round open season. It’s an opportunity to experience bountiful fishing well into winter. With the exception of an occasional bald eagle or two, the salmon angler will encounter little competition on the water.
On the broad lake during late fall and early winter Atlantic salmon are often foraging aggressively on baitfish in the upper portion of the water column. A young adult class, from 15 to 18 inches, is most prevalent, but larger stock occasionally joins the mix. Pound for pound, these Atlantic salmon are every bit as energetic as their Pacific rivals. When hooked, they frequently make powerful, lightening-fast runs and exciting acrobatic leaps of amazing height, invigorating a cold angler’s heart. The occasional bonus brown trout, steelhead or lake trout may be caught, complementing the big water experience.
This weekend, BBY’s Guy Mitrano and Nick Cifuentes completed Episode 2 of the new Burlington Boatyard Lakeside Podcast series.
This episode covers the recent news regarding BBY working together as the first official sponsor of the UVM Wakeboard Club, and club president Nicole Ullian phoned in for an interview with the guys.
Also, a section that each podcast will feature, is the latest news going on in and around the Vermont and Lake Champlain community. This week, Guy informed everyone of the Turtle Beach Clean Up, recent Lamprey Treatment happenings, and the release of the Lake Champlain Fish Management Plan that discusses future plans to manage fish populations in Champlain.
Finally, listeners will be filled in on some of the Salmon fishing reports and ‘end of season’ trips out on Willsboro and Converse Bay by local anglers from the Lake Champlain Fishing Forum, started by Scott Johnson of Swanton.
We hope you all enjoy this info packed production and please feel free to contact BBY with questions, comments, suggestions or if you or your business wish to be a part of this valuable communication tool within the community!
Burlington Boatyard, in keeping with our theme of incorporating many media channels into our business model, has just completed our very first podcast and it is currently up and running.
This initial release is a sit-down with Guy Mitrano and Nick Cifuentes, CEO and CTO of Burlington Boatyard, and serves two purposes, the first being as an introduction to what podcasts are, and how they will be used in our business approach. Secondly, the two discuss the history, goals and mission of BBY, what we’ve been up to for the past few months, the guests and topics we will cover, and overall, just a chance to connect more personally with our users.
This production will be in many podcast directories shortly…but for starters, try this link – as we are now uploading it to the many hundreds of podcast directories, and will soon be available on iTunes as well!
With Ice Fishing season right around the corner, Burlington Boatyard has been working to ensure we keep the marine community aware of the many exciting and beneficial hard-water happenings taking place this winter in and around Vermont and the Lake Champlain area.
Recently, BBY has been working together with Shawn Hayes, a Fair Haven resident, active ice fisherman and member of the Champlain Crappie Crew (CCC), to provide exposure and promotion of the upcoming North American Ice Fishing Circuit qualifying tournament which will be coming to Lake Bomoseen in March of 2009.
Shawn, as well as other local anglers like Scott Blair of Burlington (fellow CCC member), have enlisted BBY to aid in developing press releases and getting regular coverage out to the community as the state prepares to welcome what will be the first nationally televised ice fishing event of this scope to take place in Vermont.
We welcome you to be a part of the action as we bring you the latest articles, updates and further developments as we prepare for what is shaping up to be an exciting hard-water season.
As a follow up to our original article, “9th Annual LCI Bass Open: Recap and Coverage” – and after many hours of editing footage - we finally have a full length feature of this year’s LCI Bass Open.Our newest video is dedicated to all the anglers, volunteers and sponsors that participated this year.See you all next year and hope you enjoy the film!
Last Saturday was the final day of the Wal-Mart FLW Series pro bass tournament on Lake Champlain, and myself and Nick couldn’t have asked for a better opportunity to meet some great anglers, event staff and experience the atmosphere that surrounds such a big time event in the angling community.
We headed out of Burlington on Friday night, via the Ferry at Grand Isle, and crashed in Plattsburgh. When we arrived at the America’s Best Value Inn (hey, there was no availability at the Ritz!) we parked next to the BP Tahoe trailing a wrapped Ranger boat, followed by many more pickups – all pulling nice rigs. That set the tone for what the final day of the tournament would bring.
If you look at numbers alone, the 27th Annual LCI Father’s Day Fishing Derby was very successful this year, up in revenue with no fee increases and reeling in 5, 261 anglers from 26 states.
But step away from the official statistics, numbers and business dealings, and you will realize that this derby’s success comes in many different shapes and sizes.
It comes in the form of cheers and high fives between buddies when weighing in the leading smallie for the day. You see it when a group of tired and waterlogged anglers huddle into the supplies shop at Hero’s Welcome, raffle tickets in hand and sharing laughs and “ooh’s and ah’s” at the raffle drawing. It is found in the excitement of every dad who, no matter a half pound perch or a sixteen pound catfish, knows he is already a winner because he spent the day with his son or daughter fishing and getting away from everything else that keeps him busy before and after the derby.
While volunteering at the LCI Derby this year, I realized exactly what fishing does outside of winning you a prize or dubbing you with the title of largest fish or the winning team. When you cut through all the hard work and planning done by James Ehlers, Chris Baker and the LCI staff…all the scurrying around from check point to check point by volunteers and sponsors…the countless measurements and registrations performed by the weigh station captains and workers…when all that is over, you see that the true accomplishment of this derby is its ability to take the activity we all do season after season, and use it to promote the sense of community and “celebrate family, friends and fishing”.
Regards,
Guy
Feel free to comment below with your thoughts and experiences with this year’s derby.
To read more about Burlington Boatyard’s experience as volunteers, read Jimmy’s write up in BBY News.
As the cooler temperatures of late fall arrive and the Atlantic salmon spawning run winds down on Lake Champlain’s tributaries, some salmon anglers have thoughts of retiring their gear for winter. Most large trolling vessels are shrink-wrapped and in storage, in anticipation of the approaching chill. Many outdoorsmen are ignoring the water, entirely focused on the woods. What some fishermen are unaware of is that some of the best salmon fishing occurs on the broad lake from late October, until the mid-winter ice forms. With a modest boat and motor, the proper tackle, and an enthusiastic mindset for brisk fishing, a hard-core Lake Champlain salmon angler can take full advantage of the year round open season. It’s an opportunity to experience bountiful fishing well into winter. With the exception of an occasional bald eagle or two, the salmon angler will encounter little competition on the water.
Loading ...