Winter

Hi Guys,

I know I've missed sending a couple of updates, but I'm still alive!! I have had some health issues but I am doing ok. I do have to get a complete shoulder replacement on January 23, 2025, so I hope I will be ready for Spring. I am hoping that you are all in good health and will be ready to go fishing!!!

This Past Fall

This past fall was challenging especially with the weather. With many extreme temperature changes and tremendous winds, it was a tough one. As I see it, IT was everywhere in the world??!! BUT we still had great catches as you can see from these recent photos.

We Have Ice

Right now our boats are put away for the winter and our lake and the other inland lakes have already frozen, which means by the time you receive this update, we will be out there ice fishing. Here are some of the photos from last winter and as you can see the guys did very well. We didn't have as many ice fishermen as we've had in other years, probably because most places in the northeast didn't have any ice at all. We only had 15 to 18 inches of ice last winter which was the least amount we've ever had? Most years, by March we have over 30 inches. but we've always had plenty of ice, so if you're looking forward to going ice fishing this winter, keep us in mind. Remember, we offer 3 days ice fishing on LongPond, or nearby Lake Champlain, two nights lodging and four meals for $295.00 per person and you can't beat that!!! Long Pond has bass, pike, perch, and crappie (Bass can not be kept in the winter in New York). Lake Champlain, (just down the road) has Lake Trout, Landlocked Salmon and Perch.

Our fall fishing is not too far away now. Next to spring, it is my favorite season. We catch most of our biggest fish of the year then, in almost all species, and next to spring, we catch the most fish then. In recent years mid to late September the waters cool and the bait fish move to the shallows and the Bass and Pike are right behind them Early in the fall we start fishing with suspended jerk baits, top water,swimbaits, tubes and ned rigs. Then as the falls move on, and the waters get cooler, all the fish start moving to deeper water. At this time we are fishing with deep crank baits, tube jigs, swim baits, and blade bait. As you can see, in last fall's photos the fish are "BIG"!! The Bass and Pike fishing usually stops about mid November when the water temps go below 40 degrees.

The Salmon and Lake Trout are Back

WE THINK???!!! When we started the guide service in 1978, one of our most popular fish was and has been our Landlocked Salmon. This species is "ATLANTIC SALMON", which have been Landlocked in many freshwater lakes for thousands of years and they are the exact same species, but just don't grow as big but they fight hard and jump high when hooked. We catch these not only by deep water trolling, but also by fly casting for them in the rivers and my favorite, which is flatlining, trolling near the surface, both in shallow and deep water, with small streamer flies and small spoons and very light line. When the Salmon hits we stop the motor and let him do his thing, taking line and jumping, which in my opinion, is the most exciting. Hard to beat it!! From the late 70's to about the year 2000 we had the best landlocked fishing in probably the whole country. Then the decline started until about 2015, when there weren't enough of them to come and to fish for. Up until then, the DEC stocked fingerlings in the upper tributaries of the rivers and also depending on natural spawning Salmon to reproduce in the same tributaries. After hatching the Salmon remain in the rivers for about the first two years of their life and then they migrate to the deep water of Lake Champlain. They then return to the same rivers a few years later, as adults and spawn. BUT unlike the Pacific Salmon, these Salmon don't DIE after spawning. They may spawn several times and die years later and probably not during spawning. The DEC had a number of reasons why there has been a decline in the Salmon. My reason has been "Climate Change". For many years, while guiding fishermen for stream trout in the same rivers,we would catch many juvenile Salmon on trout flies and spinners, so much so that they were really a " nuisance" , then, all of a sudden, in 2016 we were not catching any??!! AND we haven't caught any since!!! For the past number of years the temperatures of the streams and rivers have been really warm...and the DEC has asked fishermen not to fish for trout in the summer months cause it would be too much stress on them. Now, Salmon prefer even colder water than Trout! So, it seems to me that the main reason for the decline is the smaller Salmon won't survive the 2 years to make it to the lake?! That seems reasonable, Right? To fix this, in the past couple of years, the DEC and the US Fish and Wild Life services, have raised the Salmon in the hatcheries for a longer period of time, so they are much bigger and then put them in holding areas at the mouths of the rivers, for a couple of months,so they get the implant of that river, so they come back to that same river to spawn. And it really works.These agencies trapped a lot of returning Salmon this fall, more than they have in years. So, maybe I will once again see that great Salmon fishing once again, before I go!!!

Book Early for Spring

I know I say it in almost every update now, but as I mentioned we don't have nearly enough guides now as we did a few years ago, so if you are thinking of using our guide service this spring please try to book as early as you can. I really don't want to turn anyone away, and also, if you can, have several dates in mind. If you are just going to use our lodging and meals package with NO GUIDE, you can book most anytime. For all you guys who already have booked tentative dates please give me a call to confirm as soon as you can. I do have this thing called "AGE" and I don't want to mess up anyone's dates LOL

Well guys, hope to see you soon, maybe for some ice fishing?! WE WISH ALL OF YOU THE BEST HOLIDAYS AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE YEARS YOU'VE FISHED WITH US.

Pete

E-Mail

After all these years we will soon be getting high speed internet. Our e-mail has changed from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to "This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it." So please write down our new email now.