I hope all of you had a great holiday season and are now ready for some ice fishing?!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope all of you had a great holiday season and are now ready for some ice fishing?!  Sorry this newsletter took so long but we got a late start on the ice fishing,even though we had ice right after Thanksgiving. We had about 3 inches of ice right away and then, we had an early snow storm which dumped 18 inches of snow on top if the ice. This resulted in about 6 inches of slush on top of the ice which froze quickly to 9 inches of ice. Then we had this warm spell and all the snow in the area melted and ran onto the lake leaving 2 to 3 inches of water on top. Now it is cold again and we instantly have about 12 inches of ice, so our season has started and here are the photos from this past week (at end of update).

LOOKING BACK ON 2014

As with the past 2 or 3 years, 2014 was another weird one, no question. Winter stayed a little longer this year and our opening week, the 3rd week in April, was very slow. It usually is a great week and we usually catch our biggest smallmouths of the spring then, but only a few fish were caught?! The spring fishing wound up about 2 weeks late, but it was one of our best springs in a long time! We had great fishing for smallies and pike right thru mid July, but we didn't do that great on Largemouths and we really don`t know why? We did not have an exceptionally hot summer so you would expect better fishing for the bass and pike, but it wasn't, just normal? The exception was the lake trout fishing, which was very good ! Many days there were catches of 20 to 30 lake trout with some browns, rainbows and landlocks!! The fall bass and pike fishing started around the middle of Sept which was about a week or two early and the fishing was very good for then right thru mid Nov. It would have been better if it wasn't for, you guessed it, the “WIND”!! Good thing we have many different areas to launch on the big lake and many other inland lakes to go to to fish when the days are nasty. But there were days when the winds were over 40 mph and there were 5 to 6 ft waves, which made it impossible to get out at all! The real bright spot of the year was the return of the Salmon and Trout on Lake Champlain. A lot of fishermen, including myself, have been waiting for these fish to make a comeback to the numbers we had in the 80s and 90s before the Lampreys practically wiped them out. This come back is mainly thanks to those of you that signed that lamprey control petition for Lake Champlain a few years ago. “You” really made the difference!! As of this writing, where there is still open water, the salmon and trout are still biting! Well, regardless of all the ups and down we had last year, you guys did “Great”!! I have hundreds of photos of you guys with 5 to 6 lb plus largemouths and smallmouths, 10 to 20 lb pike, 2 to 4 lb plus landlocks, and 8 to 10 lb lake trout just from this past year. All those photos will be on display at this winters Sport Shows which will be coming up soon.

Show Time

Here are the shows we will be attending this winter and the dates:
 
Boxborough, MA---------------------Feb 6th thru Feb 8th
 
Oaks, PA-------------------------------Feb 26th thru Mar 1st
 
Suffern, NY-----------------------------Mar 5th thru Mar 8th
 
I hope all of you can come to see us, cause definitely the most fun about doing the shows, is seeing YOU!!

PROBLEMS TO SOLVE

Well, you guys did so well on that Lamprey petition, I was thinking maybe we could clear up so other issues that effect our fishing here? I`ve discussed these with many of you over the years and maybe we could take them on one at a time. It might work or it might not, but I think it is worth a try. Believe it or not but there are over “three thousand” of you that receive these updates directly so it could make a difference.

Our first problem, that a lot of you experienced first hand, has to do with our launch areas on Lake Champlain. Every fisherman knows the the very best fishing times of the year are Spring and Fall. For some unknown reason our ramps are not put in until almost summer and then they are taken in just as fall begins?? It is almost like they are catering to the recreational boater and don`t care about the fisherman??! As you know when the docks are out it could be very dangerous to boats and people!!! Especially in the Fall when the water level is at it`s lowest, you have to pull the boats up against the metal 8 to 10 ft bulkheads with waves pushing you against them. it is very dangerous to the boats and the guys trying to scale the walls. I do understand that sometimes in the spring the water level is high because of the melting snows from the mountains and they have to wait to put them in, but when the water level goes down, no one seems to be in a hurry to put them in?! In the fall, there is no reason what so ever to take the docks in until after Thanksgiving, cause there is no ice and November is one of the very best fishing months. Again, the fishermen don`t seem to matter?! The agencies involved are the New York DEC, and the Thousand Island Park Commission. This year our Governor stressed the importance of fishing to our States economy. As you know, he cut the license fees way down! I`m sure He and our other elected officials are not aware of our problem and all of us should let them know, don`t you think?! If you guys would, please E-mail these officials, and I mean in you own words, letting them know your concern on this problem. I`m sure if they receive a bunch of e-mails on this, they will have to look into it, Right??!! here are their e-mail addresses:

GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO    This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
SENATOR BETTY LITTLE  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
REPRESENTATIVE JANET DUPREY  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 
I hope you will do this guys cause it does affect us all, thanks.

CANADIAN ADVENTURES

As many of you know every summer I head north to see my friend Joe Stefanski and over the years a number of you have gone with me. Joe owns HIGH ARCTIC ADVENTURES (Click Link to go to his website). He operates two remote fishing lodges, with all the comforts of home, with one in central Quebec and one in northern Quebec (Nunivik). These are fly in areas and very remote, more remote then many areas in Alaska! When you are fishing these areas, except for the other fishermen with you, you will not see another person your whole time there!

Lake Ternay, the lodge in central Quebec, offers great fishing for brook trout with fish up to 8 pounds! It also has Lake Trout to 30 pounds and Landlocked salmon to 10 pounds. But my favorite fish to catch there is it`s Trophy Pike and there are a lot if them, many over 20 pounds and some up to 30!!!!

Diana Lake Lodge, which is way up near the Arctic Circle is really a fish factory. Up there it should be called CATCHING, not fishing. The brook trout there average 3 to 6 lbs and it is almost a fish on EVERY cast!!! Along with the Brookies are trophy Arctic Char which run 6 to 15 pounds with some over 20!! Diana Lake also has monster Lake Trout to 40 pounds!! The lakers are caught either by casting or trolling right on top. When trolling, you have a fish on every couple of minutes!!! It is truly Amazing!!
In both these areas, you fish from shore as well as from a boat, so walking is involved. Many guys are looking for a once in a life time fishing trip, and believe me these are the places!! Give me a call if you would like to join me sometime, you won`t regret it.

THANKS

Each year I take this time to thank each and everyone of you for coming to fish with us this past year and also a special thanks to all of you who have been coming for so many years. Many of you have been with us for 20 to 30 years!! This will be our “38th” year in business, can you believe it??!! Our success is entirely thanks to “YOU” and there is not a day that goes by that myself and my family are not greatfull. Thanks for being such great friends!!

ICE FISHING TIME

Well, the ice is safe and we should have good ice right thru early March. Long Pond, as most of you know, is one of the best ice fishing Lakes you will ever fish especially if you like to tipup fish, “LOTS OF ACTION” for bass, pike, perch and crappie. Willsboro Bay, which is a part of Lake Champlain, probably won`t freeze up until the end of the month. The bay has ice fishing for lake trout, salmon, perch, and smelt. For those of you who have never ice fished before and would like to learn, I have a Special for you, give me a call 518-963-7351. Come on up!!

Well guys, I guess that is it for another update. I hope to see you all up hear for some ice fishing, but if you can`t make it, I hope you can make it to the shows!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Pete