Shorefishing for ice-out lakers

[JimP]

Anyone else into this? I love the first few weeks of spring, when we shorefish with light tackle for lake trout. We start on Lake Champlain, as that's all that's open for trout fishing in late March. What a blast and on 6-pound test too! Here's my wife with one we got.   -Jim

[MikeVT]

Yep, I used to do the same thing from shore by the Champlain Bridge.  Fished with dead smelt weighted to the bottom.  Caught a couple of nice ones this way.  That is a nice Champlain Laker by the way.

[bigredfishing]

I do it too, same places as you guys.  Haven't done it in a few years, but last time I did, my father and I had our best day ever, catching 19.  Usually its just 3 or 4.

[JimP]

By sometime next week, I hope to give it a try somewhere or other up around the Islands! Can't wait! Hey, around May 1st we've even gotten off the pier in Burlington! We use dead smelt too, by the way.  Never got to catch any this winter though, darn it. Guess we'll have to use what we had leftover in the freezer from last year...
-Jim

[JimP]

Hey Red? Where'd ya get that smallie? What a NICE one!  -Jim

[bigredfishing]

Hey Red? Where'd ya get that smallie? What a NICE one!  -Jim

Funny enough, it came from right off of Pt. Henry