Gator

Ridiculously cool.

Congratulations to all who participated and the organizers, but somebody should have told the newspaper guy that Sandy Creek is in Monroe County lol

We did Lac Seul a few years back with Silver Water Wheel, which is the only lodge located mid-lake. We never saw another boat the whole week. The fishing was amazing...killer walleye by day with the guide, then smallmouth all evening on topwater when the boat was ours to use sans guide...we had one day where we logged >100 walleye over 18" up to 29.5" (we never hit that magic 30" mark, although the guide's girlfriend, who we invited to fish with us one afternoon, banged a 31" fish). It truly was an unparalleled fishery. I'm glad to hear that it's still just as good.

I've been spot treating mulitiflora for two years now to get it under control. This year it seems that there's lots of bushes showing symptoms of rose florette disease, which I was told by a forester friend had entered the area. If so, they will not survive, as it's uniformly lethal. Symptoms are: Leaves and twigs produced are a bright, rich, red color. Leaves are distorted and twisted. There may be a proliferation of leaves. The stems grow slowly and produce excessive thorns. There may be so many thorns that there is no stem available to be seen and the thorns are often red-tinged. Also, I wouldn't advise using a bulldozer unless you're prepared for the results, since ripping up the ground just allows the seed bank to grow. It'll work great in the short term, but you'll have ten times the trouble in a few years time unless you really keep on top of it. A hydro-ax or mulching brush mower on a skid steer would be a better bet, but it'd still be best to spray the bush first. It's hard to get away from the chemicals for something as invasive as MFR. I've been locating the main stems on truly enormous bushes and treating cut ends with Tordon, but since Tordon is soil available it can spread (potentially...given enough treatments and time). Round up Brush and Vine is your best bet; you can make it yourself from a 50% concentrate that you purchase in bulk. Adding some marking dye will help you see where you've sprayed and a surfactant will make it more effective.

Lake Champlain June 3rd-9th Just back from a week at Champlain fishing the Islands region in Vermont out of the Alburgh Passage. When we arrived on Saturday we headed out to the main lake and found 58 degree water and uncooperative fish. They were still in prespawn, but we stuck a couple nice ones on Keitech Swing Impact. Sunday we looked for warmer water and found a bunch of fish on humps around the Passage and inland Sea. The bite continued into Monday, mainly on soft jerkbaits. Tuesday it rained all day and the temperature barely hit 50 degrees. And that was it for the fishing. Wednesday and Thursday were flat and beautiful, with barely any fish to be found. We hit some weed beds for pike and eventually found some schools of small males moving onto the spawning flats, but it was a frustrating two days. With thunder and wind predicted for Friday, we hit the road rather than brave the elements and returned home. Other than the fishing, the trip went down without a hitch. Good friends, fishable water, no problems with the boat (other than a missing rivet near the waterline in the front that would let water in when we were fishing the front deck...drove us crazy trying to figure out why we'd take water out fishing then it was fine at the dock) and a cabin with no heat = really chilly in the morning. My buddy's Mom who we visited on Tuesday in Burlington made us cherry pie from the tree in back of her house though, and so all was good!

That's exactly the same lure we use in the Erie canal for walleye. It's like candy to them.