Kim Abrams of Bloomingdale displays the lake trout she caught Thursday while fishing on Lake Champlain. (Photo provided)

SARANAC LAKE — Bloomingdale’s Kim Abrams has had an eye-opening past month of fishing on Lake Champlain.

During two trips out on the big lake with her friend, Vermonter Larry Lockerby, Abrams hauled in 14 lake trout, including the whopper she reeled in on Thursday, June 15.

Although Abrams had caught lake trout in the past, the two excursions marked the first time she had ever fished on Lake Champlain. In her first trip, she hooked nine lakers and then brought in five on Thursday, including the one she estimated to weigh 14 pounds and was 34 inches long.

The top laker caught over the weekend in the Lake Champlain International Father’s Day Fishing Derby held over the weekend weighed just over 15 pounds.

“I was like a kid in a candy store,” Abrams said of her first catch on her first trip. “I thought I had a really big one, and Larry said ‘That’s just a baby.’ And then they just kept getting bigger. I was tickled.”

Abrams said she was fishing near the northern end of Lake Champlain when she caught her biggest lake trout in 100 feet of the water off the bottom. She said it took about 15 minutes to reel it in.

“All five fish were big, three pounds or more,” she said.

After bringing the big laker onto the boat, Abrams had her picture taken with the fish and then set it free.

“Larry is a taxidermist, what was I thinking?” she laughed. “I’ll never catch a fish like that again. Larry said ‘Well, you got a nice picture.'”