Icefishing for Lake Trout

Here's a little something different again.

Michael, Evan and I met up yesterday to fish Simcoe. Previous day's report suggested 4-5 inches of ice. That was what we found yesterday as well. All of us had survival suits and Evan and I had lots of experience icefishing and fishing on Simcoe. We were spudding as we walk out and test drilling a hole every so often. The ice is still borderline safe...so I WILL NOT advise anyone going out on that ice at the moment, especially with the warm weather in the next few days!

We started our day early and started fishing at 6:30am. I always like to get there early to explore the area, find the right depth...and sometimes the fish turns on with a day break bite. According to previous day's report, the bite was supposed to start at 9am, but didn't come until 12pm.

If I remember correctly, Michael went 2/4, catching his first ever lake trout and then topping it with a PB laker. Evan went 2/4 landing 2 lake trout. I went 1/4 landing 1 lake trout, losing 2 and I'm pretty sure a whitefish came unbottoned as well. I also missed another whitefish hit (so light that it came and went before I can even set the hook).

We fished until 4pm and tried to find a late afternoon bite...but a shift in the wind and a dip in the temperature probably shut down the bite.

Instead of my usual long written report, here is a video. I'll try to position the camera better next time. I should have pointed it further downward. (There is a bit of swearing in the video...viewer discretion advised)

http://youtu.be/qhkwoYihMXg

Here are a few pictures.

Michael's first Lake Trout



Evan's Lake Trout



Michael's PB Lake Trout



Fish on the graph



There's this much ice...



My PB lake trout at 26.5"







A couple of fillets for my co-worker.


crasny1's picture

Posts: 7002

Date Joined: 16/10/08

Cool

Tue, 2013-01-29 13:12

I mean cold!!!

Nice to see a different way to fish. From Karratha I DONT think I am going to try that. You know what will freeze off!

____________________________________________________________________________

"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk

Posts: 5981

Date Joined: 17/06/10

what great looking

Tue, 2013-01-29 16:33

what great looking flesh the fillets show well done think I'll keep to warmer clims though

dkonig82's picture

Posts: 2091

Date Joined: 06/07/10

Some great sized trout!

Tue, 2013-01-29 17:15

Some great sized trout! Awesome to see something different on here.

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When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:

n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or

n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you. 

jighead's picture

Posts: 725

Date Joined: 03/02/12

Sounder

Wed, 2013-01-30 15:06

Love the idea of using the sounder. At least you don't need an icebox!

Posts: 139

Date Joined: 23/11/10

Thanks guys.It was not too

Fri, 2013-02-01 01:53

Thanks guys.

It was not too bad of a day actually...the morning was colder at -15C with a 15km/h wind, but it turned sunny and calm for a couple of hours and it was -4C. Yeah, at that temperature, no need for an esky.

The Lake Trout was tasty...wish they were clean enough to use for sashimi, but I personally will not sashimi any freshwater fish.

The sounder is a must to find the right depth to fish and to determine if there are any fish in the area. Definitely better than fishing blind.

Hoping to get out again this weekend.

As much as I love icefishing, I think I agree with most of you...I'd rather be fishing in T-shirt and shorts.

Posts: 23

Date Joined: 06/11/12

nice

Fri, 2013-02-01 07:18

nice trout ,looks to cold for me