Icing Lake Trout!

Icing Lake Trout!
As in most species, it pays to be mobile when trying to find active fish. It’s not unusual to try at least ten different areas in a full day on the hard water. Locations will change depending on time of year and the type of lake that you are fishing. On a crystal clear Canadian Shield Lake with plenty of deep water there are a number of different areas to try and variety always increases your chances of contacting active fish. I usually fish a medium sized Shield Lake that holds a decent population of lake trout and plenty of deep water which helps produces some large fish as well. Over the years I have tried a multitude of spots but have had the most success in three different types of structures.
These include:
• extended flats in thirty to fifty feet of water
• shoreline points that drop off into deep water and
• sharp dropping granite bluffs that lake trout use to herd ciscoes.

LAKE TROUT LURE SELECTION:
Having fished lake trout for about thirty years now through the ice, there are always things to learn and new lures to try. According to my friends the Koppers Live Target lipless rattlebait in the gizzard shad pattern has been catching some fish . It has been one of the best lures for big walleyes on Lake Winnipeg and this has been transferred over to the lake trout box.
On my second last trip for trout a couple of years ago I had tried a number of lures which included a Berkley Power white tube jig, a Lindy Walleye Flyer jig and a small Swedish Pimple spoon until I finally hit upon something that worked!
Tying on a silver three-eights ounce Fire Eye Minnow from Northland tipped with a Berkley Platinum Sparkle Nugget I started aggressively fishing the lure with a three foot lift and drop. I was using a little longer ice fishing rod than usual, a luxury of fishing outside. Over the years of ice fishing lake trout, I have found that if you can flutter a spoon for a longer period of time as you jig it, the chances are better to trigger a bite. Big lake trout love to pick off injured ciscoes and tullibees that flutter towards the bottom after being attached by aggressive schools of high riding lakers. About ten minutes after tying on the lure my line started to leave my spool of my spinning reel at a rapid rate. This fish had grabbed my spoon on the drop and was heading away from my ice hole at a alarming pace. In fact, it was so sudden and solid that I didn’t even have a chance to set the hook.

Last year on Clearwater Lake, I learned another critical piece of information for catching lake trout through the ice. A key piece of information that I learned on this day came from Dale, a guy that not only caught the most trout but did it using a hockey stick. Yes that is right a hockey stick, or at least the handle of one. He used it to store his line, while jigging his tube bait by hand, the same method he used to land his fish. Dale explained to me how he made sure the bait would glad forward and not spiral, the key element in catching lake trout on this particular lake.
Further to that, most of my success in catching lake trout through the ice over the years has been with baits that glide and dart through the water column. Baits like the Walleye flyer jig from Lindy, tipped with small Berkley power grub with the tail cut off, then tipped with small slice of sucker cut in a thin triangle (belly piece is always the best) . The key when rigging your jigs is not to overpower the lure so it becomes unbalanced. Smaller airplane jigs still catch trout as do jigging spoons but these are aggressive presentation for aggressive trout. On Clearwater on this particular trip, the fish were anything but. A fluorocarbon leader and finesse techniques were required to put fish on the ice.

Lake Winnipeg update

Big walleye are still being caught on Lake Winnipeg but anglers are covering more territory to find fish. According to veteran anglers who have been spending a lot of time on the big lake this winter, the key once again is to move around to you find schools of baitfish. Strong current flow from the Red River into the lake itself is still a key into finding numbers of the larger walleye. Anglers are finding a number of different patterns. Fishing last week, we found some of the walleye on shallow sand bars chasing shiner minnows with some perch thrown in for good luck. Later into the day we move out to some mud flats and got some eater sized greenbacks in the mud. And I mean in the mud! A number of the fish were spitting up mud on the floor of the portable. When you looked inside their mouth you could see it covered with Red River gumbo. These fish were obviously feeding on insect larvae, probably mayflies since the big lake has such a prolific hatch during early summer. Some anglers are also catching fish suspended in deeper water, in the eighteen to twenty foot range while some are keying in on the shallow bite in less than eight feet. What it means is that you are only limited by your imagination and time on the ice. Once again it pays to move around. If you are not marking baitfish and fish on your electronics move around. Access this year has been excellent with ice ridges to a minimum. The amount of pressure on the lake has risen dramatically because of this with anglers roaming all over the south basin.

Tiger Trout of Twin Lakes

A shroud of ice fog enveloped the two vehicles in front of me, slowing progress on a early December morning.
A brief coffee at the Tim Horton’s in Dauphin at 5:30 a.m. had been the rallying point for an ice fishing expedition that had us heading west on Highway # 5 towards Roblin. I was joining Chip Leer along with guide Don “Sticky” Stokotelny on a filming expedition that was to cover almost a week in this part of Manitoba. Chip wanted a shot at catching the tiger trout of Twin Lakes, a fish he never knew existed before this trip. After seeing the photos and hearing the stories from “Sticky’ we decided it was a trip we had to make. The previous two days had been sent on Lake Dauphin catching walleye and pike but on this journey we were after something a little more exotic.

As we headed up Highway 83 after a brief stop in Roblin, the fog cleared somewhat. When we arrived at the lake some thirty minutes later we couldn’t help but admire the scenery. The same ice fog that had slowed our journey had shrouded the trees around us with a layer of white. All was still, the only noise a squirrel in the woods along with the soft purr of a generator pumping oxygen into the middle of the lake.

This was the key ingredient in keeping these valuable fish alive over the course

of a long Manitoba winter; aeration!
In the blink of an eye we had our sleds unpacked, a short walk of only twenty metres to our fishing spot. With only a half metre of ice to contend with, it didn’t take long to punch a series of holes from one to five metres of water.
Chip had started his Coleman lantern, the light casting an eerie hue in the semi darkness. He was also the only one with electronics and before long, it started to light up like a Christmas tree! There’s one on the flasher now, he bellowed. A swing and a miss on that one and you could see the adrenal surging through his body. Mere seconds later another “blip” appeared on the screen, this time to engulf one of the tube jigs that “Sticky” had supplied for the group. As the light started to filter through the trees, the action continued almost non stop. When I left just before lunch, a number of both female and brightly coloured male tiger trout had been caught and released. In fact these fish were so aggressive, that Sticky actually caught the same fish, a brightly coloured male with a slight dent in his kype, twice within ten minutes.

Now, that’s a fish with attitude!
These particular fish are a cross between brook and brown trout and are difficult to raise in the hatchery. Stocked six years ago, tiger trout have found Twin Lake to their liking, a huge population of scuds allowing them to grow to impressive size. We caught a variety of tigers this day from the more subtle browns and greens of the female fish to the bright oranges and reds of the males. The stripes on the side are what really set these fish apart as well as their attitude! On this particular day, the majority of the fish were caught tight to shore, in about one metre of water on small Berkley one inch power tube jig. Given the tenacity of these fish line test in the six pound test range was a definite advantage.
Don Stokotelny offers ice fishing packages and corporate trips out of his tackle store in Dauphin. In fact, if you are the adventuresome type you can spend a night on the ice in one of his heated portable shelters out on Lake Dauphin. Visit Don online at www.stickysbaitandtackle.com

Ice fishing on Lake Winnipeg

It was a relatively balmy morning when we hit the ice at Chalet Beach last week. It was the first ice fishing trip of the year on Lake Winnipeg and we were following Lee Nolden, a guy that spends almost every day on this lake in the winter. Lee took us along the shore towards the mouth of the river, some five kilometers. We had to dodge a few small pressure ridges but overall the drive was one of the best I can remember on this lake. Still you need four wheel drive, snow tires and another vehicle along with a tow rope just in case, at least if you want to be safe. We were quickly drilling holes in the dark, getting ready for the first light walleye bite. When the clock struck 8:30 the action got hot and heavy. I was fishing with Darrin Bohonis, the manufacturers rep for Humminbird/MinnKota. In no time Darrin had landed four fish. I managed one on a jig, then Darrin landed a couple more before we were forced to set up our portable tent. A nasty north wind had arrived, blowing right down the centre of this massive body of water.

It also shut down the bite. Though we fished to four o’clock that afternoon it was only a scattered bite. We had been fishing eight feet of water, a depth were Lee has been finding the majority of the walleye this winter so far. We landed some walleye in the 26 inch range this trip and lost a couple more that might have been bigger. Nolden says the bigger walleye have been coming on the west side, though lots of walleye are being caught out of Balsam Bay on the east side of the lake.
He says, the bit has been relatively slow in other sections of the lake, including Hecla Island. Right now the lake has about 20 inches of ice. Hot lures have been the Live Target baits in silver and red though Darrin was using a silver and orange Rattlin Rap with good success. Jigs and jigging spoons also produced some fish.