19 replies to this topic

[BowSlayer]

yesterday i had the chance to head up north early in the morning for lakers, for what looks to be my last ice trip. We got there early and the  preferable launch was busted, we could've made it on but probably wouldn't be able to make it off later. So we went and hit another launch, no one on the ice, slushy as heck but we just had to go. Watching every step as we went, we finally passed the broken up ice and got onto the safe ice. We decided to leave the auger at home and just take a couple buckets and find some holes, well it was tough but we did find a couple holes, 75 feet, blank screen for 3 hours then something hits, seems like a whitie, tension on the line, i reel up, then it just stops and i can't gain on it, like a brick or something, then he starts peeling and bam, off, just like that! I was pissed but what can you do, hit another area of the bay, 1 foot of slush made it really hard and annoying to walk but we got to the preferred location. Transducer in the hole, we mark no fish, after some running from hole to hole i find a red mark, bingo! Grab the gold williams spoon and a medium heavy rod, a few fast rips up and the rod bends to the hole, drag starts screaming and excitement gaining, got him up a few feet then off, no clue how, it was a big laker thats for sure. Then a set lien goes off and the bait caster falls in the hole, luckily i run up just in time to grab the rod and land a nice laker, not too big but certainly above average, unhook him and down he goes. After that we landed around 20 lakers each, multiple double headers, nothing like I've ever seen before. Released the bigger ones since we had fish at home already and kept some of the smaller ones. We had some weird bites that would hit up, peel drag and come of, no matter how hard we set the hook, i even tried setting it twice, still come off every dang time, i have a feeling our rods were too soft and line to stretch, will try braid in the open water season on for sure. We kept a couple small fish each, released the bigger ones, the ones that were coming off seemed very big, above 8 pounds for sure, they would just stand there like a log and we wouldn't be able to gain ANY line on them, i tried horsing one in but he ripped the line, no clues what these fish were, i have a feeling there were a couple whities and big lakers involved and one ling for sure, its funny you can tell right away when you have a ling on. Here are some pics of the day, the rod with the yellow tip is a medium/heavy, you can see the ned in that rod, then the would just come off. Lots of seagulls on the ice that would circle around us and try to steal our minnows, lol.[/URL[/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...2d618.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...3d75e.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...f2159.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...aa652.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...f47aa.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...45403.jpg.html][/URL[url=http://s879.photobuc...f53f4.jpg.html]

[BowSlayer]

[/URL[URL=http://s879.photobucket.com/user/rainbow256/media/IMG_20140412_124900_zps2949323a.jpg.html]

[DitchWizard]

awesome man, banner day!

I have come to always use braid in deep water, found much better hooksets. I landed a couple fish on my brothers mono this winter and the stretch was very apparent to me

[BowSlayer]

thanks! Ya I'm thinking of spooling one of the reels with braid, that stretch really messed up the hook sets, still can't believe that every single one of the heavy ones came off, depressing as heck, lol, definitely trying braid when this ice comes off so we can launch the boat.

[NiagaraSteel]

Could they be carp?

[BowSlayer]

lol, no carp there, haha. Most likely big whities maybe big lakers, who knows, I'm leaning more towards whities considering they hit up, thats a common thing for northern whities.

[getin]

Great report!

[BowSlayer]

thanks Sam! How'd you make out today?

[Knuguy]

Braid has the advantage of a better hook set but the disad is that it ices up more than mono, which would not have been a prob yesterday. 

 

I'm not surprised that you couldn't get on the ice of 'X' Road( y'know) what with the 2 bubblers going. It sounds like you got in elsewhere and walked back to that spot? 

[BowSlayer]

no, i went from foots bay and stayed there, you wouldn't find me walking from foots bay to that spot, no way in he!! in these conditions, lol! We got on, its just that we thought getting off later in the day would be a problem so went to foots and ended up having 3x the action is usually have at the "other" spot.

[Shawarma]

You're one brave dude to still be going out on the ice.  

[BowSlayer]

lol, 14 inches of ice, haha.

[troutddicted]

Mad slush - nasty

[Shawarma]

lol, 14 inches of ice, haha.

 

still 14inches? geeze.. 

[Brian]

My feet are cold just looking at that slushy pic...

[Shmogley]

darn dude looks you guys made a mess for sure!

 

one of those days you dont soon forget lol

 

in the really cold days braid will just piss you off with the ice build up trust me. but maybe try some thicker mainline and just had a short lead  to keep the profile low, will help with those long sets.

 

like that thick green crap i have on my shimano.. never stretches on sets. and a decent 6-8lb flouro leader good to go.

 

congrats on the big numbers man wish i coulda been there!

that last fish especially looks real nice for those waters.

[BowSlayer]

thanks man, ya we had some big ones on, thats not the biggest in the pic, i was just too wet and cold to take more pics, lol. We had some fish stretching 10 pounds for sure, def. gonna try some thicker main line or braid ounce the ice thaws so i can launch the boat.

[FishChaser67]

great report ,, nice looking lakers ,, way to go !!!!!!!! pics are awesome

[BowSlayer]

Thanks man!

[Kit]

still 14 inches man thats crazy. Id love to get out on the ice one more time.