trapshooter

Fish will be in different locations throughout the day (usually deeper mid day and shallower at the prime feeding times, morning and evening). Andy was very right to suggest they can be found in the wide range of 4-40 feet. They also make seasonal migrations over the course of the winter. In General, at first ice they aren't far from where you'd fish in the fall. They will still be relating to main lake structure, near a basin. Find a nice point or shoal with deep water nearby and swiss cheese the ice with holes until you connect. Mid winter they are still deep and this can be the most difficult time to catch finicky walleye. As last ice approaches they migrate towards spawning areas. Creek mouths, bays with gradually tapering rock rubble shorelines, areas where weeds growth will begin to occur etc. They will stage on structure near where they spawn after the ice goes out. On a shallow/weedy lake like scugog you can fish them in/around the weeds all winter long. Bottom line is, you need a map and a willingness to move around and explore new spots and different structure. A flasher or fish finder will shorten your learning curve by showing if there are fish present and just not biting on what you're offering. Learn from what you see as well, if a certain point has huts or fishermen on it all the time, there's probably good reason for it.

Nice fish Steve. Must have been fun to slam some Simcoe Lakers again.

Looks like you had a great day out there Jaques. Thanks for the report. A bunch of sauger in that lake eh.

Hey, great report Joey!! Looks like a real fun day on the ice.

Sounds like a great day out there. Nice fish as well.

oh, I see. Looks like a great rig you have there Terry.

Good to see you guys out on the ice together. Who's Grand Touring is that and what year? Looks like mine (2002) but different colour.

awesome job guys. some real nice fish there.

I've got a live minnow on the high hook as well. Jig size depends on depth and current, but yes, it remains stationary when left untouched in the rod holder.

Hey Rick, the Hbird is a dream. It took me a bit of tinkering with the support cable and the transducer cable at first in order to get the transducer to hang straight. I heard the system they have for that is to avoid a patent violation with Vexilar. Minor detail though, the flasher itself is great and I'm happy I bought it. Having said that, it's new on the market and needs to be put through its paces.... something I fully intend to do this winter. Solo - I'm gonna wait for a better day of fishing before I drop that bomb over at walleyecentral. hahaha. I wonder if they've ever seen a Lac Seul ice report?? They will this year!!

Good to see you around again Jamie. Hope things are better for you in 09.

After trout yesterday, I wanted to look for some walleye’s this afternoon/evening. There are so many lakes and access points around Sioux Lookout that it makes it hard to decide where to start. We found a road (plowed) that crossed Lac Seul and decided to head out there and at least drill some holes in the ice and have a look. We got set up off a bend in the shoreline beside a bay. We found a nice steep drop off to 20 fow and made a grid of holes in the area. My roommate Graham got us started with a sauger. Total surprise. In the summer we catch 1 sauger for every 100 walleye. Fishing was pretty slow actually. I coaxed this 21” walleye to bite after pounding the bottom with my buckshot and minnow then letting it sit on bottom. The fish picked it up off bottom and I felt my line twitch. 21” is the top end of the slot on Lac Seul so back she went. We did some hole hopping and looked shallower as the sun dipped towards the trees and I picked up a small walleye in 10 fow. That was it for our action on the day. Not a sniff on the set line lines today. I was running a drop shot rig with a jig/minnow on the bottom end. I had a ton of confidence in this rig going into the day and was surprised it didn’t budge. Here’s the Hbird all lit up with the backlight on.

They are for snagging fish and getting caught on the bottom of your ice hole. lol. I take em off as well.

Oh man, bad news Simon. I hope everything works out and we get to go for a rip on the sleds this winter. Better yet, go for a fish with the sleds.

nice work on the walleye. You can't beat that.

The bird has been great to me so far. Love the large dynamic display for depth range (set automatically) and many other flasher functions and features. It's fast, and has great target separation as well. One thing is for sure, I'm going to put it through its paces this winter.

I made it back out on the ice today after spending 2 weeks traveling around for the holidays. We found some access to Big Vermillion Lake, about 30mins outside of Sioux Lookout and made the short walk out. No live or dead bait allowed on the lake and only 1 line per person through the ice. We caught a 2 pretty quick in 55 fow, suspended up around the 30' mark. I had another pop off half way up. Plastics took em both. They were slot fish so they went back down the hole. We tried out deeper, tried spoons etc but the bite died mid-day and that was it for our action. Had fun getting them to chase on the flasher. The new Humminbird performed very well. Had to play around with the transducer cable and the support cable to get the ducer to hang straight down (flat). After that it was flawless. We were also checked by the friendly CO Gal from town today. Good to see them out doing their jobs and enforcing the regs. Here's a few pics from the day. my first trout of the season. 22" graham scores on a tube. my rig.

There must be some kind of gas war in Dryden... price is 59.9

For me, I don't 'get' the barbless thing. My goal is to CATCH the fish. I'd rather replace barbed trebles with single barbed then go barbless. That's just my opinion though. I absolutely HATE it when fish 'pop' off. You've done everything right to get the fish to hit and then to lose it due to a tackle malfunction (no barbs) is silly. There's my barbless rant! lol

The hooks on X-raps and definitely crap, bend and break. Actually, x-raps in general don't take a lot of abuse. I've got a collection of them with no lips. On the up side, I do catch a lot of spring walleye, pike and bass on them. If a hook isn't sticky sharp, touch it up. I use the same tool and method as solo described.

Nipissing - do yourself a favour and get some 1/8th oz GLOW jigs and tip them with a minnow. Glow is killer on Nipissing in my experiences.

LOL

I heard a lot about Smithers last winter in BC. A girl I talked to had spent the entire fall there chasing steel everyday. She said they had 5 fish in the 30 lb class........

Looks like another fun day Simon, lots of action at least. You gotta get off the barbless hooks though. hahaha.

Awesome year! You caught some fantastic fish and have really good photo's to go with them. Congrats all around!