trapshooter

Yeah, you can get ice rods that are made for baitcasters. Allows you to use heavier mono then what you can on a spinning reel.

10lb mono is what I use on a spinning reel and I have 14lb mono on a baitcasting set-up. Tubes and other baits spin a lot and twist your line so I run a small barrel swivel 18" up the line. Usually use 12-14lb fluoro for my leader line.

A 4" white tube jig is pretty hard to beat for lakers. I usually tip with a medium minnow. Spoons tipped are another classic laker bait to jig in the winter. It will really help if you have a flasher or other sonar device. The 2 biggest things are that lake trout can appear anywhere in the water column and the best way to get them to hit is by making them chase. These 2 things are paramount for catching winter lake trout. Without one, a good strategy is to drop to bottom, jig, pause, jig pause etc. then reel up 5-10 feet and do it again, working your way up to the bottom of the ice (believe me, you can catch a trout 5' below the ice in the winter). Another proven tactic is to drop to bottom and slowly/steadily reel all the way up. Repeat and experiment with different retrieve speeds. It's fun when you get a hit like this because you're reeling then all of a sudden your rod is doubled over!

A jig and a med-large minnow is also pretty darn good.

Good luck and have fun!

Nice work Simon. We didn't hit them as well the day after you were there. Going back tomorrow though! I saw a 36.5" trout landed (and released) last week.

Good job man. Congrats on your PB!!

Looks familiar! Nice job on the whities and trout guys. I'll be back there this week - sled is finally fixed

My Eskimo is the easiest starting auger engine I've seen. Strike masters are fast, tons of torque but I've seen 2 of them break b/c of that. One broken handel (plastic) and a broken pin. I've yet to ever see a Jiffy that was easy to start and keep running.

Nice. Be interesting to see if the new one lasts.

If you're looking for a 1 reel / 1 rod solution I wouldn't recommend a 300 Curado for the reel. First, no clicker for trolling... secondly they don't last when throwing big dbl 10's. I do have a curado 301 and love it but I never use it for dbl 10's. I throw dbl 8's and top water baits with it and it's great.

Good stuff guys, multi-species action. Gotta love Gbay.

Can't go wrong with a Curado. I have 3 of them, all different sizes, and love them all. The first one I ever bought was the old green 100 size and to this day it's the easiest casting baitcaster I've ever owned.

Stradic. I've beat the hell out of 5 of them and never had a single problem.

Nice fish Ben!

Especially love the big lakers, WOW!

Could I get a link to the video?

 

TDunn

Thanks!

Here's the link...

Nice fish. Laker out of 5 feet eh, pretty cool. What kind of bow is that?

For sure, a 6-7' ML is a good rod for jigging with braid. As Jay mentioned the lighter rod makes up for the no stretch in the line and acts as a shock absorber.

Otherwise I would recommend a 6-7' Medium power/fast action rod. Especially if you plan to target larger fish.

A light action rod (no backbone) doesn't bode well for deep-water hook sets with stretchy mono.

I see there's a slick jig fish in there too! I saw your video on the special way to rig minnows onto the hook on youtube. Awesome tip!

I got a couple of them too, but haven't gotten a fish on them yet, maybe this weekend...You've inspired me to fish them extra hard this weekend in hopes of getting a fish on them!

Right on! I like the slick jigs for walleye and whitefish. For walleye I just tip with the minnow but for whities I slip a micro tube over the hook and add a minnow tail as well. I even got a laker on that set-up. Good luck this weekend.

Looks like a great weekend with your buddies. The picture you labeled 'a wave goodbye' is really cool!

Sounds like you've got a good attitude towards your chemo treatments and a great support network of family and friends. Best wishes for a full recovery.

Amazing fish Ben. Looks like you're having a great winter so far. How deep were you fishing when you caught the pike? Excellent pictures.

Hey, thanks! The pike was caught 25' down over 40 FOW.

Nice trout Ben....did you sneek back to Big S without telling me?!!!

 

Love the walleye with its fins raised.

Guilty Simon

You want to go to LOTW for big lakers? Yeah, those ones you caught were runts.

 

I hate you.

LOL - Lindy Darters? I feel your pain!

The trick with them is to get the fish to chase them. Most hits I get, I'm slowly and steady reeling up, away from a fish I've marked. Don't stop reeling!! Once they see it disappearing that's when they chase. Once they chase, it really ups the odds they will hit. The farther you can bring them off bottom, the better your odds. The other way I get fish to hit Darters is the exact opposite strategy - by jigging above a marked fish then letting the bait sit dead still for up to 60 seconds (it's hard to not jig it!) and they dart up and pop it. Bottom line, you need electronics to fish them effectively. It also helps to have an active bite. For neutral to negative fish I'll turn to something else tipped with live bait.

I'll let you know. I want Linda to do a big order of dbl 10's.

Those look awesome Mike!

ICE is a great colour up here in Lac Seul.

I'd love to give the Electric Black and Halloween a try up here too.

Hey gang, been having a good time out on the ice in NW Ontario this year and thought I'd share some pics. Been mostly chasing walleye, lakers and white fish. I'll let the pics do most of the talking.

That small sized Lindy Darter has caught me a lot of fish this winter. Not just walleye, trout and whities too.

40" Pike caught on a tube jig while fishing a lake trout / whitie lake.

Look at the difference between these two lake trout - caught on the same lake, same hole actually.

That's all for now. Lots of season left up here though and I hope to get over to LOTW to chase some big lakers.

Cheers,

ben

I'm a tiller guy through and through. Backtrolling is the most efficient way to structure fish for walleye and throw a bow mount on it and you're casting shorelines all day with nothing but open space from the motor to the bow.

Look at this 175 Alumacraft Navigator Tiller

http://www.alumacraft.com/2011-models/navigator-series/175-tiller/#info

Rated for a 75 but they make a 185 that is rated for a 90. They hold up much better then a similar lund after the same amount of use and abuse.

Way to go Joey!! Great lake trout, congrats!

Cool Ben seeing the bend on the rod was just amazing It looked like you were holding a twig

Yes, I was waay 'under-gunned' so to speak.