A warm day of brookie fishing.

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

Saturday morning we left Sault Ste. Marie at 4:30 am sharp. After a brief stop to pick up an old friend just outside of town, we made a few hour drive north. We left the car at 7:15 a.m. In previous years the trail and surrounding woods were quite walkable but due to there being less snow this year, walking conditions were terrible. Several hours later we arrived on the lake, put on dry clothing, and set our lines. Within 15 minutes my friend Evan's line went down as only a bruiser brook trout can do and he sprung out onto the lake to retrieve it. Unfortunately it was not to be. The fish made one last hard run right under the ice and broke his 8 lb mono.

 

That was to be all the sign of the big brook trout for the day. For the rest of the warm afternoon we caught 14 fish, most of which were between 3/4-lb to 1-1/4 lb with 2 that were about 1.5 lb. We got nothing huge, but it was an awesome day in the backcountry. Near the end of the day the southwest winds picks up and threw snow and frost into the hilltops. As the weather began to turn, we packed our gear and begun the warm hike out to the car. Here's a short video I made of the walk and the lake.

 

http://www.vimeo.com/8846447

Edited January 19, 2010 by Dr. Salvelinus

[Paully]

" walking conditions were terrible. Several hours later we arrived on the lake " That sounds like a mission.

 

Nice lookin fish.. and cool video

[troutologist]

Cool video Luc....I guess you can take it for granted that it is rough terrain, the snow paves a nice hiway over obstructions in most years.

 

 

Seems like there is a nice fish or 2 in there after the events of the past couple years.

 

 

 

To bad about your buddy Mephitis mephitis and his lack of luck.

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

To bad about your buddy Mephitis mephitis and his lack of luck.

 

He's gonna drink his sorrows away while I chase lakers this weekend.

Any lake with specs that straighten jigheads and snap 8 lb mono is worth a walk through hell.

Edited January 19, 2010 by Dr. Salvelinus

[troutologist]

Thats crazy the king of wanting to go laker fishing missing out on a trip.

 

 

Cant let that massive williams speck rig get rusty

[Dara]

Nice video...but tisk tisk...8lb line...thats why i stick to my 20...there ain't no give when a big spec hits in 5' of water

[Jds63]

very nice

 

what lures do you use for winter speck fishing ?

[splashhopper]

Thanks for the trip.... looks peaceful up there.

[redneck666]

that trail almost looks like what i tried to go through on my sled..... but failed, lol. the trees werent that thick though. was a fun treck. good job on the specks! and a mighty fine report too!

[pike slayer]

tisk tisk timusk timusk! thats why you either use large lb test or a jigging rod! good day of fishing though and looked like an epic adventure through the bush, a sled can flatten out all those trees though

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

20lb test! for specks! get out of here ol' timer!

for the amount of fish that wouldn't even hit because of that diameter, i'll stick to my light line. besides, it wasn't ME who missed it. i don't miss fish!

 

definitely timusk!

[johnnyb]

Good stuff Doc....totally envious of your life up there...thanks for putting the video together

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

very nice

 

what lures do you use for winter speck fishing ?

 

 

i use a lot of small 1/4 ounce doctors and cleos with droppers...williams, toronto wablers, small jiggin presentations if they won't take the deadstick.

[Leecher]

Great report and cool video Dr

I got to hand it to ya..... trekking thru bush like that must be tiring but what sweet reward in being able to land those beauty square tails, awesome jobs

 

You guys must be sleeping well at night after a trek like that

Thanks for sharing

Leechman

[archie_james_c]

arrived on the lake, put on dry clothing,

 

What are you using for a layering system? Tell me the Sal man doesnt wear dead mans cloth in the bush?!?!

[douG]

Very nice clip, it shows what I would think a long bush walk in would look like. And you were rewarded for your grief, too!

 

Thanks for that great post.

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

What are you using for a layering system? Tell me the Sal man doesnt wear dead mans cloth in the bush?!?!

 

i wear an underarmour shirt, a long sleeve t, and a hoodie. when i get to the lake i put on a dry long sleeve t and my winter coat. i wear quick dry pants and long underwear with gators over my snowshoes.

[Dara]

20lb test! for specks! get out of here ol' timer!

for the amount of fish that wouldn't even hit because of that diameter, i'll stick to my light line. besides, it wasn't ME who missed it. i don't miss fish!

 

definitely timusk!

 

 

I use a snelled hook with about 10 lb at the flasher. the 20 is so I can kick a frozen hole open.

[archie_james_c]

i wear an underarmour shirt, a long sleeve t, and a hoodie. when i get to the lake i put on a dry long sleeve t and my winter coat. i wear quick dry pants and long underwear with gators over my snowshoes.

 

If you changed your long sleeve t to a polyester heavy weight zip-t and your cotton sweater to a fleece one, you'd only have to wear those and never worry about changing into "dry" clothes...or carrying them for that matter.

[TDunn]

From my own experiences I found either way your gonna sweat when hiking into the interior of the park....

I will always bring an extra shirt or two for that reason

 

 

TDunn

Edited January 20, 2010 by TDunn

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

that underarmour stuff is golden for hiking, but the layer above it is soaked when you're done hiking. i don't like being wet. it leads to being cold.

[pike slayer]

pfffff if your going into the park and bring all nature like, might as well just go naked.

[archie_james_c]

that underarmour stuff is golden for hiking, but the layer above it is soaked when you're done hiking. i don't like being wet. it leads to being cold.

 

 

If you're running fleece it wont stay wet...it just keeps wicking the moisture to the outside were it evaporates in the air. Wearing polyester underarmour and a cotton layer over that is redundant. The underarmour is pulling the sweat off your body and pushing it out were the cotton is just trapping it and letting you get cold.

 

 

"You get wet, you get cold, you die." Hence cotton is referred to as "dead mans cloth".

 

EDIT- Also cotton clothes are MUCH heavier and bulkier than cotton stuff.

Edited January 20, 2010 by archie_james_c

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

different strokes i guess. when you arrive on a lake to a -30 wind in your face, you'll see why i bring a dry layer of clothes. also, my hikes are 3+ hours long. no "performance" clothing is going to shed 3 hours of sweat.

[jayess]

we're confusing two things here: layering and wicking.

 

the purpose of layering is to take clothes off as you warm up so you actually don't sweat, or at least reduce the risk as much as possible. the benefit of layering with wicking material is that the sweat (hopefully) won't stick around.

 

there will be no one set of layers that you can wear during the hike and after. you will ultimately have to de-layer or change clothes, as Dr. Sal indicated.