Went after the stocked rainbows again

[tjsa]

My bud and I were invited to join a couple of other guys today for some fishing. Dennis, who is an area technician for the MNR up here, and his bud Dave, wanted to try a lake near the other one we caught fish out of. It is a much smaller lake, almost split in two by a point, but they put rainbows in it, and no one has caught any yet. They trap netted it for 20 min. last summer, and caught 3 nice fish almost 4 lb.s, so some are still alive. So off we went at the crack of..................7 a.m. , we are usually walking ito the lakes at this time.

Drilled a whack of holes, only 16 inches of ice, set lines, and jigging, but unfortunately nada, not a sniff.

 

The southern body of the lake.

The northern body of the lake.

 

Dave relaxing and jigging.

Dennis also moving from hole to hole jigging. I was gonna make a comment about the colour of his chair in the background, but I just met him, and I might need more info from him in the future.

 

So, we packed up, and out, and drove 20 min. to the splake lake. Long traversing trail down a 150 ft. hillside, and the last 20 ft. I finally lost my footing, almost crashing onto the ice

No damage done, so we go to a point. Drill a whack of holes, and start at it again. Dennis drilled one in 8 ft. of water, and you could stand there and see bottom, incredibly clear lakes. About 40 min. in, Dave sees a fish come to his lure, basically sniffs at it, and disappears. Drill more holes near trees in the water, a couple out deeper, jig, chat, eat, no bites.

Dave and my bud walk across to another point and beaver dam, drill and open a few old holes, jig there for a bit, but nothing happened and they came back. Tried lots of lures with no success, then Dennis had a fish right up to his lure again, but again, it just moved away.

Finally, on my 6th lure, a small yellow marabou jig, in about 16 ft. of water, I had a fish hit hard(well, as hard as a fish of its size can hit), and set the hook. No chance of it getting away, solidly hooked through the upper jaw.

 

My 2nd splake ever, first one I caught was 4 yrs. ago and was 6 inches long, this one is 15.5 inches long.

Typical splake, so I am told, not very thick.

The cool thing is the eye, it was golden coloured. Never seen a trout with golden eyes. I took this pic about 30 min. later so it lost some of its colour as I went right back to jigging, but we did not have another hit, and left an hour later.

[bassmaster4]

nice looking splake

[fishindevil]

Great fishing trip there tom...the weather looked like it was coperating,and you got a nice splake for all the effort,and hey you should go back to that lake with a canoe and get a few of those 4lbr's ...way to go thanks for sharing...cheers

[irishfield]

Another nice report Tom. Exercise, fresh air and some fish. What more do you need....

[Mike the Pike]

Another nice report Tom. Exercise, fresh air and some fish. What more do you need....

 

Great report Tom ,Don't forget toboganning ,sliding on your rear end

 

Thanks for the pics.

 

We have winter here most of the snow we got this week six inches melted today.We may get 30cms of snow on Monday.

 

Just uncovered the boat today so I hope that storm goes to Thunderbay where you need it

 

MTP

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and pics Hoser!... ONLY 16" of ice?

[tjsa]

Its in the plan for the summer to go back to the rainbow lake, sometime in mid august probably, by that time, if there are any left, they may be up to 6 lbs. Won't take us long to troll around that lake to find them, lol. Heck, we could circle it 3 times in about 3 hrs. But, we could get those one or two fish that survived, and that would make our day.

Did that last year, mid may, went into a stocked speck lake, trolled the entire shoreline, my bud thought he had a follow casting, but nothing happened, then we went over a reef near where we launched an hour and a bit later, and a 3.75 lb(approx) speck hit my line, incredible fight in the shallower water, but my drag was set perfectly, fortunately.

[Daplumma]

Good stuff Tom,dont you have any real fish up there?Musky,Pike ,Bass?

Joe

[tjsa]

Musky, in my immediate area, no, none.

Pike..............sorry guys, but they are trash fish to me, steal my walleye presentations, lol.

Bass, yes, we have em, smallmouth, but I do not target them specifically, and since the season for them is 2 under 13.75 inches before June 30th, and then 4 any size after that, I avoid the lakes they are in for the first half of the summer.

[Cookslav]

Only 16" ???

 

Dang...I can't wait to hear the ice is out.

Nice looking Spec there in the last shot....been fed well.

Thanks for sharing!

[Joey]

Great report Tom. Wow, 16 inches. I'm kinda surprised there's still that much ice.

 

Joey

[ccmtcanada]

Great report! Guess when you fish with someone from the MNR, you dont have to worry much?? hehe. Thanks for posting this...even though it's on the ice...I"m still looking foward to the warmer weather. Seeing the fish keeps me going!!

[Bly]

16 inches?? I will stop pouting about the temps around here and the occasional ice on my line lol Thanks for the report and pics. Good to hear that "no damage was done" and you have a new PB Splake!

 

bly

[Northhunter]

Yer killin' me! Your posts bring be back to warm days, clear nights and trout lakes in the Gogama region in March. Nothing like hitting a pothole lake that gets forgotton when the snow hits the ground and pulling specks through 3ft of ice and snow in a t-shirt. I haven't been up there in a couple winters

 

We fished a little rainbow lake a couple times that had water so clear you could see bottom in what looked like 20ft. Fish were pulled out of there in the 5-7lb range, but not by us. We always got skunked.

[canadian_copper]

BEAUTY FISH BRO!!! GLAD YA GOT OUT!!

[Whopper]

Congrats Tom on another fine report.

 

 

Whopper

[Northhunter]

Yeah, that is still a goodly amount of Ice.

 

That 1st Lake you fished, really is small, sorta like a large pond.

You would think that whatever they stocked in there would be concentrated. They must have plenty of feed, as they did not bite, which may suggest they aren't hungry .

 

At least you persevered and got rewarded with that Splake. I caught some many years ago, on Emerald Lake 1 hour's driving North of Sturgeon Falls, ON. They were good eating, and they were also stocked.

 

Enjoyed seeing you are still getting out, I am one of the die hard Ice fishermen of this board. Most here can't wait for the open water, but it sadden's me somewhat, I'm a true Northerner at heart.

 

A lot of the stocked lakes I've fished were very small. Really the only way they would support a fishery is by stocking. Our best splake lake we can walk around the perimeter in a short while. When the fish are on lets just say it's really good... when they're off it's frustrating. You can cover the entire lake and you know the fish are there as they have nowhere to go, but go without a fish in a days fishing if they're "off". When you happen to look down your hole and see one give your minnow the old bump'n'sniff only to keep going, you're pretty well out there for the fresh air