akaShag Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 OK folks, put on your thinking caps............ Quite a number of years ago, when the winter lake trout season on Loughborough was still closed, I headed out to a shoal I know that in those years produced excellent catches of BIG bluegills. In fact we called them BULLgills. I figured, if American ice anglers can jig up a bunch of bluegills, I should be able to do likewise. Important note and disclaimer: I have never iced a significant number of bluegills on a single outing, and would value tips on that.......... Anyways, I located the shoal, which tops out at less than ten FOW, then drops precipitously to over a hundred. I drilled a couple holes, and set up my ultralights. I was probably using live minnows on one rig, and a small jig and 2" twister on the other. Then WHAM!!! About a six pound laker slammed into one of my rigs, and after a brief tussle I landed it. (I had figured something that big had to be a pike, but nope, it was a lake trout. Back down the hole immediately. A couple minutes later WHAM!!! Another lake trout, this one probably eight pounds, and right back down the hole. Two nice trout in five or ten minutes, but clearly anybody observing me would have figured I was targeting trout, so I left. I had kind of forgotten about that but was thinking about it again a couple days ago. So today four of us went out on ATVs to try to find the shoal, and this time we WANTED to catch lakers. One lad has fished the lake for fifty years and was certain the shoal was in such a spot. I did not think so, but humoured him and we drilled half a dozen holes. Water ranged from 32 to 42 feet, or similar numbers. Not what I was looking for...............so we left two guys there then one buddy and I went back to where I figured the shoal had to be (and yes I was using my hand-held GPS with the bathymetry detail.......) I drilled a couple holes. The Marcum said 5.1 feet in both, and a jig dropped down the holes confirmed that depth. So I kept drilling holes further out into the "deep water." Hole after hole between five and six FOW, in all over about a hundred yards of travel at ninety degrees to the lay of the shoal. There is no way whatsoever that the actual BOTTOM was that shallow, and occasionally the graph would give a much deeper reading, BUT the jig showed the skinny water. Our conclusion was that there had to be a second layer of ice down five or six feet in that area. I have never seen this before. OK sleuths, what the heck was going on?Doug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinker Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 (edited) Were you drinking? LOL I can't form that deep around here. The frost is only a foot, maybe two in the ground/ ice, so ice would melt that far down. Definitely weird. S. Edited January 30, 2015 by Sinker Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris.brock Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Is this a mid lake shoal, pretty far off shore? Did you have a way point marked on your GPS? The only explanation I can think of is you guys were way off from where you thought you were. No offence, I can get lost in a phone booth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KraTToR Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Maybe the water level in the lake has changed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDR Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 First ice sank from snow weight and was it shoved down by the wind? New ice formed over top.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manitoubass2 Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 (edited) Are you positive your jigs were hitting bottom? Did your sonar show nice clean shots of bottom? Kinda sounds like you were sitting on alot of under ice slush (which can be a huge pia) Edited January 31, 2015 by manitoubass2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 I've had that bit I'm on a big river and the current pushes ice around a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike rousseau Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 Did you think to look down the hole? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
manitoubass2 Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 Yeah me too mike. Also on a lake near an inflow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaShag Posted January 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 back to Sinker...........nope I was not drinking, but I did say to Glenn if we go across the lake to the 80 foot spot we fished last week and hit 6.1 feet, I am going to start drinking................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaShag Posted January 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 back to Chris Brock............. Not a chance of a shoal that big going north-south on Loughborough. The glaciers left this part of the country very much marked from East-Northeast to West-Southwest, and this shoal, which is a LONG one on that same orientation, is absolutely not that wide. The last hole I drilled heading North I should have been over about 120 FOW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaShag Posted January 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 back to kraTTor............. I was thinking about lave level changing (which can and does happen on lakes that are controlled by dams in this area), but to the best of my knowledge, there is no such outlet or inlet on Loughborough. And I have fished this lake on and off for over thirty years, so I "SHOULD" know if such a thing exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaShag Posted January 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 back to RDR, nope, we have had very little snow, certainly nowhere near enough to sink the ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akaShag Posted January 31, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 back to manitoubass2: Yes absolutely the jig was hitting bottom, zero question. As for the graph, sometimes it could not make up its "mind" as to the depth, and was giving readings all over the map, but then would settle down on the six foot figure. Definitely not slush underneath, and we have not had the conditions this year which would have created it, ie deep snow then warm then cold. Back to Mike Rousseau, no I did not look down any of the holes, but that would have potentially been very useful. It was a bright day, rather brisk with a North wind 25 gusting to 40 and minus 15ish, and I did not think to lay on the ice with a cover over my head to look down a hole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moosebunk Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 Don't trust your GPS Doug. Dang thing has been giving you issues since ya got it! lol. Pretty sure I know what you're up to out there and I hafta wonder if you just missed "that" spot on the spot by a wee bit. Trusting the GPS for depth accuracy isn't ever exactly 100%. 30 years is a long time too... that difference of 4 feet could be all the zebra mussel shells that have settled to bottom. lol. Get them lakers bud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raf Posted January 31, 2015 Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 you were definately jigging over a US nuclear submarine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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