Ice out lakers

[BillM]

suckers spawn right about at ice out......

 

Suckers are spawning right now, local creeks/rivers are loaded with them.

[chris.brock]

Suckers wouldn't be suspended 10 or 20 feet down.

 

What fishfinder are you using SCL? Seems wonky with those temp readings. I don't really use mine for looking for suspended fish 10 feet down. The beam is narrow and surface clutter shows stuff that may look like fish.

 

Lake Joe is likely similar. They were suspended 50' down over deep water (90 plus), could see them plain as day. Bassman found the same thing up on Kash.

 

Ciscos will show up as a thick school on the screen, deep, 40 plus feet down, usually suspended. If you see that, jig a smaller spoon right in the school, they often bite.

 

I tried some ice fishing spots where I fish on bottom and they definitely weren't there.

[Joeytier]

Chris, blue/silver was the steady producer all weekend, but I tried a charteuse/orange Cyclops yesterday for a few hours with good results...lucky strike half wave was working well too. When you find active fish they're not at all picky lol

[SirCranksalot]

We are hoping to give it another crack tomorrow. Anyone hazard a guess as to how deep the lakers will be? Tactics different from 'ice-out'?

 

I just bought a Tadpole diver---should help to get down a bit.

 

http://www.offshoretackle.com/resettable_diving_weights.html

Edited May 14, 2015 by SirCranksaLot

[BillM]

It's all dependent on water temp. Once you figure that out, it should be fairly easy.

[Raf]

The water temp is likely comfortable for them from top to bottom. Lakers are opportunistic feeders and i would key in on what they are feeding on / what is emerging in the area that you are fishing and base it on that. ie. if they're eating bugs, they'll be shallow, if you see a lot of bait fish deep, fish deep.

Edited May 14, 2015 by Raf

[Sinker]

I think your mistake last time was going too deep.

 

Fish the top 30ft.

 

Get a #7 and #9 rapala tail dancer and flatline it 100 ft behind the boat.

[SirCranksalot]

We went back yesterday for another crack. Water temp was around 10 deg, which seems to be an optimum temp according to what I have read. We caught 3 good sized bass--2 on Hot'nTot blue and silver and 1 on a Rapala. We had 1 fair sized laker----4-5 lb---in close to the boat and did a 'remote release . It was also on the same Hot'nTot. We also tried Little Cleos and Flatfish w/o any hits.

 

Marked quite a few fish scattered throughout the water column. Given that we caught 3 bass I am guessing that most of the fish we marked the last time out were bass that were too cold to be interested in chasing bait.

[Sinker]

You didnt try the taildancers, eh?

 

Oh well, your loss

 

S.