~~~First Laker of the Year

[oldphart]

~~~Was up in the Halliburton region, on Sat. stopping at the Minden Bait & Tackle shop, for bait, picked up 2 doz. med. size minnows, only to find out later should have got the smaller size. We headed to a spot I like which is a short walk out off the boat ramp, had to climb over a 2' high Ice build up on shore, then a very slipper walk out with no snow on the ice. Got set up on 30' of water, with 15" of ice, saw some marking on the bottom. and with in 30min. my partner had their first Trout ever, 1.5lber on the ice, great size for the pan. wind started to pick up so we put up the pop up then I like to run a free flowing hook set up with a small split shot about 8" from the hook, and a bell sinker farther up the line, and a open bail, so when the phish takes the minnow it will not feel the weight, Well sure enough I had one on, very nice 3lber. we had a few more hits, losing 2 just below the ice( been a while since I had a Trout on) seems most the action was in the AM, so about 3 we packed it in, when gutted the phish the smaller one had some dragonfly larva's it, and the larger one had a gut full of minnows, all were smaller then the ones I had bought. Will heading back again this up coming weekend, and I'll be buying the smaller size

[SylvanOwner]

Nice report. Thanks for sharing. Interesting about the larvae. Good eating size fish you caught.

[GBW]

Nice going and good luck next trip