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Could anyone give me any advice on how to get trout through the ice at foster, I went out there 2 times last year and didn't get any

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I think the hardest thing about Fosters is all the weeds in there. Try to find a hole in the weeds or a weedline. They can be found in deeper water or cruising just under the ice, but most of my fish have come from just off the weed edges. Sonar always helps, you will often be fishing deep and see a trout come past you shallower that you never would have gotten. If you don't have a sonar, just keep an eye down your ice hole, you can often see them swim by and coax them in to biting. 4lb line is about right for targeting them, but 6 would work. For baits, you can almost never go too small. When they are active, small spoons, minnows, and Jigging Rapalas will work, but a 1/16 to 1/64 ounce jig with a waxie is my favorite. Powerbait is good too. I remember one some guys could see the trout eating their used minnows off the bottom but wouldn't bite their hooked minnow. As soon as they left, I pulled a trout ot of their hole with a jig/waxie in two minutes. Last Febuary a trout about two feet long snapped my 2lb line and he had gone after a 1/64 ounce jig and waxie. A tip-up baited with a minnow or Powerbait Trout Dough along with your rod can help. Good luck!

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Most of the active trout are in the top 6' of the water column. Often times the top 3'

You really don't need to go far below the ice to get these trout for the most part. During the winter, I believe I've only got 1 or 2 deeper than 15'

Paul had some great advice. The north and south flats of Foster will have weeds. Often times pockets of sparce weeds among the thick weeds. Before the snowfall, you could look right through the ice and find these pockets. Now, you will have to drill a hole and physically look down it to see if there are weeds or not. A flasher/camera can be used as well.

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Like they said before the top 5 or so feet of the water column is where you're going to pull 95% of your trout out of there. Waxies is the main bait and smaller jigs are preferred in my opinion

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I have a friend who does nothing but fish the deep water and fishes 2' off the bottom and usually pounds them.

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We just got small gills and weeds when we where out there, but nothing werth keeping and no trout, I dont even know if there are even any decent size gills in there

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Quote:

what reason would they have for being so high up
confused.gif
????


I think they just cruise around looking for something to eat. During the summer, they've got to go deeper to find cool water, but in the winter they don't really have any temperature restrictions. But like I said, I've gotten a lot of trout within three feet of the bottom ice fishing with Powerbait.

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Quote:

I dont even know if there are even any decent size gills in there


Not really, 7" is a whopper. tongue.gif

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I think a lot of those fish are conditioned to looking "up" for their food.

...and yes, they spend a lot of time just cruising around the pond and don't linger in one specific location.

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I have actually caught an honest 8" gill out there, but it was in the summer, and I was out in my float tube in deeper water. I felt pretty proud of that "monster"!!

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I've have caught a few larger sized gills out of there with my fly rod when they are spawning, but there definetly are not many. For trout, I have had good luck with the 1" version of a fire tiger jigging rapala. The trout love them when they are going, but a flasher is almost a neccesity with this method.

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Quote:

a flasher is almost a neccesity


in my trout pond ice experiences, the trout move around so quickly and aimlessly that a flasher is not really needed.

you really just need to keep your rap jigging as if they were there. they come through so fast and shallow at times that they would be gone before you had time to work your jig.

however, a jigging rap is one of my favorites and powerbait on a deadstick(if you are keeping fish)

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I do have a flasher, would buckshots or other jigging spoons work, would a waxie or just a minnow work

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What is the season and limit on Foster? Looking at the DNR web site it seems that the season is currently closed and will open 12 Jan 08? The limit listed is 5 with no more than 3 over 16 inches.

If that season is correct then you can't target trout until Jan?

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It's open to trout all year long...

Quote:

FOSTER AREND LAKE (Olmsted County) trout: Continuous season. Possession limit three with One over 16".

-A valid MN trout stamp is required to possess trout

-2 lines are allowed for angling through the ice

-Live bait is allowed


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Thanks, I thought that must be the case with the number of people fishing it but could not find it in the regs. If I would have thought to use a search on Foster Arend, I would have found it....

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Tyler, have you been by there lately? Just wondering how the ice is. Thinking about heading out for the first time this year on Sunday.

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Quote:

Tyler, have you been by there lately? Just wondering how the ice is. Thinking about heading out for the first time this year on Sunday.


I have not been out there yet this ice year, but hear reports of 4-5" in most areas. You should be fine as long as you don't go into uncharted territories. I may give it a shot Friday morning.

Good Luck.

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anyone know what the time restrictions are? til 11pm like the regs say or is foster different? anyone been out after dark?

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The crappies bite a little better after dark, but anything else you can get just as well during the day.

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I caught 3 last Saturday on a chartreuse 1/8 oz Flyer jig tipped with spikes (eurolarvae). Had 8 or 10 others toying with it but not biting hard. Jigging it hard so it "flew" around got their attention and when they got close to it just a little twitching seemed to help to convince them to bite.

They were ignoring my Genz Bug with spikes. The 2 dink sunnies I caught bit on that.

I was over 11 1/2 FOW and most of the fish activity was at about 5-6 feet, though I saw some scooting along just under the ice, and a few lit up the flasher near the bottom too.

I may go back this weekend and try some Little Atom Nuggies on my jig pole and some powerbait on a tip-up. I'm trying to learn what those trout like, so I'm experimenting a little.

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I've always had the best luck using a fathead on a slip bobber at Fosters. Foster's gets hits hard, and waxies didn't seem to do much for the trout. However, on the trout lake I fish up here in the winter, I use waxies tipped on a size 10 or 12 genz bug. I like the way they jig. Occaisionally I'll use euro larvae or even powerbait. Sometimes you need a back-up plan if they are being selective to a particular bait.

In my years of chasing stream trout through the ice, I've noticed one thing, jigging doesn't increase your chances of catching trout, in some instance it spooks them. The majority of the trout I've caught were deadsticking. When a trout shows up in my hole and is staring at my waxie, depending on the bite, I may feather my jig slightly. I've noticed that an aggresive jig may occaisionally call trout in, but the majority of the time they refuse to bite or are spooked off. Rainbow trout, especially, love to cruise a lake in pods. Pay attention to the time between strikes, it is pretty reliable. The typical timeframe between "laps" is between 15 and 45 minutes.

I know some guys get all in to it with tackle set ups when chasing trout. I'm just letting you know that it can be real simple, you just need patience.

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I stopped out there yesterday afternoon to test the new auger blades I had put on and punched one hole close to shore on the north end. There the ice was about 6 inches. I can't say anything for the rest of the pond but there were people fishing all over.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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