BWCA Lake Trout Report

[OUTDOORNUT]

Just returned from a weekend of Trout chasing off of the Gunflint. There is about 24-26" of snow, 8" of ice and a few drifts that make the snowshoes well worth it! We fished Duncan, Rose and Daniels. Bigger fish off of Duncan, but not as many as Daniels. Rose was a quick trip in and fished for about 4 hours during a pretty good snow storm. I caught a 7 inch Laker that wasn't even hooked, it was just holding on to my minnow head! ha Our group had a couple run in with Wolves, we had one about 30 yards from the house, it proceeded to take the portage to W. Bearskin where two other memebers of the group were waiting by the sled for us to catch up. It came about 10 yards and circled them twice. It offered up some very good camera shots. I'll have to share them if they turn out. It was almost dark and snowing, so we'll see. Keep an eye out for the moose, it was like playing Froger on the Gunflint last night!

[Surface Tension]

Nate thanks for the report.

Maybe Stfcatfish should hit the Gunflint to get his wolf pics.

[Steve Foss]

I've only been that close to a wolf once, and thanks to the slowness with which the digital camera I was using at the time woke up (about 3 seconds), I have only a nice fuzzy shot of a fleeing black wolf butt to show for it.

With any luck that experience off the Gunflint will happen when I'm around some day. Until then, I'll just be stuck documenting wild behavior of FMers. We all know there's plenty of that. Although in order to get one of us to circle you at 10 yards you'd have to have open beers or a couple juicy brats.

Glad to see you got into the fish.

[disco]

outdoornut--

i've never fished lakers in the winter, but have considered a winter-time B-Dub trip..... what depths do you look for them at during the winter months?

thanks for any info you can provide.....

[Powerstroke]

IS the lack of ice due to the abundance of snow on the lakes?

I know there's 15+ inches of ice here in the metro area, but we've had less than 4" of snow all winter.

[Steve Foss]

Smaller shallower lakes tend to freeze faster than deep cold lakes, so they catch all that early season snow, which acts as insulation and retards further ice development. The big deep ones, freezing later, sometimes miss out on those early snows, and ice can form thicker on those because there's less snow. That's just a general rule, though. Any lake with current areas has dangerous ice regardless of the snow depth.

[OUTDOORNUT]

Disco,

I've found that it isn't how deep you fish, but where you fish at. I try and look at a map and find pinch points, shoulders, bottle necks, humps, ect. Some of the best winter Lake Trout fishing I've had was in 18 FOW. I've also caught fish in 60+ FOW. Our group took a 29" Laker in 6 FOW off of a Tip-up!!! Drill a lot of holes until you find something that catches your attention. Try and get a good map also.

[disco]

thanks for the advice..... i'll have to give it a shot one o these days..... are you using salted ciscoes or live minnows?

[fishermn]

Typically smelt and/or ciscoes under the tipup and live minnows on the jig. At leats thats what we do. Have had decent success in the last couple years this way.

[disco]

thanks again for the help, gentlemen..... i'll let ya know if i'm able to put it to use this year.....

i'm gonna try and get a weekend excursion together for sometime in feb..... we'll see how it goes.....

[want2bfishin']

Thanks for the informative report on the snow and ice conditions. Will be up on those lakes this weekend and am surprised at how little ice there is. Packing your track would be good advice for those going in on sled I would imagine.