Burntside Fishing/Conditions Report...(updated-3/30/09)

[fishgutz77]

Nice fish Chad and welcome to FM.

[Mike Stark]

sounds like it starting to heat up!!

time to get back out.

[Nate McVey]

Nice fish Chad! Welcome to the addiction (laker fishing and FM)

[Mike Stark]

anyone been out there since the rain and warm temps?

[Great Outdoors]

Yup, fished the last three days.

Fishing lousy but travel is getting good.

We lost about 80% of the snow on the main parts of the lake, didn't check out the bays.

[Steve Foss]

Good. Travel is the important part. I figured the snow would be knocked way down. Would you like me to stop in and give you some laker tips?

You give me a dozen free 8-inch ciscos and I'll give you a dozen spots you can catch 8-inch lakers like the one in my avatar.

[Great Outdoors]

No thanks on the tips, caught a monster like that myself Tuesday!!

[fishgutz77]

Love that avatar Stevo!

[Northdrifter08]

The famed "Hat Mount"... As I always told people...

"Big fish.... It doesn't take any talent in hooking them.. The "Hat Mounts".. now that takes talent and skill to even hook them..."

[lakerunner]

Chad nice fish!

Also if you were fishing on a steeper break, sometimes what you think are fish on the bottom are actually suspended fish further down the break. With such steep breaks on B'Side, I've noticed that it has happened a lot.

[Steve Foss]

I was out on Bside with LEP7MM and his son all morning and into the afternoon until about 2 p.m.

I was a bit worried about slush with his wheeler, since we saw slush right away off Van Vac landing, so we hit a pretty common spot next to the snowmobile trail instead of the spots I'd planned on. Turned out to be more caution than we needed.

There was slush everywhere we went. It's not deep slush, however, and my sled had no trouble, nor did his wheeler, on the way to our spot and taking a couple detours to locate a couple more spots for them tomorrow.

The warm/rain knocked the snow way down and melted lots of it into shallow slush, but nowhere was it deeper than six inches before hitting solid ice. There's about 2 inches of fresh snow on top of it from yesterday/last night, but not enough to insulate it. Now the coming cold temps later this weekend and into next week should firm it all up and turn it into one big parking lot with a couple inches of snow on top.

We each saw fish, but only LEP had anything more than a follow. He had one hit.

[Mike Stark]

i was out for a few hours today....it was a dead sea...not even smelt....dido what steve said about the conditions of the ice.

i hope it firms up...would be nice to be able to drive where i want to go.

[Steve Foss]

I think by Tuesday it'll be a driving festival. The slush at this point, even today, was shallow enough that any 4x4 SUV/pickup would have had no trouble getting around.

[Mike Stark]

steve you think most areas of the lake have good enough ice to drive a suv on it?

[Steve Foss]

I wouldn't hesitate, but that's just me. While crusty slush always makes me a little nervous when I'm driving on it, I haven't found any ice shallower than 20-24 inches the last two times I've been out on the lake, and the six inches of slush that's out there today won't be a problem for any 4x4 SUV or pickup, IMO.

Now, I'm not recommending people go do that, because you just can't guarantee ice thickness, just saying what I'd do myself.

[Dave S]

As Steve mentioned, the lake is in good enough shape for 4x4 vehicles. There were a couple trucks on the road plowed to the east from VV.

I should note that it did help having my son on the back of my ATV. It lightened up the front to float over the slush and the back was weighted down enough that I had plenty of traction. keeping the momentum up also helped. There were a couple spots that if it was just me, I would've been stuck.

[Great Outdoors]

Most of the ice I've found is 17-20 inches.

Got a 7 pounder at 5 tonight, small glow airplane jig with a 2 inch glow tail.

38 FOW.

[Wanderer]

Cool.

When the fish get negative, do you guys ever dead stick your lure? Five of the seven fish I marked this year came into my jig just hanging there.

My big one was already on it when I lifted to jig and 4 of them chased when I started the take away. Hooked 5, landed 3.

The last two I saw came in and went away just as fast, but I was moving it. Wonder what the outcome would have been had I used the same patience as before?

Wish I were there.

[Steve Foss]

G.O., glad to see you got a stocky trout. It's been pretty slow the last week. If a fella only gets one trout in an outing, better a 7-lber than a 7-incher.

Tracy, thoughtful and welcome perspective as always. Wish you were up here too. Here's my thinking on the points you raise.

My deadstick tends to be the tip-up, but there have been a number of times I've set my jigging rod down to do something else and looked at the graph a bit later to see a big red band studying my lure. And once in awhile I've braced my rod to step outside to answer, well, a certain call, and stepped back inside to see my rod dancing with a fish on it. That just happened early this week, in fact, but since I was not there to set the hook at the appropriate moment, Mr. Fishy got off.

And there are days, particularly it seems when the aggressive jigging isn't paying off, that the tip-up with dead bait or live bait with a tail nipped off seems to be the primary producer. I'm sure you remember at least one or two days like that.

It's hard to say whether the fish that came in on your stationary lure were attracted because it was sitting still or just happened to come through at that moment and would have responded enthusiastically to jigging as well.

Also, regarding the fish that came in quick to your jigging action and left just as quick, I've noticed that the fish that seem to come up quick, take a sniff and drop back down seem to be smaller fish. This is both inferred and documented. I infer it because there have been many times I've drawn lakers up off the bottom and they've jumped right back down there, only to come up within a few seconds, sometimes also running right back down, and then a bit later coming back up, and when those fish smack the lure they are always small lakers. Of course, I'm also inferring that in these progressions it's the same fish over a 10-minute or so span, but that's my thinking.

And any of the fish over 5 lbs I've caught by jigging needed NO cat and mouse. Sometimes they came in from the side so fast that I didn't even see them on the electronics before they smacked it. Other times they came up as a red band under the lure and just kept coming medium fast and steady and pounded it the first time. All the fish I've caught by egging them on and getting them mad were 5 pounds or less. Again, the inference is that big fish need not taunting while the medium/smallish ones do. For all I know, the ones that I taunt who eventually leave are big girls. Ya just never know.

Anyway, for me, day in and day out and over time, it's the jigging rod aggressively jigged that is the biggest producer, but my tip-up is always out, and I'm always alert for the sound of those jingle bells going off when a flag pops.

Guess I've rambled on and edited and re-edited this post enough.

[Great Outdoors]

Stevo,

I agree with you that the ones that come up for a sniff and go back down are small trout.

Had that happen many times this year, and when I finally managed to catch one of the "tire kickers", it looked a Polish Sausage with a tail.

[Great Outdoors]

Let us see if I can post a picture without screwing it up!!

[Wanderer]

I would have to agree the quick lookers and leavers are probably small fish also. But dang it, their still fish!

The tip off to the deadstick that day was, as you said, setting the rod down to re-tie a different line. All the while I was glancing back at the Vex. On about the fourth look, the band was really red so I dropped my re-tie project and picked the rod up from under my foot (optimism at its finest) and it was game on.

The smelt would come in for some time then filter out. That's when I would stop jigging and watch. After the first couple, the lakers weren't showing. I put down the Rattlin Rap for about 5 minutes of aggressive pulling then reeled up and put down the other jig and let it sit.

Ta da. Fish.

OMG! Maki posted a pic!!!!!!

[Great Outdoors]

Trust me, it was dumb luck:

Computer illiteracy combined with 12 thumbs!!

[fishnhuntnboy]

Jim does that now put you in the lead?!

[Great Outdoors]

Yes it does!!

I informed Justin last evening in a very diplomatic way, as I am known to do!!

[Mike Stark]

out again today...hit new water...tons of lookers...no lakers

fished anywhere from 20-50....didnt mean to set up in 20 but it was too late so decided to fish it anyway...had a smelt nip at my lure.

fish would come up look n turn back...a couple played cat n mouse with no bites. i didnt see any other smelt to my surprise.

do folks think that if smelt are there that you have a better chance of catching fish?

i drove on the lake today...i broke through the crusty layer of ice/slush a few times but never came close to getting stuck. lots of other folks driving out there.

anyone else out there? hopefully you did better than me. its been a slow winter for lakers. hopefully a trip into the b-dub will cure that.

[Dave S]

My son and I were back out this morning into this afternoon in a couple areas that Steve pointed us to. We were in anything from 35-55 fow.

I had one looker, no hits. Travel conditions were far better than yesterday. We took a different track on the way back to the access and the wheeler had another work out by Dead River but made it through.

Also had 3 sleds come cruising by about 40-50 mph and less than 50 feet away. We were 1/2 mile from any of the trails on the lake.

We drove around to scout some other areas to see what kind of activity was happening on the area lakes. Looked like someone found some slush just off the plowed road off Van Vac. It was looking pretty wet.

Saw one Blazer stop in his tracks and have to backup off the lake. This was by the sea plane base on Shag. We're going to try Shag tomorrow morning before I have to head for home.

[caseymcq]

I am convinced there are no more lake trout in Burntside, only smelt. That picture Maki posted, that was the last trout in the lake. I was out today and fished in 45 to 60 ft with a tip-up in 35 ft. I caught one smelt. Saw a bunch of fish on the Vexilar, no clue what they were.

I drove out. It was a little slushy but I didn't have problems getting around. My truck is a little soggy but nothing a trip to the car wash won't fix.

[Great Outdoors]

Casey,

I want to thank you for recognizing the fact that only I would have the skill to catch the last laker in Burntside!

However, I suspect there are a few more left.

Don't tell anyone!

[grousehunter]

nope..none left. Remember there are no lake trout in burntside.