Lake trout reports

[Steve Foss]

Fished from 8-2:30 today on Burntside, then packed up to go visiting.

Saw lots of folks out on the ice. Not so many were having a lot of luck catching fish, with scattered reports of one and two fish for some folks.

It was tough going for those pulling heavier shelters off the snowmobile trails, because that last 3-4 inches of snow really capped things off. Most places have 8-12 inches of snow on Bside, with lots of stretches of slush, some 4-6 inches deep, some shallower. Double ice up the North Arm and a few other places. I was on 12 inches of clear hard ice with 3 inches of white ice on top.

I took a zip around the Van Vac parking lot, and it was full. It had not been completely plowed, but there's been enough traffic over it that it's all beaten down and OK traveling from the upper to the lower lot. Snowmobile trails are in great shape, and if you're sledding from Ely to Burntside, the portages between Shag, Little Long and Burntside are excellent.

Just got all my gear in the house so the frozen slush can melt and everything can dry in time to do it all over again tomorrow. My wife is NOT pleased!

Fished by myself, and I ended up with three fish, a 7 and two 3s. All three came on the tip-up with live bait. The 7 came first, and hit just after I set the tip-up and before I even made it back to the Otter. I had three-four flags where nothing was hooked but the minnow had the carp beaten out of it. Two of the fish did not have clipped fins, one did. I had five lookers on the Vex, but could only hook one on a jigging lure, and that one got off after 5-10 seconds. Felt like a 4-5 or so. Morning was a lot busier than afternoon.

Hope you folks had some luck today!

Gonna be -27 tonight! Brrrrrrrr!

[Jim Almquist]

No matter what it still sounds better then fishing for crappies

Sound like a great start to the laker season.

[Northlander]

Ya she got chilly down here when that sun went down. BRRRRRRR is right!

[Mike Stark]

fished knife today from about noon-3. iced 3. 2 jigging and one off a tip up. all around 5lbs. three others were lost after the hook set. with two other runs on tip ups but were dropped. both of the baits that were dropped were hydrated ciscos.

[gunther274]

Does a guy need a stamp for lakers on non designated waters?

[Greg Clusiau]

I believe you do only if you are in possession of a trout. Not 100% on this though.

[iceranger792]

Yep you can fish non designated without a stamp just have to release any type of trout species you catch.

[Great Outdoors]

I hope this doesn't create any confusion:

You need a trout stamp to be angling on any designated trout lake, even if targeting sunnies.

You do not need a trout stamp when fishing any non designated lake, even if that lake contains lake trout.

However, you will need a trout stamp on any non designated lake if you are targeting lake trout, even though you release all you catch.

[Hunter21]

Its better to be safe and Buy the stamp to CYA it never hurts....

[Steve Foss]

Plus, you'll never convince a CO you're fishing for walleyes if you are over deep water using laker lures/techniques.

[Powerstroke]

Simple, you need the trout stamp to fish for trout.

Slightly more complicated, you need it if fishing s designated trout lake.

[reinhard1]

for designated trout lakes you absolutly are required to have a trout stamp. in non designated trout lakes the ONLY time you are required to have a trout stamp is if you want to keep trout. that's whats in the regs. the lake i fish in my area {grindstone} is not a designated trout lake but has browns,rainbows, and lakers in it. i have a trout stamp but there are some that fish with me that dont because they fish for other species, and often times found in the same areas i fish for trout. a game warden would not give anyone a citation that does not have a trout stamp as long as they dont keep trout on a non designated trout lake. anglers need a trout stamp validation and a fishing or sports license when fishing in designated trout streams, designated trout lakes, lake superior, or when in POSSESSION of any trout or salmon from any waters.. good luck.

[Steve Foss]

Looks like a good area for clarification. I've been told by COs that if I'm targeting lake trout on a lake that's not a designated trout lake and I don't have a trout stamp, I'm getting a ticket, whether I have any in possession or not.

[reinhard1]

yea, who knows. i cant see how they can do it. where you fish the chances of getting something other than a laker would be slim. but where i fish many species follow the smelt line, and i think the co's know it. it should perhapst be clarified as you said. one spot i fish is a 32 ft hump surrounded by deep water. i have cought rainbows, browns, crappies, smelt, lakers and pike there. how can a co determine that i am fishing for trout if i have a tip up out in this spot with a shinner on it off bottom. i always have a trout stamp every year for i like to fish for them and eat them. while i may think that co that talked to you is wrong, he has the ticket book. maby they should just require you to have a trout stamp anywhere trout swim if he can get away with giving you a citation. good luck.

[Steve Foss]

If I'm fishing with downriggers and spoons over deep water on Burntside in the summer without a trout stamp and tell the COs I'm targeting walleyes or pike, they'll be trying to stifle their laughter long enough to write a legible ticket.

Anyone else got any laker fishing reports to post?

[Mike Stark]

foss i was hoping you had one. im heading out monday and tuesday.

did you have any problems pulling the otter?

[harvey lee]

3 lakers beat no lakers any day.

Nice job Steve.

[Great Outdoors]

Looks like a good area for clarification. I've been told by COs that if I'm targeting lake trout on a lake that's not a designated trout lake and I don't have a trout stamp, I'm getting a ticket, whether I have any in possession or not.

Stevo,

You are 100% correct.

Some may argue, but they are badly misinformed.

[Steve Foss]

foss i was hoping you had one.

I do have one. I posted it to start this thread.

[JBMasterAngler]

Was there alot of people out on burntside? Sounds like ely was colder than grand marais, but boy it was still miserable!

[Mike Stark]

i was hoping you had another one.

[Surface Tension]

Fished B-Side for opener.

As Steve said around 12" average of snow on the lake and areas of slush. Cross Country travel with the speed up is a non issue when encountering the slush.

If your targeting shorelines you stand a good chance of finding the worst of those conditions. Deeper snow and slush, not to mention your parking right in it. We picked a shoreline to fish, I them went about making some trails though the snow and slush for us to move around on. When doing that I saw 3 chimneys in the deep snow closer to shore off Waters Island, a tell tale sign of open holes. Because of that we stayed back in 65' .

Wasn't long and I marked my first laker on the new Bird 45, a good sign.

I guess I had around dozen lakers come in, 3 hits but did not connect with any of them. I was using white tube, and Lindy Darters. I moved twice after the trails I broke in the slush set up some. Between all the slush, cold, and wind that was the extent of hole hopping the area and opted to stay tucked away in warmth of the Otter All that slogging in slush put some nice bell bottoms on my AA bibs.

I did have a tipup out. Since smelt are no longer legal I picked up some frozen Herring from Florida. Upon inspection they are too big for my liking so I filleted them at home. First impression is they have a lot of scent. Unfortunately there is no freshness to them and smell rancid and aged but hey were talking lake trout bait.

I used a smelt hook and threaded the fillet on it.

I had two flags but on the tip ups but no hookups. (Reminds me those herring fillets are still in my jacket pocket. )

If I use the herring again I might snell on two #4 hooks instead of the smelt hook or chunk the herring.

So conditions less then ideal and no Lakers were iced by me this time but it was good to get out

[Cliff Wagenbach]

There is a very simple explanation on page 6 of the Minnesota Fishing Regulations book that explains very well as to who needs a trout stamp and where it is needed.

For a measly $10 added fee you can be safe no matter where you fish! I cannot imagine that very many people would throw back a legal trout even if they catch it by accident anyway!

Cliff

[leech~~]

Well, I did ok fishing but it was one heck of an opener for me. I was fishing by myself but I had contacted another FM member and his group

ahead of time just incase I may need some help getting unstuck somewhere. I had planed out about 4-5 spots and marked them on my GPS but that plan went to heck in about two minutes after leaving the snowmobile trail and hitting some pretty bad slush. I got back on the trail and started down the lake and when I got to the closes isle with a few other sled tracks heading that way I just hit the gas. I made a few circles off a point in about 50' feet and found some good ice with no slush. Fished that for a few hours with no luck. Thought I may as well go exploring again.

Went back down the lake and was going to try behind a few islands where no one had gone yet. Not a good idea to go exploring by yourself. When I got behind the isle I hit some of the worst slush I had ever been in. I punched the gas and my 550 long track worked as hard as it ever had before and I was losing ground! I found a little harder ice to get some speed back and got the heck out of there. Well, went back to the only place I knew I could sit out of the water where I was earlier but moved closer to shore in about 30' feet. About noon for an hour all heck broke loose and I ened up catching 3 and losing 3. Let one 25" go and lost one even bigger! All bites came off a slender spoon and Rainbow head. The big one I lost played the chase game all the way to about 15' feet after about 5 two foot moves, he just was not going to let it go. Well I play him for a good min, but he came off and I said a few naughty words! Sorry to the guys fishing in the gap a few hundred yards a way! If anyone had a bright Red coat on with a hood and with two others guys I was the one off the point. Well I didn't feel like fighting the slush by myself at -20 below on Sunday so I headed down to Grindstone lake on the way home and pulled in another 18" er. All in all I had a great time and will be back hopefully later when the slush gets harder! Oh, forgot that I had a big black Wolf run right across the hwy in front of me about 10 miles out of Ely. He stopped looked back and ran acrossed again! Very cool!

[Great Outdoors]

We got about another 3-4 inches in the Ely area last night/this morning, and it's still snowing.

It's going to mean a lot more slush, then toss in the potential County snow plow drivers strike on Wednesday, and it just keeps getting better all the time!

[Mike Stark]

a big fat 0 for me on bside today. fished from 11-3. 20fow-55fow. fished off passi road. was able to fish out of the slush. had around a foot of ice. there were a few trucks out there. ill be back out tomorrow off van vac.

[Wanderer]

Well, to start, I have to say we're getting pretty darn good at getting unstuck from slush and pulling broken down sleds around the lake. Seems to be the order of business for our fishing trips these days. Knock on wood, I haven't been broken or stuck yet this year. I think I paid my dues the last two years. I hope.

Yes, Saturday was slow. Two of us started out in the Breakfast Trough, last year's hot spot, and got blanked. I had one chaser early and that was it. The other two in our group started out on Fish Bank. We call it Fish Bank because it produces like fish in the bank. You just go there and make a withdrawal when you want some fish. Trouble is, it routinely spits up small lakers (1-2 lbs). BUT occasionally a biggun comes through like the 33 incher for HNTNBUX.

Sunday we all split up and fished different parts of the lake. The three other guys chose spots around some islands and for some stupid reason I went to a different trough. I thought I should be trying a different type of structure since Saturday's trough pattern was bunk. Well, 9 chasers, and 4 fish later I left with renewed confidence that I can actually catch em. My largest went 29 inches.

Two of the other guys got into a few fish with another 29 incher for them. Still one guy left to go get a fish - any fish.

Today we went to yet another area of the lake. Again we spread out. One covering a point, two off a drop near an island, and I found my bites at the bottom of a drop from a silty flat. Nothing over 22 inches for me today though. HNTNBUX hit a good spot though and popped four fish all between 24 and 26 inches. Nice!

I iced a total of 7 over the three days. The rest of the count is subject some guess work but HNTNBUX got at least 9 and his bud (a first timer) was in that 7-9 fish range also. We had one guy who's luck was just raw and he lost his only hook up for the weekend this morning on that point. So a rough guess of 23-25 fished iced for us over 3 days.

A couple things stood out.

Saturday the fishing was better on or near a soft bottom and the fish were not aggressive. Sunday they were far more cooperative. Today wasn't too shabby either.

Overall, we found you needed to tip your jig with some fresh meat. Today for me though, I had to take the meat off to get bit. Once I did, the chasers turned into biters. Probably because they were smaller. The other guys still did good with the meat plan.

A lot of work this weekend but worth it for us.

Oh, P.S. The two 29's and the 33 are still swimming.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for the reports, everyone!

[Mike Stark]

Well, to start, I have to say we're getting pretty darn good at getting unstuck from slush and pulling broken down sleds around the lake. Seems to be the order of business for our fishing trips these days. Knock on wood, I haven't been broken or stuck yet this year. I think I paid my dues the last two years. I hope.

Yes, Saturday was slow. Two of us started out in the Breakfast Trough, last year's hot spot, and got blanked. I had one chaser early and that was it. The other two in our group started out on Fish Bank. We call it Fish Bank because it produces like fish in the bank. You just go there and make a withdrawal when you want some fish. Trouble is, it routinely spits up small lakers (1-2 lbs). BUT occasionally a biggun comes through like the 33 incher for HNTNBUX.

Sunday we all split up and fished different parts of the lake. The three other guys chose spots around some islands and for some stupid reason I went to a different trough. I thought I should be trying a different type of structure since Saturday's trough pattern was bunk. Well, 9 chasers, and 4 fish later I left with renewed confidence that I can actually catch em. My largest went 29 inches.

Two of the other guys got into a few fish with another 29 incher for them. Still one guy left to go get a fish - any fish.

Today we went to yet another area of the lake. Again we spread out. One covering a point, two off a drop near an island, and I found my bites at the bottom of a drop from a silty flat. Nothing over 22 inches for me today though. HNTNBUX hit a good spot though and popped four fish all between 24 and 26 inches. Nice!

I iced a total of 7 over the three days. The rest of the count is subject some guess work but HNTNBUX got at least 9 and his bud (a first timer) was in that 7-9 fish range also. We had one guy who's luck was just raw and he lost his only hook up for the weekend this morning on that point. So a rough guess of 23-25 fished iced for us over 3 days.

A couple things stood out.

Saturday the fishing was better on or near a soft bottom and the fish were not aggressive. Sunday they were far more cooperative. Today wasn't too shabby either.

Overall, we found you needed to tip your jig with some fresh meat. Today for me though, I had to take the meat off to get bit. Once I did, the chasers turned into biters. Probably because they were smaller. The other guys still did good with the meat plan.

A lot of work this weekend but worth it for us.

Oh, P.S. The two 29's and the 33 are still swimming.

nicely done. thats a fine weekend on burntside!

[DaveSorensen]

I'll ask you folks since I've not used them what is the verdict on the treated ciscos? I figure since I'm selling them it might be worthwhile to know from the experts.