Lake trout reports

[HNTNBUX]

Great picture Steve hopefully you will be around when I get a big one.

[HNTNBUX]

Great picture Steve hopefully you will be around when I get a big one.

[Xplorer]

Had a great time on the ice with Steve, good day, good company and good conversation (except for all that Packer talk )

Thanks for the relaxing day, the return trip was interesting. Whiteout all the way to about 5 miles from 53, then hardly a flake the rest of the trip home, crazy.

[Steve Foss]

It was a gorgeous day to be on the ice on Burntside, with temps about freezing, cloudy skies and light winds. And the fish cooperated, as well. Keith, my companion for today, iced four lakers ranging from 2 to 7 lbs. Two fish came in the morning, and smacked the lures like college boys racing for the last beer in the fridge.

Two came in the afternoon, but they required some cat and mouse, and the triggering techniques Keith picked up today came through.

We kept 2, released 2, and stopped fishing at 2.

And in the half light before sunrise, as I sledded onto the East Arm of Burntside off the portage from Little Long, I caught sight of a wolf pacing me, trotting about 30 yards off the staked trail. I braked the sled and killed the motor, and sat there as the wolf stopped and faced me and stared for about 20 seconds before turning around and walking back into the woods.

A fresh lake trout waiting to be cleaned. A cold beverage waiting to go with it. A great dinner combination and remembrance of good company, good fishing, and a wolf in the gloaming. Lake trout country. Is there anything else quite like it?

[RiverChuckNorris]

Thanks for sharing pics and report Steve. As I found out this year, nothing else like it indeed!

[Spearing Machine]

Awesome work, Steve!! Glad you were finally able to find some Lakers out there on Burntside. You have put in a lot of time out there already and haven't had much to show for it and obviously the snow conditions aren't helping you at all. Keep at 'em!

[Steve Foss]

It's been a goofy first few of weeks of the season for sure on Bside, Jeremy, with these mini snow fronts moving through every couple/three days. I've put 8-9 fish on the ice myself in four days' fishing (I often don't fish when out with clients), which is about average. What's been a bit unusual so far is that the highs and lows in fish/day are more pronounced.

Mobility has also been key. Our good days so far have come off the sleds on spots that are getting very little traffic this year due to conditions. Last year, with pickup/ATV/sled travel good throughout the whole season and a large network of ice roads plowed, most spots got a lot of attention from anglers. There have been small pockets of cncentrated angling attention focused off the short plowed ice roads to permie shacks near the Passi Road and Van Vac accesses but not too much in outlying areas. That changed a bit this weekend. I saw several parties as far as 1.5 mile off the snowmobile trails yesterday, so folks with sleds are starting to venture farther out.

If we can hold off on significant snow for a couple weeks, things will tighten up some, and all those snowmobile tracks going off the main trail will be able to act as sled roads.

[maddowg1192000]

is it possible to park a car at van vac or passi? No truck and on foot

[Steve Foss]

Both landings have parking lots that should be fine for cars/vans. There's a very steep hill en route to the landing on Passi Road, and the Van Vac access road is fairly steep as well. If you have front wheel drive, neither should present a problem unless there's fresh snow/freezing rain, which actually is supposed to fall tomorrow and/or Sunday.

[maddowg1192000]

anyone going to burntside tomorrow and looking to help a rookie out? I got bait food and gas covered just looking for help

[maddowg1192000]

went fishing saturday and had fish around the entire time but nothing would bite so I don't know if they were trout or not... what do u guys think?

it was like this for the 3 hours i was there. they would chase up to 60 but no takers.

[Steve Foss]

Smelt is my guess. There are clouds of them in lots of places on Bside. You can often see individual smelt on the electronics, and they will slowly rise in the water column toward a bait. Best way to tell for sure if it's a laker is how aggressively it rises. Smelt come in and out of the cone as they rise like perch do. Lakers just come straight up like a big red missile on the Vex.

Only once in awhile are there more than one laker working a lure. So if you see quite a few lines on the graph suspended in the water column on Bside, it's almost always smelt.

Looked like a really pretty day to be on the ice today.

[maddowg1192000]

smelt run in the spring??? I could go for a smelt fry...lol

[Mike Stark]

drove the truck out on burntside today. fished from around 8-4:30. iced one small laker. kept it for the frying pan. lost two others after the hook set. one felt small but the other had some weight to it. i was using 2in tubes, hoping to get bigger trout. i had my chance. i was fishing steep shoreline breaks. at least i got one.

[sheephead2]

Was out on Snowbank Friday and Saturday Friday WINDING no fish

Saturday Caught 5 Biggest 24,19,2 17and 12 incher the best I ever done on the ice

[Great Outdoors]

Mike,

I keep telling those fishing Burntside to use a small spoon (1/8th-1/4-3/8ths max) tipped with a 1 inch Berkly Power Nymph in Pearl/Olive/Shad.

The spoons can be Buckshot Rattle Spoons, Forage Minnows, Gapen Fleckers, Swedish Pimples, Kastmasters, it doesn't really matter, as it's the Power Nymph that does it.

I've caught trout using 3 inch white tubes and 3 inch Berkly Smelt, but have had the best luck with the spoon/Nymph combo. I've caught trout as small as 9 inches with it, many 6-9 pounders, and as large as 14 pounds using the small bait.

It's hard to get people to switch to smaller baits!!

[sheephead2]

I started out using 3 inch tubes Trout followed it up and down never would hit so took other rod that was rigged with a buckshot dropped it down and wham the trout smoked it caught 2 more in a half hour

All Fish were on the bottom like walleye's

But I DID GET ONE TROUT ON THE 3 INCH TUBE.....

[Mike Stark]

i use small buckshots a lot too.

[Steve Foss]

Agreed on the small lure principle. They'll catch trout of all sizes on Bside, whereas on many days you won't catch a single eater on larger lures. Two of the largest fish hooked at the Bash were on small lures. One was a small Jigging Rap knockoff, the other a 1/4 oz Go Devil.

All my fish lately have come off larger presentations, including some eater sized lakers as well as the 10 lb I caught Friday and the 9 on Saturday, but I've always got a small spoon ready to go on a second rod in case a fish won't eat the big one.

[Deet]

Steve (and others),

It sounds like you are catching fish. I haven't been out in a couple weeks. I fished the first four Saturdays of the season, and the action got worse every Saturday. Opening day was awesome, in my opinion, then three weeks later, we could hardly graph a fish, and those fish were really lethargic. I've heard this is typical - that lakers slow down during mid-winter.

My question is this: Are things starting to pick up now, or should they be expected to pick up now? I understand that there are just plain bad and good days, but in general, when is winter lake trout fishing supposed to be best?

Small lures - gotta use them. Even when we there were decent-sized fish around, we could only catch them on smaller presentations. I'm not up by you guys, but back on the other end of the Range.

[Steve Foss]

Deet, I had two or three bad days so far this season, and with half the season over that makes it a good season so far. Most winters on Bside it seems to slow a bit in February after a good January start, then pick up again in March. But I've had great luck so far in February this season. Hoping March is even better!

Lakers are so much like muskies in how they turn on and off, and you never know when the window is going to open and close. If you don't get skunked at least a couple times fishing winter lakers, you're not fishing enough!

[Mike Stark]

fished from around 11-4. iced one 5lb laker. was not even paying attention when the trout hammered my tube. didnt see any other fish. fished maybe 8 spots.

now its time to get ready for a 4 day fishing/camping trip in the BWCA.

[Deet]

Thanks Steve. I've never heard anyone relate lakers to muskies before, but that makes sense. They both follow, and follow... and follow some more, then suddenly they turn on (sometimes).

I'll try to get out a couple times in March now and make sure to stay a whole day to increase the chance of hitting the window. On my two most successful days this year, the best action was about half-hour after sunrise, with almost no action before sunrise. I haven't been able to fish past noon yet. I would expect late afternoon to be a good time, much like morning.

[Steve Foss]

Deet, sunrise/sunset can produce lakers, but it's not at all a regular thing. Most often, the fishing falls off an hour or so before sunset, and there are fewer fish caught after that. Lakers can for sure be caught when the sun is down and at night, but I haven't had nearly as much luck during those periods as when it's light out.

Today was an excellent day on Bside. I landed five, and a sixth got off in the hole. The smallest was about a pound, but the other four were a 2, a 3, an 8 and a 30.5 incher that went just over 10 lbs. The one that got off was about an 8. My buddy, who has caught hundreds of lakers over the years, had half a dozen lookers, including a couple really hot fish, but none of those would hit. Sometimes it just goes that way. I've had days where the buddy 30 feet away was catching all the lakers. All fish today came on the jigging lures (in fact, on the SAME jigging lure), none on bait.

Fished from 8:30 to 3:30 before calling it a day. Had steady and nice action from 8:30 to 10, then it was pretty dead until 2, when it got hot again and was still going when my buddy and I left at 3:30.

It was drifting down snow flurries most of the morning, and the bite shut off this time when the snow started in earnest. We wondered if it would turn on again. Usually there's a nice window from about 11-2 on Bside with some good action, and then it slows for the day a bit after that. Today it was dead from 11-2 and heated up again later, while the snow was still coming down like crazy. I've caught a lot of lake trout when it's snowing.

Definitely a good day. Not going to post pics, because if you've seen a guy holding a lake trout, well, you've seen a guy holding a lake trout. Facebook friends will be able to see today's photo album (courtesy of Finn Bay Photography), which I'll post later this evening.

Lake travel was easy for truck/ATV/snowmobile, and today's 6 inches of snow won't change that.

[caseymcq]

... Lake travel was easy for truck/ATV/snowmobile, and today's 6 inches of snow won't change that.

Thank you for the report, sir. My dad and I are most likely heading out this weekend and hearing the report on truck travel is good.

[Great Outdoors]

Be careful about truck travel Casey, sooner or later someone will really get stuck, big time!!!

This 6 inches or so blended with a few areas that still had some snow left on the ice surface could make travel a bit difficult at times.

[Steve Foss]

Thank you for the report, sir. My dad and I are most likely heading out this weekend and hearing the report on truck travel is good.

Good luck to you and your dad, Casey. February has been a great month on Bside so far. Just keep away from shorelines and neckdown areas, as mentioned on the conditions thread.

I'll be out there as well. Same old truck, little more rust.

[Great Outdoors]

Stevo,

I think Fishgutz said they buried their truck up to the running boards twice. Where were they when that happened??

[Steve Foss]

Stevo,

I think Fishgutz said they buried their truck up to the running boards twice. Where were they when that happened??

They were inside their F350. Today in my 1/2 ton, four days after they got temporarily stuck, I drove right next to the place and I had no problems at all. That being said, ice should never be considered safe. We all know that.

Anyone else got any lake trout reports?

[BigJakeL]

Headed to Ely today! Hope to catch some Lakers out on Bside this will be the first time out this year going to try to aim for fifteen to twenty five foot of water!