Good day on Trout

[Steve Foss]

Any day you catch a laker or two on Trout is a good day these days.

Casey McQ and I hit the ice there today. We each got an eater. His was a 19-inch clipped fin stocker that weighed 2.75 pounds and came off a tip-up cisco fished a foot off the bottom. Mine was a 20-inch clipped fin stocker that weighed 3.75 pounds and came off a large Northland airplane jig tipped with a four-inch strip of cisco. Both were frigging footballs. Not sure what Casey's had in his, but mine had a partially digested 8-inch cisco and a whole lot of other fishy matter in its big pot belly.

I'd post an image or two, but they are of dead fish, and that's verboten (live fishermen, though.)

Darn fine day, but the fishing was slow. Those were the only two bites we had. A party of eight followed us in and fished all around us, so we had the contours blanketed with 20 lines, and only had three fish among the 10 of us by 2 p.m., when Casey and I left.

Great walking out there. Portages are packed and easy, and once you get out of the sheltered southern bay, the wind has polished the snow so walking's just fine.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Steve,

Did you fish the area that I told you about?

I may go there with a friend on Tuesday or Wed.

Cliff

[Steve Foss]

Yes, all 20 lines from the 10 of us were distributed from 15 FOW to 75 FOW. Good luck if you go in, and may the walking hold fine for you.

All three fish caught had the same fin clip, and based on what the DNR's Lake Finder info said, they must be from the 2003 stocking of yearlings. Since I think 1995, the DNR has put somewhere in the neighborhood of 40,000 Gillis Lake strain yearlings in there every other year. That makes our three fish, which were within an inch and a pound of each other, just about four years old, since they were hatched in the spring of 2002.

Casey told me his was full of 8-inch ciscos too. Darn good growth rate for lakers.

Also, while those other folks had live suckers on some of their tip-ups, the only action we got was from dead cisco or a lure tipped with cisco. No doubt suckers work fine on some days, and I know a lot of anglers go to the trouble of carrying them in on Trout, but with all the cisco in that lake and the bellies being full of them, it sure appears those lakers are used to munching on cisco.

All three fish came on rigs fished only a couple feet off the bottom. None of the suspended lines drew fish.

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Steve,

Thanks for the info.!

I'll let you know how we do if I go in.

Cliff

[Steve Foss]

Cliff, if a fishing report don't have enough info to help a fella out, it ain't a fishing report — it's just blowing smoke up . . .

[caseymcq]

I was amazed that the fish wanted to eat more. It's gut didn't look like it could've held anything else. The stomach lining was stretched out so thin I could see the ciscoes plain as day in there. Wow, what a little hog.

I slept like a baby Saturday night from all the fresh air. I can't wait to get in there again.

[Steve Foss]

Ahhhh, fresh air. Or is it huffing and puffing???

As if yesterday's 7-mile round trip walk wasn't enough, I added another 8 miles on sore ankles today. Sheesh, you'd think at my age I'd know better. At least today I donned footwear that gives ankle support, unlike yesterday's Steger Mukluks.