Fish Lake Blues

Fishing Time: Saturday and Sunday (February 9-10)
Weather:  Cold, windy, below freezing
Moon Phase: 22% Moon
Location: Fish Lake
Best Bait: Storm minnow jig (white)
Who Went: Bobber John, Dunc

This has probably been the worst ice fishing season I have ever endured.  We have been pounded with snow this winter and many of the lakes have so much snow that walking through it sounds miserable.  The last two trips were an attempt to get my boys into some fast action for perch and both trips were total fails.

But I was excited about this trip.  We were leaving the kids at home and headed south to Fish Lake for two days. The mornings were cold reaching temps below freezing, but we were able to get the tent set up and the heaters pumping while we hid away for two days and pestered the lake trout below.  

The first morning the lake trout seemed active and were chasing us up and down the water column.  John missed two bites, and I got none.  No fish were caught.

The second day the fish were not around as much and were also not active.  We continued to work through the slow inactive times and I was finally able to pin one lake trout to a hook.  It was small, but at least it was a fish.  

After my hook up the lake trout seemed nonexistent.  We start fishing higher in the water column for splake and rainbows.  We didn’t have any worms and had to resort to using powerbait that Bobber John found in his tackle box.  We had a lot of bites, but it seems they would always leave us with an empty hook as they swam away with our powerbait. Again, I finally was able to land one small rainbow.

The highlight of the trip was watching a 10-15-pound lake trout swim 3 ft underneath the ice right past our ice holes.  It just meandered through and let us take a good long look at him.  Very cool, but I wish he was on the end of my line.  So, another failed trip this winter.  I can’t wait for spring.  Hopefully it’s a bit nicer to us.