Ice Fishing Foray

[coolpool]

Headed out with my better half and a friend on Cold Lake for some ice fishing fun yesterday since the weather warmed up enough to enjoy it. One plus from the brutal cold is it created good clear ice which is at about 9" thick across the whole lake. We got one large Burbot and landed 12 lake trout and lost quite a few more. Surprisingly we only got one keeper laker from the bunch which have to be 75cm (29.5") long to be legal. I had an epic fail when I slipped on the ice and plunged my leg in the double hole up to my thigh and impaled my hand on a barbed treble hook trying to stop my fall. Fortunately my gortex army gear kept my leg dry and I was able to remove the hook by freezing my hand in the water and working it out.

[Joseph Farrow]

Awesome!
That sucks about the hook. Glad you were able to get it out.

[ironchop]

Nice haul!

I can tell you're Canadian. Y'all are just standing out there heads uncovered like -40 is no big deal hahaha.

Where I live, we shut in if the weather gets below 30F. I'm gettin soft.

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[Scootertrash]

The story about the hook sounds fishy. And who's Barb?

[hublake]

How much would a 30 inch lake trout weigh? Any reason that the trout have to be that big?

[jeswinehart]

Fish fry ! Looking good Coolpool !

john

[coolpool]

How much would a 30 inch lake trout weigh? Any reason that the trout have to be that big?

My guess would be in the 10-12 lb range, but like a lot of us some are fatter than others, lol. The fish cops think our fishery is threatened so they raised the length from 65 cms to 75 cms last year. The lake is 144 square miles in size; I don't think we'll run out of trout! But i'm not an educated biologist.

[coolpool]

Nice haul!

I can tell you're Canadian. Y'all are just standing out there heads uncovered like -40 is no big deal hahaha.

Where I live, we shut in if the weather gets below 30F. I'm gettin soft.

Sent from my Z958 using Tapatalk

You won't catch me out at -40 either, Doug! Actually it was -11C (~12F) when we headed out but warmed up to just below freezing by the afternoon. I have a saying my family hates to hear, "we don't waste weather like this indoors"! They know I'll dream up some grand plan to be outside.

[90nut]

Looks like a riot. Lake trout are a blast to catch. We just for them with white tube jigs when we go up to my buddies resort in Michigan. We had about 7" of ice here as of last weekend, been having some warm temps this week, back to single digits by the weekend tho. Keep your stick in the ice.

[coolpool]

Is that a Crappie or Small Mouth 90? Little off on my pan fish as we only have Perch here. That sucks that its warming up, hopefully your ice will stay on. The way this winter is progressing for us we'll require extensions on the augers sooner than later in the bays and smaller lakes.

[90nut]

That there fish was a crappie that wanted to be a smallmouth. Measured 18". Was a bit of a challenge in 2# line. Do you get the "jumbo" perch up tre? Biggest I can find around here are around 10". Get some bigger ones but they are few and far between. lakes I've found big perch on don't freeze up usually. I love fishing. And beer. And three wheelers. And power augers!

[coolpool]

That there fish was a crappie that wanted to be a smallmouth. Measured 18". Was a bit of a challenge in 2# line. Do you get the "jumbo" perch up tre? Biggest I can find around here are around 10". Get some bigger ones but they are few and far between. lakes I've found big perch on don't freeze up usually. I love fishing. And beer. And three wheelers. And power augers!

I don't know Crappies but I always pictured them like a Sunfish on steroids; that beauty is a monster! I'd be all over 10" perch, and we do have them, but i wouldn't call them common. Lots of big toothy buggers around so they hide well. It's by far the best eating fish IMO.

[90nut]

I agree, perch and bluegills are the best. My dad's buddy makes pickled lake trout, it's pretty darn good!