Haliburton Gold, First lake trout of 2025

As long as you avoid getting any water on it and are careful while removing it. I cut it out from a dollar store yoga mat so I’m happy if I get a season or two of use. Slows the hole from freezing over but definitely won’t prevent it.

Cool. And the two layers of blue foam for thickness or are they staggered on the splits for sealing?

Just for an added layer of insulation. I suppose you could rotate them to overlap the seams as well. Pack the foam flat if possible, the reason mine was curled up was because I had it folded.

Nice catch Mike.........nothing wrong with hand bombing fish

those are some of the best fillets I have seen in some time........well done

Hard to beat hand-lining a fish, you’re right. Thanks, as Nick has mentioned, the lake trout are very good eating out of that lake we were fishing.

Agreed, handlining is fun, catching fish on stuff you dream up yourself is rewarding, fillets look great - nice one.

Thanks Drew, knew I’d eventually get one on it but haven’t always been good about running it. Not quite as nice as your splake fillets!

Those are some great looking fillets! Beautiful colours! Most other lakers I've caught are all white fleshed. Any difference in taste?

They’re very good eating from this lake. Not sure there’s a direct correlation between colour and taste but I do find the lake trout that are feeding predominately on baitfish don’t taste as good.

I would hazard a guess that the trout you are talking about may be feeding on smelt or other baitfish and not getting enough crustaceans in them...like shrimp

imo, they do not taste as good......size does matter also