Hit the ice yesterday with mykola and a friend, launched at 9am and had lines down by 9:30am. We started at the top of a break in 30' and slowly slid out to 50'. First fish of the day for me was a young juvenile whitefish, quick photo and released:
The morning window was not very productive for us, we marked fish coming through but were unable to connect with any. My friend landed a small yearling lake trout about an hour after my whitefish. We continued to mark fish but they seemed relatively inactive and generally uninterested in our offerings.
Nick (mykola) had been out on this lake recently and told us how the whitefish had been very bottom-oriented, most, if not all taken on the Meegz picked up from bottom. I decided to switch over to the Menace (Meegz-style jig) with a small caddisfly larvae tied a few inches above. I rarely use this technique but figured this would be a good opportunity to practice.
As we approached the last few hours of daylight, I debated switching over to a different presentation in anticipation of burbot but decided to continue a while longer with the Menace in hopes of deceiving a whitefish. Around 4pm the activity on bottom picked up and I felt my line go slack. A relatively quick retrieve, not the whitefish I was hoping for but a healthy 22" over slot lake trout:
Note the olive shades and orange fins:
Gill plate shot:
10 minutes after landing the first lake trout, I felt another fish pick up the Menace although this time there was no mistaking the species. After 5 long runs, the fish firmly holding at 40', I was finally able to gain on it. We carefully maneuvered its head up the hole but as it rose up the hook popped out, the lake trout's head slipping between my friend's hands. Uncertain on the weight but based off the length I was able to see before it was lost, it likely would have been my PB lake trout.
As I collected my thoughts, replaying in my head what I could have done differently, I realized the burbot would be arriving very soon. I switched to a chartreuse vibrato tipped with 2 large chunks of rainbow smelt. I bounced the vibrato aggressively on bottom and it didn't take long for the first burbot to come by. From 5:30pm-7pm we landed 6 burbot between the 3 of us with several more coming off half way up.
Ideal eating size, between 1-3lbs. the largest I caught possibly more. Will post another photo of the 2 burbot I kept. Overall a great day out with friends capped off with non-stop burbot action.
Haliburton Triple, whitefish, lake trout & burbot
