Great first day out, Fish were biting!

My friend, Allan, and I met up dark and not so early to drive up to our go-to spot in Muskoka this morning. It was exciting to be heading out for the start of another ice fishing season!

We arrived at our destination about 9:30, loaded up the sleds, and walked out. There was about a foot of powder snow on the ground so we were glad that we had our smitties. The lake had 5" of black ice covered in about 5" of slush; fortunately, we did not have far to walk. Skies were mostly cloudy and there was a light south wind.

Shortly before 10 AM, we were set up in 69 fow. After what seemed to be only a few minutes, I caught my first and biggest fish of the day on a white Simcoe Bug. Over the next few hours, we iced 9 lakers between the two of us and missed several others. For much of the day, we marked fish -- a very pleasant change from our usual outings!

Sounded like a great day weather-wise and fish-wise. All on Simcoe bugs?

I'm not sure what Allan was using. I used a combination of Simcoe Bugs and Brian Smith's Realistic Wax Worm (https://theflysmith.co/ols/products/realistic-wax-worm) tipped with a minnow. The Realistic Wax Worm resembles a Simcoe Bug but without the tungsten weight.

These have been my go-to baits for the past two seasons either as a modified drop shot (the Realistic Wax Worm on top with the Simcoe Bug as my weight below) or simply the Realistic Wax Worm tied directly onto my leader with some split shot.

Nice outing with impressive action.
Great report

that is a stellar day..........congrats

Great outing you had thanks for the report

Yeah, that guy makes some really amazing looking flies. Mike33 passed on his website info. to me last year but I ended up getting some flies from someone local to try first (did get a laker last year on one of the flies, no tipping with real bait). I don't know if I would have the patience to wait for the bug to get down that deep but then again, it's better to take a long time to get down and catch fish than something that will go down fast and not get bitten as often. So far, spoons and vibrado have worked decently for me but will try to remember the bug and flies if the fish get finicky. Have you ever catch without tipping with a minnow? I prefer having not to bring out bait.

Very nice Mike! I was waiting for a report from there.Nice looking laker.Glad to hear they were aggressive. See ya out there soon.

Good you were able to catch a decent size laker there, and great day with enough action to keep you in the game

Nice fish. Dragging gear through slush is a drag, I had the same experience yesterday in the muskoka area. Glad you got some action!

Great catch! I was there last weekend with little snow on 4" of black ice. Went 6 for 10 on lakers of the typical size under 20". Lost a nice one half way up that came unbuttoned. I don't think I got a very good hookset as I was using my light action rod in 77 fow. Maybe some of that slush will freeze up this week, with this polar vortex we're experiencing.
Thanks for posting.
SS77

Sounds like a very productive day Michael! Glad to hear those flies are working out for you, I caught a few cisco on them this weekend in Temagami.

We always tip the Simcoe Bugs with minnows; it just seems to work better for us -- but then, maybe I just need to be more patient!

I have also thought of using Gulp Minnows or other similar artificial baits but never gotten around to it.

Allan did try using waxworms as well as grubs but the fish weren't interested -- at least this one time.

Looking forward to seeing you out there!

Sounds like a very productive day Michael! Glad to hear those flies are working out for you, I caught a few cisco on them this weekend in Temagami.

I am really liking those baits; thanks for sharing that information and doing the order!