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| Fishing Forum > Northern Lakes > PB laker |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 02, 2025 - 09:44 pm |
| Where to start. 1st time out this year. Lake has a bunch of herring. I usually try to jig them and get a dozen or so in the freezer for bait for the season. Also, once I get one, I usually put it down dead on a quick strike rig, suspended horizontally or laying on bottom on a barely slack line. I keep an eye on my switch (dead line) as I jig with my rod in a second hole. I’ve found this is the best way to catch lake trout on this lake, as herring is their main food source. Match the hatch so to speak. I’ve caught them between 2.5-6 lbs over the last few years using a full 11” herring for bait. Took me a while to get onto that. A couple seasons ago, I had a dead herring laying on bottom and it got picked up by a trout. Fought it hand-lining for 5 minutes or so before a clean break off- its teeth cutting through my heavy mono (20-30 lb?). Exciting, I knew it was a good size fish. So bummed. Tie on a wire leader, (normally reserved for pike, I know) fashioning my own quick strike rig, and put another herring down. Within the next 15 min or so, bait gets picked up again, and the battle is on again. It’s a doozie. Has to be the same fish hanging around. Up, down, peeling line through my hands, back and forth. I get it up at the hole OH MY ! Oh my! I keep saying to myself, as I keep seeing the fish go by the hole, it’s girth filling the entire view down my 8” hole, trying to get its head visible to get it started upward. Around and around the hole, flashing of trout, a giant tail, common….. and then, stuck! One of my treble hooks stuck on the bottom corner of the hole - and bye bye fish. Wow. I always figured there were big fish in here but man! 12 lb? 15? More? Beat myself up over that one for a few days. Anyway, fast forward to today, caught a few herring, and again, have my herring quick strike rig down, laying on bottom. Some marks near it, checking it out but nothing moving or nudging it yet. So I’m jigging nearby with my 36” rod, cause it keeps the herring pinned well, haven’t changed my two year old 6lb mono on my reel because I’m only fishing herring, using the smallest jigging rap you can get. I drop down to some marks on bottom expecting the slight lift and tap of a herring, and when I set the hook I just know it. This is big! It’s got power and strength I can’t really stop, but it’s not thrashing around wild like a 4 or 5 pounder. Like it just goes without effort, wherever and whenever it wants. 55 feet below me, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Loosen the drag. This is where I start second guessing the old line I have on. Gotta play this slow. I wait. I wait. Rod warped right over, steady pressure. Is it too much pressure. It feels like a lot. Loosen drag a bit. My hands are frozen. It’s windy, and snowing sideways. Tighten drag a bit. Fish pulls. I let the rod dip into the hole because I’m afraid to torque on it too much. The reels frozen too. Drag never works as smooth or as loose as if it was inside a heated hut. Neither one of us is gaining. I’m just on my knees - waiting for my turn. 5 minutes goes by with not much gained either way. I can feel the fish pulsing, trying some, but not really giving it a good go. My hands are frozen. Can’t exactly tell how much pressure to put on the fish. Would be very easy to overdo it. It seems to tire a bit, I tighten up the drag and start gaining , it’s coming my way 5, 10, 15 feet…. Nope ….. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Wait. Wait wait… rod still bent over. Wrist tiring. Line squeeking through the eyes. Why? Eyelets frozen. Last two are fully iced up. Sh!+. Put my mouth around the second eye, breathing on it, fish pulling, melt the ice off. Now the first eyelet, same….fish still tugging, rod bent over, my mouth around the eye melting the ice, until it’s cleared. Musta looked pretty special down on my knees had there been anybody around. Ok good, pull some line out by hand, drag seems good - my turn. Start gaining again, fish is tiring, comes up easier this time a good half way before putting the brakes on. Down it goes again. Back and forth a couple more times - another 5 minutes goes by. now it’s up by the ice. Goes by the hole on its side OH MY. This again. Now to get its head up. Not easy. Several times around and around, line pinging off the bottom edge of the ice - I’m thinking this is where my line breaks. Common, just show me your head. Here’s my barrel swivel - and finally, head up and a big mouth coming at me. Reach my frozen hand down in the water and grab the biggest laker I’ve ever pulled through an ice hole! 10:30 AM. May as well go home now, not going to beat that today. |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 02, 2025 - 09:45 pm |
| Online calculator was right on with my analog scale |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 02, 2025 - 09:49 pm |
| Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em they say next time maybe I’ll try for pike with my fresh new baits |
| Posted by: CanadienBoy Feb 02, 2025 - 09:56 pm |
| Nice fish ,way to go |
| Posted by: Mike33 Feb 02, 2025 - 10:50 pm |
| I was stressed out reading that recap- congratulations on a very special fish, glad you were able to get it top side! May be a while before you top that one. |
| Posted by: reelingmachine Feb 02, 2025 - 11:51 pm |
| Congrats on the PB and landing that beast eventually! Great story. |
| Posted by: Flukes Feb 03, 2025 - 01:05 am |
| Very nice laker....exciting re-tell of the story. |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 03, 2025 - 05:36 am |
| This is what I recovered from the bottom of the ice a couple years back when I lost the fish at the hole - my two trebels, wrapped up with someone else’s small spoon and stinger that had been broken off by the same fish. Chances are slim this was the same fish I lost twice, but it’s been in my head that this one’s still down there, it was kind of a personal battle to find it the last couple years |
| Posted by: mykola Feb 03, 2025 - 05:44 am |
| What a beast. Now you need to try a different lake for his cousin. Herring are the key to massive lakers they say. I was also fishing amongst the herring and landed a nice one, not as nice as this one though! You can retire from that lake now and move onto new horizons haha. Fantastic. The relish is good. When you clean I’m curious if the meat colour. Gonna smoke it? |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 03, 2025 - 06:11 am |
| Just the tail hook on a the smallest jigging rap |
| Posted by: mykola Feb 03, 2025 - 06:26 am | ||
Drag was the key to this success! Those end hooks aren’t the hardest. It’s funny, I got my PB 36” in September fishing for herring. Same deal, 6lb line and the smallest vibrato. You gotta think that 6lb line would snap before it bends the hook… luckily I changed out all my hooks to new hooks before that trip. Bet that lines a little twisty now! |
| Posted by: mykola Feb 03, 2025 - 06:27 am | ||
The fulfillment of pursuing your nemesis and nailing it. Priceless. |
| Posted by: Fishnhunt Feb 03, 2025 - 07:38 am |
| Great post and story. That was stressful to read let alone experience! Congrats. Thats an epic fish. |
| Posted by: crappeeeman Feb 03, 2025 - 08:47 am |
| Nice PB. Keep going back there if you are looking to get an even bigger PB. They grow bigger every year in my walleye PB spot. |
| Posted by: jcraw Feb 03, 2025 - 01:00 pm |
| Great story thanks for sharing! I felt like I was right there with you reading that. Congrats on the PB. |
| Posted by: longfish Feb 03, 2025 - 01:14 pm |
| Very nice PB. Arnie |
| Posted by: Kushog Feb 03, 2025 - 02:25 pm |
| That's a nice laker! |
| Posted by: Nuclear Feb 03, 2025 - 02:41 pm |
| Great story with nice catch congrats Drew |
| Posted by: Icemanjay Feb 03, 2025 - 03:33 pm |
| Congrats on a beautiful laker! Great story man thanks for sharing. |
| Posted by: Longshank Feb 03, 2025 - 03:47 pm |
| Drew.......I had to go pour myself a drink to finish reading your story EPIC dude . it was like I was right there with ya huge congrats |
| Posted by: burnzy1945 Feb 03, 2025 - 05:09 pm |
| My heart was pounding reading your report. Well done! |
| Posted by: simcoeslayer77 Feb 03, 2025 - 10:29 pm |
| Great story and hell of a fish! I've landed some big fish on 6lb mono back in the day. 12 lb laker and 46" muskie, both in open water. I'm curious as to what your leader was? I've heard good things about those sienna reels. Great value. Your experience shows by how you adjusted your drag and used the rod to find that sweet spot. A fish of that caliber could easily have spooled you without your adjustments. Was the hook slightly bent after that glorious fight? By the way... frostbiten fingers... totally worth it |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 04, 2025 - 06:21 am |
| No leader, tied direct to jigging rap, and I haven’t really examined the hook but I think it’s fine. Line wasn’t twisted up either, as I try my best not to reel when the the drag is slipping. Yeah the Sienna reels have been good for me, had been sitting in a cold shed, then using the reel outdoors on a cold windy morning, not in a hut created a bit of a problem with the drag, tighter than it should be until it gets moving some, then the adjustments seem not to do much one click at a time until it’s too little drag - indoors with heat, they’ve been really good. Old Rapala reels I’ve had or probably any cheap reel that comes on a combo would surely have resulted in my line snapping. |
| Posted by: Disco Feb 04, 2025 - 08:22 am |
| Fantastic Laker. Congrats on the PB. Make sure you don’t eat those big ones. Haliburton region is a hotspot for naturally occurring mercury. I would suggest reading the guide to eating Ontario sport fish for that area. I have a cottage up there and know quite a bit about the area. Again amazing fish and congrats. Please don’t take offence to the warning. It’s meant as friendly info for those who don’t know. |
| Posted by: Mike33 Feb 04, 2025 - 10:17 am | ||
That’s good information Disco, I think Drew was up in the Muskoka region for his lake trout but I harvest lake trout from the Haliburton region and I just checked a lake I fish regularly. Right at or above the slot size (on this particular lake) appears to be fine but anything below or above, the consumption recommendation is 0. Mercury and PCBs listed as the contaminants. |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 04, 2025 - 11:08 am |
| Below would be fine, it’s likely that they haven’t had an opportunity to net/test that size And I was in Muskoka, there’s just one, not plural.  |
| Posted by: mykola Feb 04, 2025 - 11:15 am |
| Muskoka means “not easily turned back in the day of battle” in Ojibwe. Also name of the guy who was involved in indigenous signing treaties. Also the reasons it cannot be pluralized as it’s not a noun. |
| Posted by: Mike33 Feb 04, 2025 - 11:19 am |
| My mistake, post has been since edited lol |
| Posted by: Flukes Feb 04, 2025 - 08:08 pm | ||
Or you can have the reel break off at the stem if you are using a Shakespeare ugly stick combo reel  Yup, I will never forgive them for that one. They were given a chance and failed miserably.Agree with Disco, it's good to check the size and eating limits recommended (esp. for kids and women of child bearing age...old guys like us, no one cares too much about so they up our eating limits Oh and you (anyone) can send them pieces of meat for testing if you catch something above what they have data for...anything smaller than what they have should be better than size of fish. And as Drew said, if the smaller ones are higher, then it's almost certainly a lack of samples to test or it was by chance a smaller fish had higher levels...can happen depending on the size of the body of water and also if they are eating different things. |
| Posted by: Disco Feb 04, 2025 - 08:51 pm |
| Flukes I completely agree. Us old guys just send it. ? Also the smaller size just isn’t tested and would be as good or better than the first sample size. Bioaccumlation happens with age so bigger is worse. ?? |
| Posted by: Drew Feb 04, 2025 - 10:19 pm |
| So the wife gets none, I get it all |
| Posted by: Flukes Feb 04, 2025 - 11:32 pm | ||
For sure....that is usually the case. Smaller is better and mostly due to bio-accumulation. There are some things that can change what is found in the tissues. Some "populations" of the same species in the same body of water may eat a different diet and so may different levels. And spawning females maybe a bit different than males as well since they will transfer some of their fat-loving contaminants into their eggs and kind of "clean" their bodies of those kinds of contaminants. Males will just keep accumulating and not really pass on anything to offspring. Worse for mammals that feed offspring breast milk as a lot of it is passed through breast milk. First borns are the worst off with contaminant loads from moms. That's why a much lower level of fish is recommended for women of child-bearing age and kids (they will have longer to accumulate more)...old males - we have the largest loads  but they don't care because we won't be passing them onto our kids. We just go crazy wanting to fish, fish and fish more |
| Posted by: deepjigger Feb 05, 2025 - 07:36 pm |
| Congrats on your PB Drew. Great report. And those shimano sienna reels are the best bang for your buck. |
| Posted by: shagdrrotten6969 Feb 05, 2025 - 09:45 pm |
| Fantastic report and congrats Drew !! |