Lakers and Eyes, Lakers and Eyes…, I aint telling no lies!

What a beautiful day out on the ice. Sunshine, barely any wind, and a bonus… FISH! Set out on the lake this morning around 7:45am, followed some sled trails out past some bubblers, but to get our desired shoal, my buddy and I had to strap on some snowshoes and ventured off trail. The large 32” snowshoes we’re perfect and prevented us from breaking through the crusty layer under the snow, into the slush. After a completely soaking ourselves in sweat, we finally made it to the “Shoal”. Popped the first hole, 8” black ice under all that slush… fish on the graph immediately…. Proceeded to setup our gear, hand drill a few more holes in the ice, put a couple set lines down (one each), and got to work. Once all the piles of herring disappeared from the graph, started to mark some fish coming through on bottom in 61fow. Dropped down a my favourite golden Williams, quick chase, and bang, fish on, I though by the fight it was a small trout, and to my surprise I popped a nice 17” walleye through the hole! Nice! Immediately after unhooking the inhaled Williams, I notice a fat mark rocketing up towards my suspended minnow line (15ft under the ice)….. I grab my minnow rod in anticipation…. Thud, set the hook… another fish on! This one has some weight… fighting a bit better, get it topside, and it’s a nice 21” laker! Good start to the day… an hour goes by, managed a couple small lakers released, also on the Williams… and then things got tough, chases were more skiddish… still marking fish but not getting hits…. Time to downsize for the finicky bite… I throw on one of new simcoe bugs in orange on an ultra light… send it to the bottom… no sooner did it touch bottom…. Tick… slam! This fish is BIG and feels even bigger on the ultralight… massive head shakes and thumps…. I managed to get it about 5 ft below the hole, I got a glimpse, it turned to run, and hook pops out…. Damn so close, shoulda hammered that hook home while I had the chance….. I’d estimate at least 8lbs laker… oh well. Toss the big back down… and again… the second it hits bottom… tick! I slam the hook set (within reason) and this time i stick it, bring the fish up, another 17” walleye! Nice! Immediately toss the the bug back down…. And again, back down to bottom…. As soon as it hits… tick! Another fish on! Feels nicer than the last one… one run, get it to the hole… another nice laker! ….. I take a coffee break, continue the day, back to the Williams, let’s bring the fish in, then finish them off with the bug…. This tactic produced 9 lakers and three walleye by 12:30…. Some of the lakers were smaller, but great action and what a day! My buddy struggled… he also lost a behemoth laker on the bug due to a tight drag as he was loosening it… snap… ooops. But he did manage one small laker around 3:30 when we packed it in. Don’t worry, we split my catch, everyone gets fish for dinner.

Cheers

Todays weapons of mass destruction.

Awesome! Sounds like a really productive day. Thanks for sharing

Thats a nice mixed bag I guess you had the honey hole your friend must of been jealous. LoL

Very nice catch of fish are you using any bait with the simcoe bug or you using it without bait ??

Sometimes the only bait I’ll put on the bug is a pinhead minnow head,just a head, the smallest one…. Or an XL shiner eyeball. I had the bug tipped maybe for half the fish yesterday? They other half ate the bug a la carte. If I was fishing perch I’d put a perch eye on after I caught one… not sure if that’s legal come to think of it…the perch eye that is…

Sometimes the only bait I’ll put on the bug is a pinhead minnow head,just a head, the smallest one…. Or an XL shiner eyeball. I had the bug tipped maybe for half the fish yesterday? They other half ate the bug a la carte. If I was fishing perch I’d put a perch eye on after I caught one… not sure if that’s legal come to think of it…the perch eye that is…

Thanks for the tips !!

Awesome!

I have never fished for walleye or lakers before and will try for the 1st time in a few weeks. Your recap has me excited about going to lake Muskoka.

I will be happy with laker or walleye.

BB

great detailed report and the fishing was great......good on ya

Thanks for the report and bonus walleye. I like the minnow head setup saves a lot of rebaiting and just as many hook ups that way.

Good Luck next outing and looking forward to the report.

Nicely done!