Laker Day, On one of the big lakes

Well, hit the ice for 7am today, easy walk out. Holes drilled, lines down by 7:30. 16 ish inches of beautiful black ice, maybe 2 of white ice. A nice early morning sunrise quickly overcast for the remainder of the day. Very few marks today, and fish would come into the graph and disappear right away. Some would come charging towards my Williams, only to turn away last minute and vanish. Managed to pick off some fish by downsizing and rolling with the Simcoe Bug and the Northland Punch jig tipped with a small pinhead shiner head. Nothing wanted to fully commit on the spoons today. Got one fish in a set line with a small shiner.

Moved mid morning only to move back an hour later after not marking a single fish…. That’s not true, that’s where I got the one on the set line, and also another surprise catch immediately after!

Once we moved back to the original spot around noon, we iced some small ones, and I finally landed a nice thick one for laker steaks tonight. All fish (minus one) were caught on the bugs. Couldn’t find the herring today.

My surprise catch! After catching a nice eater on a set line I dropped my line back down to the bottom, put the rod down and noticed some weight on the rod, pick it up, and sure enough, fish on! Short battle later landed this beautiful 42” stickerel! Beautiful fork tail…. Hahaha.

Not that big, but had the girth!

Fresh caught dinner…. Oh yeah!

Great report! I’ve been thinking about trying flies/nymph patterns more during ice season. I’ve opened up enough stomachs of lake trout and whitefish full of scuds and various invertebrates to be convinced to try.

How do you like the Simcoe bugs? Do you present the flies drop-shot style?

Tungsten bugs with a wider gap hook, I have been using the Neptune ones, any bugs with wide gapped hooks. Northland Punch Jigs are great for sending a pin head minnow down. Tie direct, that’s why tungsten. Also, 4# fluoro or less is recommended to be able to work it in 60fow. I will be starting to move shallower now as spring arrives. Will be working my way up to around 30-40fow for whitefish now. I have some hand tied wireworms I use as well this time of year.

Thanks for the tips mykola, I’ll be tying some flies on as a top presentation this week. I’ll keep that in mind about the light flouro leader. What kind of fly patterns do you use to target whitefish?

Nice haul! Are you tipping the bug? I understand the light line approach as the Neptune bugs are light. Basically a perch presentation in deep water. Might try this tomorrow before the wind gets out of hand.

Curious as well. How do you fish the simcoe bug? Slight twitch near bottom? Rest on bottom?

Maybe tip with a shiner head. Drop all the way to bottom then slowly lift and twitch as lifting, very slowly, maybe lift 1-2ft off bottom, then back down and rest on bottom, then repeat. VERY slow lift.

Needs to be fish around that don’t want your spoons or other jigs. If your graph has been dead all day you best move.

Sometimes tip with a minnow head, a pinhead minnow head, other times it’s not required.

Thanks Mykola
I’ve had the same experience lately as you. Williams jigging was bring them in but not hitting the spoon. They will hang around for up to a minute or more and maybe come back but hits are getting more scarce.
Need to try the finesse approach perhaps.
Thanks for your help.

That stickerel would go 45 if you compressed his tail. BTW was it birch or pine...gotta release if not in season, LOL.

Nice catch seems like you caught someone s old fishing gad enjoy the eats

Nice work…you seem to have no trouble finding them this year 👍

Maybe tip with a shiner head. Drop all the way to bottom then slowly lift and twitch as lifting, very slowly, maybe lift 1-2ft off bottom, then back down and rest on bottom, then repeat. VERY slow lift.

Needs to be fish around that don’t want your spoons or other jigs. If your graph has been dead all day you best move.

Sometimes tip with a minnow head, a pinhead minnow head, other times it’s not required.

Another guy with a question!

I think the rig you are describing is a drop shot with a jug at the bottom with a minnow and a Simcoe bug with a minnow head(sometimes) a ft or so up. Correct? So are you lifting the jig or the bug slowly off the bottom? W/o a light line, as you suggest, it would be quite hard to tell when the bug lifted off the bottom.

Northland Punch Jigs