Went out Sat morning alone to try lakers using 11” dead herring I caught last weekend. After watching Gord Pyzers video that Knuguy posted the other day, I was all excited to try hanging my bait about 10 feet under the ice on one hole and jig in the other hole.
Did this for about three hours with nothing - dead zone.
Texted a buddy and said “if you were fishing in 57 feet of water, and using big dead baits, how deep would you set them?” He replied “57 feet”. So I dropped my line down and let the herring lay right on bottom with a foot or less slack, rigged on a bendy switch I cut from a branch in my yard.
- Pic below-
Half hour goes by and I’m still jigging 50feet away in another hole. Catch some movement out of my peripheral - game on! Switch is shaking and starts bending down slow at first, then quicker a bit of shaking - I get up and run toward it - but when I get there, nothing. It’s still. I crouch down and watch…. It’s still moving a tiny bit. Then, down, down, down it bends until the stick is entering the hole. Grab the line, hookset, hand over hand…6, 7 times, holy sh!+ this thing has some pull! Then, GONE… slack… don’t even feel my bait on….what the heck. Pull my line up, it’s cut. There aren’t pike in this lake. I’m excited but shocked, using about 20 lb mono. Big lakers have big teeth I guess. Gonna have to rethink my quick strike rigs.
So I re-tie a couple trebles and hook up another herring. Send er down. No way I’m getting another opportunity like that today, but I’m leaving in 45 min, so have to try right.
Jig in my other hole till noon, and reel up. Pack up my sleigh and backpack, almost set to go. Go over to my set line and stick the vexilar in (I always do this when retrieving any line to see if there are chasers). There’s a massive mark right off bottom. Like the mark is taking up 2 or 3 feet of space!! It’s at my bait! So I lift the herring up about a foot, let it sink back to rest on bottom. Then, the switch shakes a little, and warps down into the hole. Set the hook! Oh my God! <—- I don’t usually talk to myself but I said this several times. I know why Frank (Nuclear) was yelling on his big pike now - I felt the same but I may be the only guy on the entire lake - nobody would hear me. Hand over hand, keep pulling this laker in - it has different plans and starts going for a run…all the line back out down to my flag. Get it back up again, another run, shorter this time, and a couple minutes later I know it’s getting close to the ice. I’m on my knees looking down - a giant lake trout head with a bulbous nose fills the hole 😳 Oh my god! Roll my sleeves up one at a time…. The body, sideways blocks most of the hole as it rolls by. I gotta turn the head. A couple pumps…I’m turning it, here it comes, going to reach down amd plunge the hand in…stuck on the bottom of the ice.!!! nO!!! I let off a bit, hooks fall from under ice, into the hole. No fish. No bait. Ahhhhhh!
Feb 11-12 weekend report, Highs and lows
