Thanks Whopper Stopper.
Hi all,
Here is my ice fishing report for the month of March.
I didn't get out at all in Feb. as the only days I had off were very cold and nasty, but I did make up for it in March.
The first report is for March 1st. My family and I decide to try Last Mountain Lake (LML) and see what's biting.
We made our way to the Rowan's Ravine area and decided to try just past a group of shacks and anglers.
On the way to our spot we see an angler engaged in a tug of war with what looked to be a dandy big fish, judging by the bend in his rod.
We parked and watched to see what came up. It took some time but finally he and his friends iced the fish - a nice big pike.
That was a good sign, and we set up a bit N of the shacks but still on the same general bottom structure.
We also found out that the ice is thick 3 feet or more and if your not prepared to shovel down to the ice, an extension would be needed.
It was a nice sunny day out on the lake with a slight wind at first but, half way through it died right off and was calm. The temp was -13 deg C / 8.6 deg F.
Our buddy met up with us half an hour later.
We ice fished from 1.00pm - 6:30pm.
It was an hour before we got our first bite. One of the set rods bobs and then dips down. My uncle sees it first and plays the fish. He gets it up the hole and I can see it's a smaller pike.
It's just at the surface when it shakes it's head and throws the hook. I dive for it up to my forearm, but not this time, it's gone. I rebait the rod and continue on ice fishing.
20 or so min later another bait is stolen from the same hole.
On this afternoon my mom decides that she would like to try ice fishing for a little while and she was the first one to ice a fish, a burbot.
I was happy to see her get one.
Shortly after that I move to the hole where we had a bit of action as I had not even seen a fish where I was. I set my camera at this hole to down view.
It's not too long before I see my first fish of the afternoon on camera. The burbot moves into view, nips at my offering and is lightly hooked. It gets off in one head shake and slowly swims off.
I quickly drop my lure back down and it turns back towards it again. The burbot moves right up to my lure and it looks like it was going to bite when suddenly a big pike comes in from the Right side and bangs right into the burbot chasing it off, naturally. The pike then turns and hits my lure hard and fast, peeling off a good amount of line as it goes. I holler that I have a fish on and my buddy comes over to lend a hand. Good thing too, as the fish wraps around my camera several times. Our buddy is able to unwind the line from the camera cord. This fish gave a good fight and it took a while for me to get it in. Finally I was able to turn it's head up the hole and my buddy hoisted it out, YES!!!
It was a nice sized pike and it measured at 38".
After a few photos and the measure. I was happy to send it on it's way.
For me, my day was made with that one catch.
It was also my biggest fish so-far this ice fishing season.
Some time passes with a bit of lull in action and on the camera, but, then a set rod near my uncle registers a strike and he goes over and sets the hook.
This one is hooked better and it's iced.
More time passes and then it's our buddies turn to ice a fish. He is watching with the underwater camera when a burbot comes in and hits lure and is also iced.
A shot of his fish.
It's now later in the day and all the other anglers around begin to leave. We stay a bit longer and half an hour before we leave I get one more strike, near sunset.
It's dark on camera and all I can see is the rise and fall of my white spoon. While watching the spoon I see a very large black mass slowly move into view. It stopped for a min right in font of my lure and I slowly jiggled it in place. The dark mass then reacted and the white spoon was gone. I felt the weight and set the hook. This also felt very heavy and again it burned off line for deeper water. Our buddy came over again to move the camera out of the way and help lift the fish. Finally, I see a large head and mouth full of teeth break the surface. The fish is iced and again we were impressed by it's size.
This fish is even bigger than the first at 38.5" long.
It is also unique in that it is missing it's anal fin. I am not sure what happened to it as it appeared to have been gone for quite some time. All that was left was a bit of a scar.
This would turn out to be the last fish of the trip.
The 2 burbot went for a jig and minnow and a PK flutter fish.
My uncle's pike hit a minnow on a drop shot rig and my 2 pike hit a LiveTarget baitball - yearling series lipless rattle bait and the other one went for the PK flutter fish.
The 2 big pike went back and the smaller pike and 2 burbot stayed for a future meal.
I was happy to be able to find 2 nice sized pike in one trip - a first for me, and was also happy that every one that was fishing in my group also caught a fish.
After the luck we had the first day we decided to try the Rowan's Ravine area again on March 2nd.
The weather was kind of nasty with cloudy skies and a temp at -9 deg C / 15.8 deg F, but with wind gusts of 35 km/h(21 miles/h) to 40km/h(24 miles/h) it was quite chilly.
We decide to try and seek shelter out of the main blast of wind along a bank.
We set up and ice fished from 1:00pm - 4:03pm.
It was an hour or so before I saw my first fish on camera, but what a fish it was. She gave me a good look at her as she came in and checked out my lure, and the nearby set rod's bait.
She went from one to the other scrutinizing each one. When she would disappear I would give my lure a few large lifts and drops and she would return. She did this for 8 min, but not once did she even open her mouth and attempt to take one of the baits, finally she faded off into the distance and was gone.
She was also the only fish I saw on camera that afternoon.
At 3:40pm it starts to snow hard and the wind is whipping up the snow. At one point we can't see the shoreline across the lake. I had been cleaning the holes every few min all afternoon, but now they are filling up faster than I can keep up with. At this point I think we might be facing a skunk for the day when I see my set line give a small twitch, then dips and holds in place. I walk over, feel some weight, and set the hook. The fish then slowly and steadily move off. At first I feel no head shakes whatsoever, and feel this might be a good sized burbot or walleye, but once I get it closer to the hole I feel the tell tail head shake of a pike and then it really peels drag. It takes a fair amount of my line and I wait until it's done before I try and gain some back. This once again feels very heavy and I take my time as I have a lot lighter line then before.
Several more runs and I finally see the pike coming up the hole. As it came up it fills the 8" hole completely.
This one is even larger than the other 2 I caught the day before and is of right now, my largest fish this winter.
She was 39 5/8" and also went back after a photo and measurement.
I am sure that was the same fish that I saw on the underwater camera.
The pike hit on a tiny 3" shiner minnow on a drop shot rig.
I guess she was a bit peckish and wanted just a small snack,lol.
She would also be the only fish of the trip as we packed it up a bit earlier and got off the lake while the getting was good.
Our tracks out were completely blown in and we had a bit of a time getting back to shore.
Right in the marina itself the snow had built up quite deep and it was really tough to move in that area, but we slowly crawled through and got out.
Even though we only found one fish that day we were all happy with the results.
In conclusion we all had a good 2 days and I am very happy with my results.
I have not caught large pike like that on back to back trips.
Here's hoping for more March madness.
On March 7th we decided to try LML's Pelican Pointe' for some ice fishing from 1:00pm to 7:00pm.
It was a sunny afternoon with a fair wind from the NW and +1 deg C / 32 deg F temps.
When we were coming down the hill we noticed a large crowd down the lake, just off Regian beach.
It looked like there was an ice fishing tournament going on.
The access spot onto the lake was not too bad and we were soon on the ice and set up a bit off the point.
We didn't go too near the point in case there was thin ice around, as that area always has fair current.
I set up the camera only to find the water quite murky. Visibility was maybe 3 feet at best and the fish would have to be quite close
before I would see them.
Two hours pass before I get my first strike on my set rods and I land the first fish of the day.
This not bad pike.
A bit more time pass before I ice the 2nd pike, again on the set rod.
Toward sunset and the end of the day, the rod with a larger smelt gets a fair hit but no fish is hooked. By looking at the bait I can see a slight scuffing of the bait near the tail
and not the hook. A few min later and another of the set rods is hit and slowly pulled down. My uncle goes over and ices the fish.
It turns out to be a burbot.
It would also be the only burbot that day.
We fish for another 20 min or so before we call it a day and leave the lake as the sun sinks behind the W hills.
March 8th found us back at LML, but this time we though we would try an area we have never tried before Etter's Beach.
Along the way to the lake we see 2 male snowy owls.
One of them is in the same general area as I saw it a few winters ago.
We also saw a sign of spring in the form of 2 Canada geese.
We get to the lake and find a spot near a group of other anglers.
It's another nice sunny day with the wind again from the NW and temps getting back to +1 deg C / 32 deg F.
We set up and ice fish from 1:15pm - 6:30pm.
The angler next to us said he had 1 pike the whole morning.
It was 20 min before I see one of our set rods get a hit. I walk over but the fish was just lightly hooked and was gone. A second set rod gets a few nibbles but no take. I go to that one and the rod that just lost the fish gets another hit. This time it's bent way over, I set the hook just to make sure. A brief fight ensues and I can feel the head shakes and a few runs of a pike.
I ice it and we have the first fish of the day.
It was 30"
An hour and a half pass and my uncle's set rod gets a strike. He also ices his pike.
Not too long after that our buddy gets a strike. He sees the fish come in on camera and hit the bait.
This fish is also iced.
It turned out to be the big one of the day.
This fish also had signs that not too long ago it must have been caught in something like a gill net as it had a fair amount of scaring around it's head and gill area along with split fins.
That one went back.
We fish for another hour and a half, but no more fish were caught.
The other anglers beside us said that they only caught 2 small perch that afternoon.
We pack up and are off the lake before dark.
On the way home, but still close to LML we see herds of deer, both whitetail and mule deer.
We also spot 2 more snowy owls, a great horned owl and what looked to be Northern Saw-whet owl.
The fish hit on jigs and minnows and smelts on single hook or loop rigs.
While cleaning the fish I found one of the pike had a small green jig head in it's stomach.
The hook actually went right through it's stomach and was sticking the stomach to the fish's abdomen
It must have been there a while as the stomach had adhered to the lining of the abdomen.
When I touched the hook it was rusty and just crumbled. I wonder how may poor fish are going around with hardware in them like that one.
Overall we had 2 OK days, weather wise, and, at least we did find enough fish for a bit of a feed and avoided the skunk.
On the weekend of March 14th & 15th our group once agian set off for LML.
On the 14th we went to the Rowan's Ravine area to see what was around that afternoon.
What a difference a week of warm weather can make. The snow out that way was mostly gone. Many of the sloughs had alot of water on top of the ice or were starting to break up a bit, and, a good number of creeks, road ditches and culverts had flowing water. There were more and more Canada Geese retuning all week and by now a good number of the sloughs had a pair setting up shop. Once we got to the lake we could see the creek was flowing quite well through the ravine itself and was temporarily backing up behind the trout pond. It won't be long before it spills onto the ice in the pond and then the lake. Right at the boat launch there was already a fair amount of water covering the shore and ice. We gingerly made our way through it following the tracks of other before us and getting to our spot OK. There was a a fair amount of water on the ice and slushy snow here and there.
There were not alot of folks out. Those that were out, were alot further out near the middle, or on the far shoreline. Only 2 other trucks were in our general area.
We set up and fished from 1:10pm to 7:35pm.
It was a mostly cloudy afternoon with a brisk wind from the SW and + 8 deg C / deg F temps.
Our buddy joined us shortly after we were set up.
It was not long after I had my camera down that I got my first strike. A burbot come in, hit my leader just above the hook, and apparently not likeing what it felt in it's mouth it slowly swam off.
10 min after that I had a nice big pike come in and check out my lure. It was not to her liking either, and, she left. Just after she left, a smaller pike comes zipping in from the side, misses the lure, does a wide turn and takes another run. This time it connects and I ice the first fish of the day.
Over the afternoon the hits keep on coming - the majority of them resulted in a fish iced, however, we did have a few that just nibbled the bait and left. We also had 2 break us off.
One of the lures I lost happened to be my best producer this winter. It was my LiveTarget baitball - yearling series, lipless rattle bait.
I think a big pike might have been the culprit.
The final results were 9 fish, 4 pike and 2 burbot for me and 3 pike for our buddy.
My uncle did hook a burbot, but he had it to the bottom of the ice when it rolled into a tight ball, jammed and got off.
I found the biggest fish of the day.
The burbot and a few pike stayed and a few pike went back as well.
The next day we went back to LML, but this time we tried Pelican Pointe'.
It was cloudy and there was a chilly wind blowing from the W despite the temp being +7 deg C / deg F.
As we drove down into the valley the lake before us looked a light blue in color. As we got to the access spot we could see that this area had even less snow on the ice than up by Rowan's Ravine and it seemed to have a bit more water on top of the ice. As we got on the ice we drove around a long crack not too far from shore. This crack was open a good 2 - 3 inches and lake water was flowing onto the ice surface from it. The rest of the ice had large round milky white circles in it, not the best looking ice for sure.
Our group got to the point Ok and set up in between a large group to the S and a small group to the N.
Once we were set up we ice fished from 1:05 pm - 6:10pm.
The burbot were quite active where we were and it was not too long before I spotted them on the camera. The first was a group of 3 - a bigger fish followed by 2 smaller ones. One of the smaller fish veered from the group, and without hesitation, inhaled my jig and bait.
This guy was iced.
The next burbot was iced 20 min later.
This poor guy was missing an eye and had a big hole in the top of it's head.
It also came in fast, studied the lure as I jiggled it on bottom, and sucked it in. I thought, "hey, this is good action". Well as it turned out that would be the last fish iced.
There were more than enough fish around and I saw 18 burbot, 3 ciscos / tullibee, 3 pike and 3 whitesuckers. Most of the burbot were on a mission, never even giving my lure a glance. A few burbot, the pike and tullibee did stop and check out the lures presented, but found them not what they wanted and left.
The larger group to the S seemed to have similar luck as us, but the smaller group to the N had good luck, and from what I could see, they looked to have 7 or 8 burbot.
It's interesting what a difference that only about 150 feet or so can make.
I think we must have set up on the fish fast lane and the guys to the N were where the fish were all flocking to,lol. That's fishing for you.
All in all we had a fun weekend again, but we were a bit unsure what to do about our last trips of the season. I think by the appearance of the ice at LML we will have to try somewhere else.
WW
