Spring Break 2017

[FishGuy603]

Hey guys, first time posting in a LONG time. I got out relatively few times this spring break because of the unusual weather patterns and work. When I did get out, fishing was wicked slow for the most part. Last Saturday, I went out to a local two trap lake with my buddy Joe (Dipstick) and we fished for two hours in bitter cold. After losing a few fish between us (one for me and three for Joe) and with his buddy Andy catching the only fish (a perch), we went back to the launch cold and miserable. Sunday, I went on a trip with Tim Moore to better understand how to fish Winni. In the previous two trips to the big lake, I had success but nowhere as much as Tim so I felt tempted to hit him up and see what was going on. Although it was bitterly cold and very windy, we managed to sit on a pretty decent school of white perch. They were wicked finicky because of the post frontal conditions but I managed a good 7-8 big fish before the bite died after 11:00 am. Tim got a few white perch and a salmon.

I kept two for dinner. They are delicious!
The next day, Joe and I went back out to the same two trap lake to try our luck. We figured since we marked fish here on Saturday, they would be back and more active due to the oncoming snow storm (what a weird year it's been!). What was even weirder is that we did not mark anything except a few small perch. We tried another spot with no luck but didn't do too much more exploring because of sketchy ice. Disappointed, I went home to wrap up my ice fishing season and look forward to open water. Then Tuesday happened.... it snowed and snowed more and all the open ponds in my area were refrozen, cutting short my kayak fishing plans. After working Wednesday and Thursday, I visited the Swift River in Massachusetts to fly fish on Friday but only caught one bow in a day plagued by equipment failure. After I got home, Joe texted me about having a great day fishing the same spot on the same two trap lake. He said he was marking lakers everywhere and could do no wrong. We agreed to meet up the next day to catch some lakers and keep our seasons alive. That brings to yesterday: It started off wicked cold (single digits) in my early morning drive up to the lake. Once I got there, it was a balmy 13 degrees which felt surprisingly comfortable with the lack of wind. I walked to Joe's spot and greeted him and his friend Pat before setting up our traps. Within 15 mins, Joe caught a nice smallie and 30 mins after that, I lost a small laker on a tip up. It wasn't until my flag went up that we started to mark lakers (by this point, there were perch and smelt almost everywhere). We were marking these fish in 30 or so ft of water but after 15 mins of searching different holes, I decided to move out deeper. I set up towards the edge of a point in 40 ft of water and worked my jig up from the bottom to 10-15 above. At that point, I saw a red mark slightly above my jig. It moved just below my jig and as soon as I started to take it away from him, FISH ON!

Third time is the charm! A big thanks to Pat for taking the photo. He's the one who caught the 7 lb laker on an 8" sucker a couple weeks ago!
After this fish, we marked many more lakers most of which were providing great chases but were ultimately very finicky in biting. Joe got a couple more flags where the fish near spooled him but ultimately popped off. I got another flag deep but nothing home. Just past noon, we wrapped up and left. Although it wasn't a very fast day, catching the laker made my day and ultimately helped my confidence in jigging lakers (as it is my first year doing so). I am very keen about heading out next weekend to a warmwater pond to chase flags all day but lakers have me getting very excited even if the action isn't as great. I have a problem  :tip up:.
And to think, I was fly fishing in NH just last week........

[zwiggles]

Nice report. Way to roll with the changing winter weather. This year has been nuts.

[FishGuy603]

Nice report. Way to roll with the changing winter weather. This year has been nuts.

For sure! I'm glad I was able to adapt and get some fish on the ice. Thanks

[Rackbuck]

Congrats on the fish and great report. You have 2 good teachers for lakers with joe and pat, they know their stuff. Pat told me just today that you guys had a great time.

[fishingidjit]

FG, great post and good fish!

[FishGuy603]

Thanks guys! Radbuck, I agree, they definitely know what they are talking about. Plus, Joe is a walking, talking tackle box lol.

[Dipstick]

Thanks RB! FG you sound like my girlfriend, she says, "how much fishing stuff do you need? You already have 5 of those!" I'm just preparing for the fishing apocalypse! Hey FG, any chance you can put up that pic of the senko fish I killed? I think the folks would be interested in that, and I'm not on photo bucket.

[FishGuy603]

Haha, I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. Can't tell you many times the bite's completely shut off for me after losing my hot fly or lure. Here's the pic:

You should've got the photo of the whole fish, it was a tank

[Rackbuck]

Pat showed me the pic of that laker with the big senco in it, crazy but not surprised. When I was in Canada fishing for lakers all u really needed to do was let anything rubber sit on bottom and they would just pick it right up and eat it

[BrookieSlayer99]

Wow that's a really big senko do people honestly need to use them that big?

[Rackbuck]

I also wonder what it does to the fish long term. I find it hard to believe it will digest it or be able to pass it

[FishGuy603]

Wow that's a really big senko do people honestly need to use them that big?

That's possibly a 4-5 in senko. Its gotten big since it was waterlogged. Since that fish looked otherwise healthy according to Joe (and the photo), it must have eaten it recently. Goes to show that no bait is too big for these guys  . In all seriousness, plastics like those take many many years to degrade and fish may go their entire lives without passing it. Depending on how bad the blockage, they may slowly starve to death. Not a good way to go and not much we can do about it until biodegradable soft baits are sold besides not discarding them in the water after they are all used out.

[Dipstick]

That Laker was 23", very healthy, strong chase and fight. I knew something was wrong with the stomach when I pulled it out of the water. After harvesting it I cut the belly to find the 12" senko. I was surprised to also find 3 smelt in the belly as well, so it wasn't starving to death.

[zwiggles]

I read an article from Maine where a very large lake trout was caught, and eaten. The fisherman called F&G to show him that there was almost a pound of senkos in its belly. This was a 15+lb fish so I think they can survive a long time with them in them, but obviously it's not good for the fish.