YeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaaaaw!!!!

[Rock Bottom]

Well as most of you all know I went up to clearwater Lake north of the pas on our annual get together for Intermountain Sport Fish Enhancement Group. My Buddy John Boyd and I went up thursday morning, There were 29 of us that went up this year, and boy was it another great year.

The weather was not the greatest with some crazy winds on friday that were reaching 90 - 100 kph on the lake. But thank the fish gods for still being on our side. Saturday the winds dropped and the sun came out which made for a real beauty of a day. We all put 20 dollars in the pot for a Big fish derby between our group for friday and saturday. By the end of the day friday I was in the running with this beauty 34.5 inch Laker.


Later that day I also caught this 32 incher.

Going into saturday with what I thought was gonna hold out for first place I was in a pretty good mood. It was around 12:00 when I was watching my sonar I saw a big fish I yelled out Big fish boys but I could not get him to take my tube jig, no more then 5 mins went by when my buddys dead line had a little twitch in it so I called out to him he ran over and set the hook and this is what he got. I guess he liked my buddys tube more then mine.

Here are a few more pics to let you know what the ice is like.


 
All and all it was a great trip I was able to meet some new people including Duramax
we caught lots of lake trout averageing around 100 Lake trout per day between the whole group. Friday was my best day with catching 8 trout including my 2 big ones. All the hardwater gear now gets put away and start spooling up the summer rods, see you all on MFF soon...Rod

[Rock Bottom]

I forgot to say that fish was 41.3/8 inches long, 23 inch gurth, and 22.5 lbs

[Duramax]

It was nice to meet RB (Rod) and the Dauphinites. What a great bunch of guys, shared their spots, info and even wings. The weather as Rod said was pretty wild but nice fish were still caught but not by me...

We didn't get any big ones but still had a ball. Due to the wind conditions we only fished a few hours Thurs and Friday. Saturday was a good day, we fished for about 8hrs and I got 4, biggest 26". Learned a lot from the Dauphin guys and will move to the big fish locations next time for a while. It is a big lake and without their help it would take years to find the choice locations.

Fished Cormorant and got some nice walleye biggest about 3lbs, other half dropped off  big one at the hole...

I will definitely be going again.. Once again, Thx Rod it was nice talkng to you hope to hook-up again

[Thriller]

Way to go guys...it must have been nice to get in a planned last trip out.  Nice fish RB.  You make fishing look like a breeze (OK, perhaps a gale...  )

[big walleye]

  RB thoseare some beauties.  Man did that ice look scary.

[Rock Bottom]

Bw the ice was scary there was a crack we had to cross that in some places was 4 ft wide, it was no prob for me with the skidoo I could drive over the open water no prob but the guys on the quad had to find a smaller gap. You could see the ice sagging and lifting in places and the shoreline was full of open water, I would deffinately not want to be out there this week, it is kinda scary when the only thing seperating you from 100 ft of water is 18 inches of rotten ice.

[Jiffy]

Holly Crow THATS A HUGE LAKER i wonder how long that fight took.Thanks for posting the pics RB you rock.

[tk10fire]

Man those are some beauties. Can't even imagine one like that but I'm sure trying and hoping for next year.

[Rock Bottom]

Wells guys it only a matter of knowing what to use, where to use it and how to use it. If any of you ever want to head up there and potentially latch onto one of those monsters give me a call I can help you out.

[joe10]

Nice lakers!

Holly Crow THATS A HUGE LAKER i wonder how long that fight took.Thanks for posting the pics RB you rock.

You wonder how long the fight took. I bet it took hours.

[Rock Bottom]

Well as far as the fight goes it depends on your gear, we use some fairly heavy gear up there so the fight is not as long as one would think the big one im holding took maybe 10 minutes, last year I caught one the same length as this years but was not as fat and it took me 25 minutes to bring in, and the real big one took around 15 mins but also broke the rod handle in half. You need the heavier rods mostly for getting a good hook set I lost count of how many we lost because they came off half way up. I use custom built 40 inch med/hvy - hvy action rods with 15 lb test braided line. I use the braided lines due to the fact there is no stretch so when your fishin in 60 - 100 feet of water you can feel the bites as well as get a real good hook set. There is only one problem with using braided line though and that is that the fish can see it so to fix that problem I tie on a real small swivel ( has to be small enough to fit through the guides on your rod.) and then 10 feet of 10-12lb mono and your ready for lakers.

[Jiffy]

You just wait joe you are going to have alot of long fight with those monster cats.

Nice lakers!

Holly Crow THATS A HUGE LAKER i wonder how long that fight took.Thanks for posting the pics RB you rock.

You wonder how long the fight took. I bet it took hours.

Nice lakers!

Holly Crow THATS A HUGE LAKER i wonder how long that fight took.Thanks for posting the pics RB you rock.

You wonder how long the fight took. I bet it took hours.

[Jiffy]

Wow guys i have no idea what went on with my last post I was just trying to put in the quote and tell joe that he will have long fights with the cats this year.

[Skiff]

RB - That 34.5 incher is a beauty, but I have to admit, that 41 incher is massive!  It sure looks like you had a good time, but it also looks like the ice was pretty well candled, I'm glad you guys made it out and back safely.  I've only fished the south side of the lake, mostly off the pump house by the airport, but by trolling a string of flashers and about a 2 oz. weight, we usually managed to get at least one hit per pass.  They were nice eating sizes though, so we ate fish every day out.

Yellowtail - you can use the modify or remove buttons on your post to change anything  that didn't work out the way you wanted. (Remove zaps it entirely).

[Jiffy]

RB - That 34.5 incher is a beauty, but I have to admit, that 41 incher is massive! It sure looks like you had a good time, but it also looks like the ice was pretty well candled, I'm glad you guys made it out and back safely. I've only fished the south side of the lake, mostly off the pump house by the airport, but by trolling a string of flashers and about a 2 oz. weight, we usually managed to get at least one hit per pass. They were nice eating sizes though, so we ate fish every day out.

Yellowtail - you can use the modify or remove buttons on your post to change anything that didn't work out the way you wanted. (Remove zaps it entirely).

Tahnks a million Monophil for the help.

[Rock Bottom]

Yes Mono that pumphouse sure produces some nice lakers mostly in the spring and fall as the water warms up we find they head to the deeper holes out in the lake, We were on one spot where the water dropped from 60 - 112 ft in a distance of 30 yds, thats pretty steep. we sat up on the 60 ft and caught some nice fish there.