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Author Topic: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers  (Read 3035 times)

Offline PerchAssault

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Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« on: Feb 12, 2013, 10:54 PM »
I know it ain't ice fishing, but one of my guides has been out trolling Flathead a couple times this week, and has been nailing the lakers. LOTS of slot fish being taken from 180-200 FOW on FlatFish and our Smile Hoochies.

I will be at the show all weekend but we have three guided trips set up for Sat and Sun. Fishing is always good this time of year if we get the right weather windows...

Mike
www.aablefishing.com
If I\'m not fishing, I\'m probably thinking about fishing...And if I\'m thinking about fishing, I\'m probably not getting much else done so, I might as well go fishing...Yeah, I just said that!

Offline doublehaul

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #1 on: Feb 13, 2013, 09:40 AM »
I only wish that whole lake froze.
So many fish, so little time.

Offline Desperado

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #2 on: Feb 13, 2013, 11:12 AM »

 there was a time ... back when I was yur age, it got sooo cold thaaaaat ....   :icefish:
Have YOU Clamped YET ?

Offline mtflyfisher

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #3 on: Feb 14, 2013, 05:01 PM »
I used to ice fish it with my ol man when i was a boy. Used to see light vehicles out there. We pulled a 20+ pounder out of somers bay. I miss those days.

Offline The Rezerend

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #4 on: Feb 14, 2013, 05:10 PM »
Hey Mike,
You guys do much with Mack Days? This will be my first year fishing it with a boat. Don't have the deep trolling gear so probably do a lot of jigging. But mostly make sure my boat is ready for paddlefish on the MO. Just curious as to how you guys do jigging.
Thanks,
Rez
A bad day fishing is better than a good day working.

Offline missoulafish

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #5 on: Feb 14, 2013, 06:17 PM »
I've seen the lake freeze 3, maybe 4 times. Hands down the best ice fishing I have ever seen. I hope it freezes over again in my life time. Need at least a full week of 30 below.

Offline PerchAssault

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #6 on: Feb 15, 2013, 11:07 PM »
Hey Mike,
You guys do much with Mack Days? This will be my first year fishing it with a boat. Don't have the deep trolling gear so probably do a lot of jigging. But mostly make sure my boat is ready for paddlefish on the MO. Just curious as to how you guys do jigging.
Thanks,
Rez

N o, I don't. Call Dick Zimmer in Pablo, he will get you set up on the jigging. Most guys fish south end, either Skidoo bay or north of yellow bay, 260' plus.  Fish are on bottom feeding on Mysis shrimp. It's numbers not size, but an occasional big one can be had. You MUST have a good anchor set-up, better yet, I-Pilot or similar GPS controlled bow mount. Another good location can be right off Sunset Bay/Point north of Blue Bay...Get one of the new maps the CSKT put out that has the spring/fall Mack Days hot spots marked on the map...

And bring gallons of shrimp oil ;)

Mike
www.aablefishing.com
If I\'m not fishing, I\'m probably thinking about fishing...And if I\'m thinking about fishing, I\'m probably not getting much else done so, I might as well go fishing...Yeah, I just said that!

Offline PerchAssault

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #7 on: Feb 15, 2013, 11:11 PM »
Clay pounded them again today. Big fish was a FAT 39" that customer is having mounted. Lots of fish in the 28-34" range with one monster that stripped line but could not be moved from bottom before head shaking his/her way to freedom!

Once the Expo is over, I am hitting the big lake early next week. Have some folks signed up for "on water" seminar, still room if anyone wants in on a good deal to learn how we fish these pigs ;D

Mike
www.aablefishing.com
If I\'m not fishing, I\'m probably thinking about fishing...And if I\'m thinking about fishing, I\'m probably not getting much else done so, I might as well go fishing...Yeah, I just said that!

Offline Hook them Lipps

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #8 on: Feb 16, 2013, 06:16 PM »
If anyone has room in there boat I would love to go for Mac Days or anytime.  After fishing last year during the Fall Mac Days I'm totally addicted.  I am more than willing to pitch in on gas.  212-7461 or PM me.
donwoudoorsdotcom

Offline Jim F

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #9 on: Feb 17, 2013, 11:33 AM »
Hey Mike,
You guys do much with Mack Days? This will be my first year fishing it with a boat. Don't have the deep trolling gear so probably do a lot of jigging. But mostly make sure my boat is ready for paddlefish on the MO. Just curious as to how you guys do jigging.
Thanks,
Rez

If you need help with the jigging and have room for a passenger I can help you out there :)

Perch Assault Mike-
Mid February has always been the very best time of the year for me on Flathead.
 We usually get the warm spell around Valentines Day- my favorite time of the year for Flathead
Get bit!


Offline The Rezerend

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #10 on: Feb 18, 2013, 06:11 PM »
Jim and Hook, I'll try and get ahold of you guys when I get my boat squared away. Sounds like I need to figure out a deep water anchor system.
A bad day fishing is better than a good day working.

Offline Wenger

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #11 on: Feb 18, 2013, 06:44 PM »
Jim and Hook, I'll try and get ahold of you guys when I get my boat squared away. Sounds like I need to figure out a deep water anchor system.

The best deep water anchoring system is to set a buoy on a retrievable anchor then tie off to it.

Offline wingnutty

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #12 on: Feb 18, 2013, 08:59 PM »
Personally, if you are gonna sink the coin into 300+' of anchor rope and all the other necessities, I'd just spend the extra $ and buy an ipilot.  That this is simply amazing and can lock you on anywhere and holds better than an anchor in winds from  my experience.  Plus it is a hell of a lot easier to move around and find fish.

Offline Wenger

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #13 on: Feb 18, 2013, 09:15 PM »
As long as it is not real windy or the boat not to big, a cement filled bucket, a looped rope set in, and with some rebar protruding crosswise and parachute cord or 3/8 cord as line to a buoy is an old school way to deal with deep anchoring. This is a method that was used for laker fishing in Northern Minnesota way back when (60's) by my grandfather's clan. They used to fish in about 150ft of water or so. I know they certainly did not recover all their anchors, and many were simply left in place over deep humps and other structure to be used all summer. Perhaps not kosher these days.

Offline JayHelfrich

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #14 on: Feb 19, 2013, 03:57 AM »
Personally, if you are gonna sink the coin into 300+' of anchor rope and all the other necessities, I'd just spend the extra $ and buy an ipilot.  That this is simply amazing and can lock you on anywhere and holds better than an anchor in winds from  my experience.  Plus it is a hell of a lot easier to move around and find fish.

I concur.  I will not have a boat that has to be on a trailer (aka any boat that is over 12') that doesn't have a Terova with IPilot.  I fished Flathead last spring with JimF and his friend.  We wouldn't have caught any fish if we had to haul up an anchor every time we moved to try and find some feeding fish.  We were able to bounce around and locate fish and then hit the spot lock to keep us on the fish.  I use the spot lock for jigging, casting, and for holding me in position when I'm rigging up gear or fixing a tangled mess or when we hook into a good fish and don't want to drag it around.  Pause the track troll on cruse control, hit spot lock, fix the gear or catch the fish, turn off spot lock, hit resume and I'm back trolling my track at the desired speed in under 30 seconds.  It is super versatile and will allow you to become a better fisher person.  I can't wait to get my boat back out!

Jay
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Offline Jim F

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #15 on: Feb 19, 2013, 07:12 PM »
 They used to fish in about 150ft of water or so.
[/quote]

Childs play.  ;D  most of the ones we caught in the last Mac Days thing we fished where 300+ that means 600 feet of anchor rode MINIMUM,
more if its windy, which is almost always, the I pilot or similar is the very best way if you can afford it.
If not and you have a mile of anchor line, get one of those orange balls for lifting the anchor, it'll save you A** & back
Get bit!


Offline The Rezerend

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #16 on: Feb 19, 2013, 07:52 PM »
Thanks everyone but I think the ipilot is outta the question. I only have 1500 into my boat, and being not too far outta college it looks like lots of rope and work for the few times that I'll be back home on Flathead. Sounds like I'll have to get me a log in for MFF.
A bad day fishing is better than a good day working.

Offline Wenger

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #17 on: Feb 19, 2013, 08:17 PM »
They used to fish in about 150ft of water or so.


Childs play.  ;D  most of the ones we caught in the last Mac Days thing we fished where 300+ that means 600 feet of anchor rode MINIMUM,
more if its windy, which is almost always, the I pilot or similar is the very best way if you can afford it.
If not and you have a mile of anchor line, get one of those orange balls for lifting the anchor, it'll save you A** & back

300' ? That hardly seems fun to me. ;D  I've cranked enough snappers out of 500' to have grown out of that!

Offline RobG

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #18 on: Feb 20, 2013, 12:10 PM »
300' ? That hardly seems fun to me. ;D  I've cranked enough snappers out of 500' to have grown out of that!
This jigging sounded fun until you said that. I remember cranking halibut off the bottom at 500'. You couldn't even tell you had a fish on. I spent ten minutes cranking up what turned out to be the weight being bounced by the rocking boat.

I think we used 5# weights for 500'. What do you guys jig with at 300'?

Offline BigSage

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #19 on: Feb 20, 2013, 01:20 PM »
Can you drift and jig for the Macs, or do you have to be stationary?

Offline BigSage

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #20 on: Feb 20, 2013, 06:33 PM »
If anybody is going to Flathead tomorrow to fish for lakers and you have an open seat, I would love to tag along?

Offline wingnutty

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #21 on: Feb 20, 2013, 09:06 PM »
Can you drift and jig for the Macs, or do you have to be stationary?

I think it would be very tough to drift at 300' unless you wanted to fish with 2 lb sinkers, lol.  Stationary is the way too go.  The often times bite surprisingly light, so being able to have that extra sensitivity can be important at times.

I'm not the biggest fan of lake trout fishing to be sure though and bringing one in from 300 ft after it blows its air bladder isn't exactly a highly sporting contest, at least no more than bringing in a tree limb would be ;)  The only redeeming quality of lake trout fishing, imo, is the fact that most are pretty sizable fish at 3-6 lbs on average.  I also hate bringing them in from that deep because you can't release them due to the blown air sacs and I don't enjoy cleaning dozens of lake trout on a hot summer day @)

Offline JayHelfrich

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #22 on: Feb 21, 2013, 12:30 AM »
I caught a 34" laker (slot fish) last year while jigging in May in ~225' of water.  I used a 1 or 1.5 oz jig on an 8.5' rod that I use for trolling.  It had 10# mono leader that I use for trolling (~50') and was tied to 20# Power Pro.  That fish was far from a wet boot or a tree limb!  Took about 10 minutes to get it up to the top and during that time it made 3 runs back to the bottom (I'd get it 50-75' off bottom and back down it would go) that the guys in the back of the boat got to watch on the HDS7.  I took my time with the fish as I could tell it was a good one so I didn't horse it up and let it run when it wanted to on a drag that wasn't too tight but was snug.  Once it was up top we got a couple pictures, a quick measurement, and then I started working on getting it released.  I burped the fish several times while keeping it's nose up current and in just a couple of minutes it took off for the bottom with a splash.  I also caught several 2-6 pound fish that put an ok fight for deep water fish.  They fight as good or better than rock cod from an equal depth and the big one fought kind of like a lingcod from deepwater.  I look forward to getting back out on the water of Flathead Lake this year and trying to find my own "Flathead Lake Monster" over 40".

Jay



P.S.  I'm 6'6" and 260# so I make big fish look small!
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Offline missoulafish

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #23 on: Feb 21, 2013, 07:28 AM »
You need smaller people to hold your fish for you Jay! ;D ;)2 :roflmao: :laugh:

Offline BigSage

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #24 on: Feb 21, 2013, 09:22 AM »
Nice fish Jay!

Offline Jim F

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #25 on: Feb 21, 2013, 11:32 AM »
If you find fish shallow (under 150) and the wind/weather is right, you can drift.
We did that last spring one day, just "trying" a spot for a few minuets and it turned out we drifted very
slowly and where able to keep lures on the bottom. So we ran back to the starting point and did it again.
Caught plenty of fish that day. Mac Days is about numbers of fish, most of the fish are in the deepest holes.
Not always the biggest fish, but the most numbers are there. That's why we fish'em.
Its A PIA that deep, 2 rods if the wind allows. Hook one, start reeling up and drop the other one down.
By the time you got your fish up, the other is on bottom ready to catch. If the bite is on,
you'll be plenty busy for an hour or so :)
Get bit!


Offline BigSage

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #26 on: Feb 24, 2013, 10:50 AM »
What are a few good jigs for the lakers?  I have 1oz. Rattle-D-Zastors, and big Buckshots.  Do these work? 

Offline PerchAssault

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #27 on: Feb 24, 2013, 06:54 PM »
Rattle D's are one of my faves...a lot of people like the Zimmer glow grub/fly combo...Can't go wrong with a white 4" tube bait on a horizontal lead torpedo jig...fill it with shrimp oil and a piece of cut bait for the bigger fish...if u are going for numbers and fishing smaller fish, go glow grub/fly and barely lift the glow grub off bottom

Mike
www.aablefishing.com
If I\'m not fishing, I\'m probably thinking about fishing...And if I\'m thinking about fishing, I\'m probably not getting much else done so, I might as well go fishing...Yeah, I just said that!

Offline BigSage

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #28 on: Feb 25, 2013, 10:32 AM »
Mike, Thanks for the info.  Trying to go up there on Sunday if the wind isn't too bad

Offline Jim F

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Re: Flathead Lake on FIRE for deep water lakers
« Reply #29 on: Feb 25, 2013, 10:54 AM »
Like Mike said,
I like the glow grubs on bottom, color depends on the day. Rattle disasters and such for suspended fish.
We found on the bottom, a VERY SMALL piece of bait, 'bout as small as you can keep on the hook 1/2 - 3/4 inch square
and the glow flies ~18 inches above the grub. Use a camera flash or similar to make the grub glow, even in the day time, and do it often.
Change bait often & scents help too. Shrimp scent on the flies what ever the mood is for the grub/bait, Garlic is my favorite,
some days the Kokanee Feast worked better, other days other flavors worked better. Garlic is my # 1 choice.
Make your buddies pump the gas on the way to the lake or WASH YOUR STINKY HANDS before handling lures & bait  ;D
Get bit!


 



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