Gull Lake 2023

[smeltbuster]

So, we dont have ice, & probably wont for awhile. Last night I hooked up the "Toon" & went Smelt fishing! It was a solo trip. I started in 55 FOW & picked up a few  after it got dark. The wind came up & I started drifting.The anchors did not hold.The fish disappeared. I got the anchors to hold finally in 68'. The fish moved into the green light (2'down,center of the boat) & it was "Game on". I quit at 8:40. p.m. & ended the night w/ 104 smelt. Excellent considering what the wind was doing. I could have had more, had I stayed longer, but was happy w/ the results. Open water smelt is not easy. If the boat moves at all, it is tough to see the bite. Specific things about the trip: 58" Patriot super ultra light rod/ Eagle Claw Mag inline reel 4lb. mono mainline, 5 fly rig w/ Gull Lake Smelt Factory ice flies & a 9.4 g Kodiak jig on the bottom. Best flies were "Smeltbuster",KB Special & Glow Drake. White spikes for bait. Aluma Glo 4800 green light. Most fish were caught 15'-20' down. 8 doubles & 1 triple. I fished the north 1/3 of the lake. "Waypoint 18" on my Helix 5 . The "Toon" is a 14' Playbouy w/ a 25 hp Tohatsu motor. The anchors are cinder blocks. Next time I will have 3. I was the only boat on this 2,050 acre lake ! If you want to try this, you need a night w/ no wind or a very light wind. When I left the house,it was sse @ 8mph. That was almost too much. I have had a few of these trips & the best we ever done was 115 between 2 guys, so this was a very good trip.

[SKIFFLAKEJIMMY]

Way to make lemonade out of lemon weather Sir!

[skibumm100]

Great job SB! Did you put in at the park or Baseline? The shore ice just disappeared on LLL a couple days ago. Should freeze back up pretty quickly once we get a cold stretch.

[smeltbuster]

I put in at Prairieville park. There are no docks in the water. I will be bringing waders next time. Someone tore Baseline up pretty good. Planning on a Sat. Nite trip (1/14), if the wind & temps cooperate.

[smeltbuster]

A 2nd. trip Sat nite (1/14) was fun. We boated 89 smelt. When we ran in, we were breaking skim ice. Made quite a bit of noise.

[Iceassin]

Smeltbuster? You got a pic of that Kodiak jig...and where did you get them? Can't find it. 

[smeltbuster]

Hope this helps. I have been told that they went out of business, but dont know for sure. They are based in Brooklyn. Mich. I picked up a bunch of them at "The Sportsbarn" up by Higgins,back in October. I use the 9.4 gr. sizes. They are comparble to a large Hali. They just glow better. I also change out the hooks & use one of my #14 replacement flies. The one in the pic is a BISP.

[smeltbuster]

Another open water trip on 1/24 & we boated 134 smeltzillas. My brother had 57 & I had 77. We quit fishing @ 9:00 p.m. Fished 70 FOW & most of our fish came 20' down. Best flies were "Smeltbuster","Drake", & "KB Special". The wind was kicking 10-15 out of the SSW & made for tough fishing. Its hard to see the bites if there are any waves at all. Good chance that this may have been our last trip till spring. Looks like we may FINALLY be getting some ice. About 4"-5" of new snow so far today. There wer 2 other boats out last night. Dont know how they did,we left before they did. Ran the green light 30" down last night. My total so far for 3 trips is 250 fish. Boat total is 327.

[SKIFFLAKEJIMMY]

Hope this helps. I have been told that they went out of business, but dont know for sure. They are based in Brooklyn. Mich. I picked up a bunch of them at "The Sportsbarn" up by Higgins,back in October. I use the 9.4 gr. sizes. They are comparble to a large Hali. They just glow better. I also change out the hooks & use one of my #14 replacement flies. The one in the pic is a BISP.

Kodiak unfortunately is out of business. He was great to deal with.  I ordered some jigs a few years ago. He actually dropped them off at my house on his way to Devils Lake tip up.

[smeltbuster]

South Bay & 2nd. bay locked up Sun. Night/ Mon. Morning. Smelt jr. is watching the rest of the lake. Once it locks up, I will be checking the ice every other day. If the weather stays cold w/ no snow & light winds, we should be fishing the north 1/2 of the lake w/in 10 days. South bay access is very limited now. We lost the party store access. For those of you that walk on by the Jaqua sign, thinking that its legal, it is NOT. Jaqua does not own that property. You will be trespassing. One more thing, there is a a DNR Conservation officer that lives less than a mile from the lake. Hope this will get rid of some of the slobs out there.

[Fish Killa]

The bay looks much better this morning than it did yesterday on the camera. I would expect to see some brave souls out there tomorrow.

[tip ups]

people on the Bible confs. to day . well so say my fishing buddy! but his pissed because Im working all weekend to,So pissed off fisherman or the truth ??

[smeltbuster]

Cant say for sure on the bible conf. , but I was on south bay tonight trying for Smelt. No Smelt ,but we did ice 20 very nice gills. Ice was on avg. was 3" ,but we did hit a few spots that were more like 2" . Wanted to get out to 2nd. bay ,but decided it was not worth the risk. 2 other parties did go out there, but I dont know how they did. Part of the Bible Conf. was still open on Tues., I do know that for a fact. I will have more ice updates in the next couple of days. The lake is not making ice like we want it to, thats for sure !

[smeltbuster]

Finally was able to get on some Smelt last night ! 420 for 3 of us. I had 155, Smelt jr. had 145 & his friend had 120. fast action for about an hour until we got spudded in. About 2"-3 1/2" of ice depending on where you are. I will no longer be sharing any locations or access areas of where I am fishing. Last night guys were trespassing to get where I was fishing. DNR has been notified. Sorry folks, but slobs keep ruining it & I am tired of it.

[Iceassin]

Finally was able to get on some Smelt last night ! 420 for 3 of us. I had 155, Smelt jr. had 145 & his friend had 120. fast action for about an hour until we got spudded in. About 2"-3 1/2" of ice depending on where you are. I will no longer be sharing any locations or access areas of where I am fishing. Last night guys were trespassing to get where I was fishing. DNR has been notified. Sorry folks, but slobs keep ruining it & I am tired of it.

Nice haul...and I don't blame ya'. 

[SKIFFLAKEJIMMY]

Nice haul...and I don't blame ya'. 

X2

[KZOO13]

Finally was able to get on some Smelt last night ! 420 for 3 of us. I had 155, Smelt jr. had 145 & his friend had 120. fast action for about an hour until we got spudded in. About 2"-3 1/2" of ice depending on where you are. I will no longer be sharing any locations or access areas of where I am fishing. Last night guys were trespassing to get where I was fishing. DNR has been notified. Sorry folks, but slobs keep ruining it & I am tired of it.

I recall your post from last season and a similar scenario, very unfortunate. I have to ask the question though…

What do you expect when you post your catch here and to the smelt Facebook group of 5000+ members? Seems like being spudded in is self-inflicted with as much as you advertise the lake. Even if you don’t post the location, all they have to do is look at the name of your flies to know where you fish There are only two public access points and only a handful of spots to smelt fish when the north end isn’t safe enough.

Obviously this is just my .02 and everybody appreciates how much you’ve helped out on the lake. It just seems that posting in general (location or not) isn’t doing you any favors when it comes to being spudded in.

[Doeslayer]

I no longer post locations, a guy posted yesterday there was 4 inches of ice at a spot i intended on being at this morning, it was on some fb group not sure which... Either way there was 100 trucks at the spot which usually has around 20-30... And the spot i wound up going that usually has 40-50 trucks had maybe 20-30.... Either way, social media is a double edged sword, you wanna help people out, but not at the expense of your own experience