BIG LAKE FISHING REPORT

[AKFISHRIPPER]

So me and a buddy went to Big lake tuesday, the weather was AWESOME and thats about it. WATER TEMP=35f@15ft OUTSIDE TEMP=42f DEPTH=15-35ft////// We fished burn point in about 15ft from 8am till about 12:45 with out a single bite.  Then we fished the north side of saddleback island in about 30 feet of water right on a nice rocky drop off from 1pm -4:30 and saw one school of 6 inch trout swim by with NO bites.  We had out Marcum camera and Vexliar fl-18 down the whole time and saw absolutely NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We tried every spoon we had in out boxes, buzz bombs, plastice fish jigs, and nothing worked? This is the 3rd time I have been skunked at this lake, if you know something I don't know...lets hear it cause I'm at a loss when it comes to Big Lake. 

[charholio]

Move more and drill more holes.

[AKFISHRIPPER]

Move more and drill more holes.

Well we tried that the first 2 times, we must have moved atleast 6-10 times at a variety of different depths and cover types, thanks though.

[Baiter]

I usually get skunked 5 out of 10 trips to big lake. the only reason I keep going back is cause when you do get into them they are usually big.  There is another point near Burnt point to the west that I like to fish as well, usually have some luck there.  I like using Storm Wildeye Jigging Minnows at Big Lake in the black and the blue color.

[komocazie74]

PM sent,  just curious how well the marcum camera works and whats the maximum depth, how far out can you see.

[AKFISHRIPPER]

PM sent,  just curious how well the marcum camera works and whats the maximum depth, how far out can you see.

Next time I use it I will take some pictures with discriptions for you, but I've used it down to 35ft so far and it worked great, a lot better than my 5in Aqua Vu Scout 2 that I had last winter.  The Marcum came with a 100 foot off cable and at 35ft we could see a school of 4inch bait fish about 25 or so feet out, it also has a "video out/video in" on the back so you can hook it to a bigger TV or a video recorder, and a plug-in for another camera on the back facing another direction that you can switch between in the front.

[komocazie74]

Next time I use it I will take some pictures with discriptions for you, but I've used it down to 35ft so far and it worked great, a lot better than my 5in Aqua Vu Scout 2 that I had last winter.  The Marcum came with a 100 foot off cable and at 35ft we could see a school of 4inch bait fish about 25 or so feet out, it also has a "video out/video in" on the back so you can hook it to a bigger TV or a video recorder, and a plug-in for another camera on the back facing another direction that you can switch between in the front.

25 ft out, thats pretty impressive.  some of the biggest fish ive seen in there were around bird island.  the school of bait fish was probably landlocked salmon,  like baiter said blue backed 4 " storm wildeye is pretty good there, last month i was having real good luck with brown gitzit tube teamed  w/ gomakatsu cobrahead 3/4 oz. jig.  theres other good lures maybe others can enlighten us.

[AKFISHRIPPER]

Yea we will see how it does this weekend I will let you know

[AKFISHFOOL]

What's up Ripper, i am on here now.  Check my post and see if you have any ideas.

[AKFISHFOOL]

I was fishing with AKFISHRIPPER and our biggest mistake was staying put.  If we had moved around some more we probably would have caught some fish.  Big Lake is one of those lakes where the fish are so disbursed that you have to find them, waiting for them to come to you is an endevour many of us don't have the patience for.

[AKFISHFOOL]

Move more and drill more holes.

i agree with charholio, i think moving around a lot is the key.  Are you the guy with the article in Fish Alaska magazine?

[icy mike]

I find that on Big Lake instead of just moving and fishing the same depths (which is usually 15-35 FOW), go shallow!  I mean really shallow 3-6 FOW!  I would say that I have caught more fish on Big Lake in less than 10 feet of water.  Also, use a herring dodger or some other kind of attractor/flasher.  I also will lay down on the ice and cover my head and the hole and watch.  Hope this helps.

[AKFISHFOOL]

I find that on Big Lake instead of just moving and fishing the same depths (which is usually 15-35 FOW), go shallow!  I mean really shallow 3-6 FOW!  I would say that I have caught more fish on Big Lake in less than 10 feet of water.  Also, use a herring dodger or some other kind of attractor/flasher.  I also will lay down on the ice and cover my head and the hole and watch.  Hope this helps.

Hey Mike, would you say that you normally fish areas that are shallow at the top of a steep slope or on flats, in weeds, or sandy bottoms?

[icy mike]

mostly near steep drop offs.  There is an island behind The Klondike where on the north side it drops off quickly and is fairly rocky.  On the south side, it tapers slowly and is usually pretty weedy during the summer.  I have pulled both trout and dollies out from around this island.  Another place to try is close to Burnt Point.  If you are on the ice and facing the house on burnt point, look to your left (north west?) and about 1/2 mile or so away you will see a large round mound of earth right next to the shore.  The small bay near this mound is relatively shallow (5-8 feet) and is weedy during the summer.  I have pulled trout and dollies out of the bay but not in the winter.  However, there is a large basin outside of this bay that is a pretty consistent 30 FOW.  I have done well in this basin at night for burbot using glow jigs, glow spoons, and rattle traps.  Hope this helps.

[AKFISHFOOL]

that did help icy mike, I agree with your summation of the bottom structure and it sounds like you have a lot of experience fishing that lake.  I have only fished Big Lake about 10 times in the winter and a couple of times in the summer. In the winter I usually fish any of the given islands on the lake, I do not particularly find any rhyme or reason to which island I fish, I just know that where there is an island, the bottom will slope downward fairly quickly, which provides structure for baitfish, which in turn brings in the big fish.  I do not have a good detailed map of the bottom of the lake to be able to locate good bottom structure, in fact if anyone does, I would love to get a copy of it, or at least some info on where to get one of my own. This summer I will get a boat out on the lake for a weekend and I will mark structure with my GPS, that way I will be able to go straight to it in the winter.  Speaking of summer fishing on Big Lake, I am at a perfect record of 0-0-0!  not a dog gone thing!  I have caught quite a few in the winter though.  Two years ago we had a huge day where we caught about 10 fish between 3 of us, really only two of us, the other guy only caught 1, LOL. Included was that 34' burbot, a 30" char with beautiful spawning colors, and a mix of char and rainbows all over 20".  what a heck of a day.  On that day we just moved around about every 30 minutes if nothing was going on, and we found that the more holes and different spots you try, the more fish you will catch.  Almost all of the spots were off of an island, fishing the slope.  We did not have a fishfinder or camera or even an ice shelter, now we have all of that and we have not had as much success.  Ice Fishing is great,  thanks for the helpful info, I will give those spots a try next time I go out there.

[icy mike]

I'm gonna try to hit Big Lake one nite this week for some burbot.  I'll post when I head out.  Oh yeah, I can't find a good map either.

[Grizzly1]

I have a big fold out map of Big Lake that is decent, well it's better than a print out of ADF&G's anyway.  I picked mine up at Mountain Veiw Sport's, but you should be able to find one at Three Rivers Tackle too.  Oh the map is published by Todd Communications.

Good Luck on those burby's!

[garnede]

It does not help for big lake but it shows contour lines on other lakes in the state.

http://store.usgs.gov/locator/

It is a site where you can download USGS maps in PDF format for free.

[AKFISHRIPPER]

I'm gonna try to hit Big Lake one nite this week for some burbot.  I'll post when I head out.  Oh yeah, I can't find a good map either.

I might be going out there myself on wen-thursday night maybe I'll c ya if not good luck

[AKFISHFOOL]

Hey Griz, does your map show depth changes in the lake, not just the ones like Fish and Game has on their site?  Those are somewhat helpful, but it really doesnt show the detailed depth or rises in the lake bottom like a topographical map would.

garnede, I will check out that web site, thanks for the help.

IcyMike, I cant go this week, but next week I could take the following day off of work and meet you out there.  Let me know if you want some company.

[icy mike]

FISHRIPPER and FISHFOOL,

I'm gonna try to head out a few nites this week and early next week.  I head back to work next week so that is not looking too good.  I'll try to post early in the day to let you know when.  Kind of playing things by ear as I have many irons in the fire so to speak.  But I HAVE to make time to fish!

[AKFISHRIPPER]

FISHRIPPER and FISHFOOL,

I'm gonna try to head out a few nites this week and early next week.  I head back to work next week so that is not looking too good.  I'll try to post early in the day to let you know when.  Kind of playing things by ear as I have many irons in the fire so to speak.  But I HAVE to make time to fish!

ICY MIKE: I will be heading out there Wednesday night, leaving anchorage at 4pm and fishing burnt point in my Quickfish 6 (GREEN) for a while, also I'm driving a Blue Sonoma...name's Chris by the way.

[icy mike]

Hey RIPPER,

Sorry for missing the action last nite, but we had to help out the neighbors with a household emergency.  I may try to head out tonite.  If not, then this weekend for sure.  Look for the red Explorer.

[Grizzly1]

AKFISHFOOL,  Yes the lake map is more detailed than ADF&G's is, not as good as a USGS Topo though.

Here's a link- http://www.alaskabooksandcalendars.com/agoracart/agora.cgi?cart_id=9369409.25880*tE6UW3&product=MAPS

Hope this helps-Griz

[AKFISHFOOL]

Grizz you are the man, I am going to check that out right now.   thanks!

[AKFISHRIPPER]

I tried the AlasKabooksandcalender s.com but it would not work for me.  I just went and bought a TOPO map of big lake from a gas station and its the best I've seen for $5.......it helped ne last night to finally catch a good sized fist out of that dang lake.   I'd really like to find some depth info on Figure 8 lake so if anybody knows help me out???

[garnede]

I'm gonna try to hit Big Lake one nite this week for some burbot.  I'll post when I head out.  Oh yeah, I can't find a good map either.

http://www.sf.adfg.state.ak.us/statewide/LakeData/index.cfm/FA/main.lakeDetail/MgtAreaID/2/LakeID/10

[Grizzly1]

AKFISHRIPPER,  Sounds like you bought the "Todd Communications" Map (in very small script on the map), I think it retails for $5.95 or there about's. 

[AKFISHRIPPER]

AKFISHRIPPER,  Sounds like you bought the "Todd Communications" Map (in very small script on the map), I think it retails for $5.95 or there about's. 

Yea that's exactly what it was... Ohh yea by the way me and AKFISHFOOL went fishing last thursday night for a couple of hours and caught a 26in and 33in burbot at big lake off burnt point....