My lovely wife decided that not only did I need to brush up on my ice-fishing skills if I’m going to be of any competition to her this winter, but that I should also have a “guy’s weekend”. So this past Saturday night, my cousin Bert and I headed up to Muskoka for some Lake Rosseau trout action. It was, in fact, his first time ice-fishing, and we had been looking forward to getting out there for quite a while.
I tried not to talk up my spot too much…really didn’t want to jinx anything. We stopped for bait on the way up, and ended up with an absolute gob of minnows, that was deemed to be one dozen…not bad for $5, so I figured it was a good sign.
Sunday morning had us walking out to a spot I’ve always done well at…and up to our knees in snow. Made it past one slushy spot, which is almost always a bit slushy…then found our way into some really nasty stuff. Thank goodness Bert’s boots were waterproof all the way up…mine on the other hand were letting a bit of water in over the top of the rubber section. We found hard ice, popped a few holes, and my feet seemed to be staying warm enough. Bert set to cleaning the holes, which were welling up like springs!
After losing only one fish and landing none, we started exploring, looking for some more firm ice. Getting around a point and into the wind, we found some solid stuff and drilled a few holes. His first time out, and Bert’s already figuring out clever ways to block the wind!
Don’t know if it was that we found the right colour, after switching lures frequently, but just around lunch time, Bert nailed his first laker ever – a solid 21 incher! PB!!!
Not long after, I narrowly missed becoming a statistic when I saw my rod getting pulled toward the hole – dove for it just in time and hung on to reel in a 23 incher...not too shabby
After that, the action quieted down, and by about 5:00 we decided to get off the ice.
We slugged our way back home through even more slush, and had the joy of discovering what sticky wet snow does to a jetsled loaded with too much crap! The upside was we burned enough calories to justify another Angus burger on the way home.
Speaking of calories, the gory pic that follows is what was inside the fish I brought in…by my estimation a herring that was ¾ as long as the trout, plus a smallmouth fry and another shiner. Now where did I put my Musky tubes?...
