Blackstrap Lake 2016-2017

[Flatlander14]

Anyone else have a slow day on the north end? Took the inlaws out for their first hardwater adventure and only ended up with a 30" pike on a tip up.

[small-town-fisher]

Hey Churchill where is a decent spot to set up I'm on the north end but it's very slow I want to show my kids a great time fishing. Thanks talk to you soon.

[Churchill River]

Jordy, I love to see kids catch fish, and glad you are taking them out.  More and more kids are doing others things and probably won't fish as they get older.  Here is what I know:

1)  I fish the North end 90% of the time....we do try off of the sunken road a few times a year for a change.  There we fish out front of the pump house, just south off the sunken road in about 20 to 25 feet of water.  You have to go out 250 to 300 yards from the pump house.  We only fish for perch and the walleye we catch are a bonus.  I could care less if I ever catch another pike in my lifetime.

2)  We have had real good luck this year at the North end, but not around shanty town.  We are further out (South) again in 20 to 24 fow.

3)  But the fishing hasn`t been steady.  They seem to bite 2 or 3 times a day.  We will catch 15 to 20 in no time, then we will sit in the same holes for half hour without a bite.  We always catch 3 to 6 walleye a day as a bonus.

4)  We have had good luck off the North end of Shields.  About 250 to 350 yards North of the North end, towards the middle of the lake, in 20 to 24 fow.  Haven`t tried that spot yet this year.

5)  We have a couple of spots across from Shields towards the back bay, but towards spring is better.  People fishing there are closer in towards the bay going after pike and walleye.  I can honestly say we will catch walleye everywhere we fish for perch (in deeper water).

6)  What are you using for hooks and bait.  We only use hauger spoons made by jig a whopper.  They are hard to find.  They come in green, silver, blue, purple.  Green has been the color so far.   And we only use perch eyes........save your money on buying minnows, maggots, meal worms, etc.
Once we catch some perch, I save the eyes in a small pill bottle and just freeze them for the next time out.

7)  When we try a area, or even after we find a area were we are catching, we always drill up to 15 holes 10 to 15 yards apart.  And then move around.  We do have a very nice shack were we can fry up shore lunch, but we never fish in it.  Sometimes you catch one or two in one hole as soon as you get there, then nothing, so off to the next hole. Then you might hit a honey hole and catch 8 to 12 in 10 minutes.  So when the bite is on, don`t waste time getting your hook back down the hole.

8)  My fishing partner and myself have a bad reputation for catching fish.  We have had people fish in the same area as us, and they usually get tired of watching us catch fish and they move.  When getting checked by the C.O.s, they always say....how come you guys always have fish and 90% of the other people don`t.  So there must be some truth to being a good fisherman.  But remember we are both retired and usually fish 2 times a week.  Funny though, we never fish the strap in the summer. 

Well I hope this helps you, and you find a hot spot.  Dont give up taking the kids out.

[Churchill River]

Well as I said......I am not racist and I am old, and back in the day that saying was used a lot.  Usually when people were talking about fixing something, nothing to do with bad mouthing people.  I guess the younger generation might not be using that saying and I can understand them finding it offensive.

And yes, I didn't give it a second thought when I used the saying in my post.........if anything I meant it as a compliment.  Don't mind correcting myself and apologizing. 

We are getting off of the topic (what this site was meant for), of talking about the fishing, etc.  So let's drop this issue and see if we can help each other out regarding the fishing, and conditions on the lake, etc.

So on that note, I will let everyone know that we are going out tomorrow for some fresh air and hopefully the perch are still biting in our area, as we are planning to fry up a bunch for shore lunch.  I imagine it will be busy out there tomorrow with colder weather moving in next week, and the kids are back to school.
 

[Churchill River]

Jordy, how old are your kids?

It might be hard for younger kids to sit at a hole and hold the rod still enough waiting for a bite, and then been able to set the hook.  I remember when I was a kid, my dad set me up with a bobber, 6 inches off the bottom.  I would lift it up and down about 6 inches, jigging it and then would let it sit, then when it went down I would set the hook and hand bomb the fish up (there were no slip bobbers back then I don't think....that's how old I am).  I can see it very hard for kids to hold the rod 6 inches off the bottom and still enough waiting for a bite.  And as you know, sometimes you only see the rod tip go down slightly and not actually feel the fish bite.  I have even seen older people getting bites (their rod tip going down a bit and they don't see it, etc).

Maybe you are doing this already, but thought I would mention the option to try and help the kids out.

[darrenf442]

Jeez i need to get out fishing, reading these posts are driving me crazy. Use to get out all the time but we decided to raise our granddaughter so that comes first before fishing. She is to young yet to go out, so ill just live through everyone's posts  lol

[AndyJ]

You could play eeny meeny miny moe for the last of the Brazil nuts.      Sorry, I'm old like Churchill River. 

[ran7ger]

haha what in the heck is a brazil nut?  i always called em a...ahh everybody's too touchy now a days!

[Saskfisherman4]

Back on track here. Andbody been catching perch at all. Seems to be slower then usual.

[small-town-fisher]

Hey Churchill thanks for all of the use full tips. I am for sure going to try out some new spots I'm set up in shanty town on the north end and it's soo slow there. My girls are 7 and 4 and really enjoy the out doors . Thinking I might move my shack more over towards shields but not so close to shore. Also some one stole my buddies shack that was on shore on the north end haven't had a chance to drive around and see if some one dragged it on the lake but my buddie had no idea. I was going to buy it from him and fix it up for putting on a different lake . Thanks again Churchill maybe see you on the strap one of these days. 

[engineman]

Back on track here. Andbody been catching perch at all. Seems to be slower then usual.

Saw lots on the flasher and even had a few bites from them, but nothing on the floor of the shack.

[Churchill River]

Back in town after a good shore lunch.  The two of us caught 18 perch and 1 walleye this morning.  Two of our buddies drove out to meet us for shore lunch.  We fried up some perch and had a good feed.  No one wanted to take any fish home, so we all packed up after lunch and came back to town.  You know we fish to much when people don't want to take fish home.

[Churchill River]

You all have fun, bringing in the New Year tonight.

[darrenf442]

So I was doing some reading on fish behaviour the other day and they mentioned ice heaves. They went on to say that what you see above the surface can be somewhat duplicated below the ice to and that can and will attack fish. Since there is now an ice heave going across the bay thought i might mention it. 

[corney]

Busy place yeasterday for how cold it was!

Went out later afternoon and managed to catch a nice walleye.

Hard to keep the shack warm even with the wood stove, windchill was brutal!

[Churchill River]

Corney, sounds like a typical day on the strap.  I usually fish it 25 to 30 times a winter and the last 2 or 3 years there have only been a couple days that I can recall without wind.  If it is warm out, the wind usually isn't a problem.  But when it is cold out like the day you were out and it is windy, makes a guy think twice why he is out there.

We haven't been out since Dec. 31st, and are going out Thursday.  Noticed there weren't many posts the last couple days...........thought there would of been more guys out New Years day working off their hangover.

[ToonFisher]

I did walk on for the first time this season at the causeway on New Year's day in late afternoon. A temperature of ~15 under seemed tolerable with my new bibs as long as I didn't face the wind. There were a few bites from small walleyes around 1 pound in 12 feet of water. Ice was close to 18".

[Core]

Hey Churchill thanks for all of the use full tips. I am for sure going to try out some new spots I'm set up in shanty town on the north end and it's soo slow there. My girls are 7 and 4 and really enjoy the out doors . Thinking I might move my shack more over towards shields but not so close to shore. Also some one stole my buddies shack that was on shore on the north end haven't had a chance to drive around and see if some one dragged it on the lake but my buddie had no idea. I was going to buy it from him and fix it up for putting on a different lake . Thanks again Churchill maybe see you on the strap one of these days.

Jordy - what did your buddy's shack look like?

[small-town-fisher]

It was an 8x8 it was a greyish color with the inside all spray foamed and a rubber roofing on it. It was tipped on its side a few weeks back when I was out there. It was front row right by the lake and there was a plastic water tank shack behind it this was on the north end of black strap.

[Core]

Jordy- sent you a PM.

[Churchill River]

Jordy, here is what might of happened to your buddy's shack.

If your friend didn't have his name/address/phone number on the shack the C.O.'s might of picked it up and taken it to their compound.

This happened a couple of years ago, when 2 guys brought their shack out and set up close to us.  I told them they better put their contact info on the shack as I noticed there was no name, etc.  Well a week or so later, we are fishing and their shack isn't beside ours.  They show up and say..........hey, were is our shack.  I told them to phone the C.O.'s, and sure enough they had it in their compound.  $150 fine later they had their shack back and on the ice....this time with their contact info on it.

[Pollock fish]

Would be worth calling the cos but strap is bad year after year for vandalism and theft  during ice fishing season.  My advise is to not leave anything of much value in it. Ready a half dozen posts each winter on hear in regards to theft and such.

[corney]

Jordy, was it one of the shacks on the shore that have been vandalized? They all look abandoned there and when I wondered though I did not see any names on any of them.  Most of those shacks have not moved for years.

I would think that some folks would assume they are fair game and take them and fix them up? Wish they would all get stolen and that area cleaned up!

[Core]

What happened was exactly as Corney described - we noticed all those shacks sitting there tipped over, broken etc so we ended up salvaging the one that belonged to Jordan's friend. Since it had no name or contact info on it, we had no way of contacting the owner to see if he wanted it or not. So we took it home and put a bunch of time into replacing rotten wood, broken things and cleaning all the rat, mouse and bird crap out of it, removing swallow nests and wasp nests etc.

Thanks to Jordy's post, he provided me with the contact information for the owner of the shack, so I contacted him directly and we resolved the situation amicably.

[Churchill River]

Two of us were out today, and it wasn't that cold, little windy.  Had a fire in the shack, but didn't fish in it.  Did really good on the perch and caught 3 walleye that we released.

[gman51]

spent the day on the lake,bounced around fished a handful of areas. did fairly well on the walleyes caught 6 and 2 came home. marked smaller targets (small perch) which is good, 0 pike which is good... on the hardware anyway lol. the walleyes seem to be more fired up lately which is good. had a great time.looking forward to the weekend.

[gman51]

Got out for a late afternoon/evening fish today. after a good day of sledding. Set up out in front of the hill and marked fish pretty well as soon as I set up. Lots of smaller marks nothing biting early on but started catching at prime time. Finished up with 4 walleyes 2 keepers but released. and 1pike. 

[saskoutdoorsman]

Got out to the shack yesterday, and the perch were finally biting. Marked fish for a good portion of the day, and almost every one I marked on the flasher bit. Was chaos in the shack by myself for a while, couldn't get rods down the hole fast enough. Bit of a lull in action from noon to 1:30, ended up catching about 20 perch and 4 walleye. Kept 6 perch, all around 11"

[Core]

Got out to the shack yesterday, and the perch were finally biting. Marked fish for a good portion of the day, and almost every one I marked on the flasher bit. Was chaos in the shack by myself for a while, couldn't get rods down the hole fast enough. Bit of a lull in action from noon to 1:30, ended up catching about 20 perch and 4 walleye. Kept 6 perch, all around 11"

Sounds like a hell of a day! What does your shack look like? 

[saskoutdoorsman]

Sounds like a hell of a day! What does your shack look like? 

It's square and no one else around, thats all the hint you get! Haha