First Laker!!

[Hickory]

Hey everyone,
  Went out to the top secret lake on Friday. HAHA. yeah right.  Anyhow, landed my very first laker through the ice.  First one was 23" and the second was about 20".  I was just floating after that, my day was made.  Then my buddy landed a 27"er. That was a really exciting fight to watch. What a day to that point.  So then we are just jigging away and I get another hit.  I set the hook and the fish head bangs about 3 times like a fat pig of the deep and takes off!!  I was using my stiffest rod and a nice spinning reel with good drag set fairly stiff and this fish was peeling out line like nothing.  Was about 5 feet of line shy of being spooled so i just reached down and grabbed the spool to stop it.  Fish strained hard for a couple seconds and then started giving up some line.  Took about 5 minutes to finish the job and it ended up being a 29" Char that was 18" girth at the thickest!!  What a HOG!  I know its not the biggest to come out of that lake but it sure beats the heck out of Chena Lake/outboard pit hammer handles I ussually catch.  I'm not going to lie, that one is vaccuum sealed.   What I thought was really crazy is that that fish had 12 minnows in its stomach that were all in the 3-4" range.  That was one hungry fish. 

I was so pumped about finally catch something out there that I went back Sunday.  A freind and I each got a 20"er right off the bat and didn't have any other action the rest of the day till 2.  Hit birch after that and got some nice little rainbows to end the day. 

So is it characteristic of lakers to not fight real hard after being hooked and then really turning it on after they see light close and get their head bonked off the hole edge or what?  Seems like they all really got fiesty right under the ice.  Now  I understand why I see guys with sawed off halibut looking rods and what appear to be small penns perched on top; these fish will eat the light gear when you stick a bigger one!!!!  That char though, what a fight, thats all I have to say about that.

Tight lines to everyone!

[The Common Man]

Congrats, Hickory!  That sounds pretty darn fun.  Have you ever visited the British Columbia forum?  I just was looking through their pictures...man, you should see the size of some of those lakers.  I will bet they had their hands full with a couple of them.

[Hickory]

I haven't looked on the B.C. page Common Man, but I think I'll check that out since you mentioned it.  Big fish are just so impressive through the ice.  I think I am definitely bit by the laker bug now!  Fishing Fireman's last couple fish were pretty sweet, I'd like to hear which lake he has been getting his fish in!! 

[Fishin Fireman]

Congrats on the Lakers and the Char  . I better not cut you any slack or you will be besting me. I have been pretty fortunate to have pulled some lunkers from the "Lake". I've been using 9 dollar rods I bought and have not come close to worrying about them breaking. I caught a Char that was 19 lbs 32" 2 weeks a go and last week it was that monster Laker. I believe that is the biggest one through the ice so far that I know of or people or not saying what they are catching and how big. Went today and it was slow oh well I have nothing to be sore about. I'll go back next week with AkDan. There is a lot of info on here and since the walls have eyes around here, I'm not willing to totally divuldge all my secrets . If you are who I believe you to be you already know more than most since you work where most people spill their guts about fishing and besides you have an Ace in your pocket working there and the people you work with, again good job DG.

Keep up the good work and save some fish for ME!

Brad