Sleepy Lake!

[Bill Dance]

Lake was slow this weekend but weather was awesome. Saturday only caught one fish.
Young fellow waiting for his big one to strike.



Dylan got his first lake trout or biggest fish through the ice for that matter, 14lbs and he set him free. Can you say proud dad!



Darren also got into a good sized fish on Sunday but couldn't get head started up the hole and hook came out.
I also got into my fish laker through the ice.





Looks to be around 38" not sure and weighed in at 19lbs.




I tried for 15 minutes to get this fish going again but it wouldn't kick. Almost got the snowmobile over to hook up the spark plug wires to the head and tail to shock it back to life. CLEAR!


But the fish got me back though when I reached into the water to grab the fish it chewed on my thumb and also slimed me.



On the way back home we also saw a nice Lynx.


Besides the equipment failures, the auger that seized up and one snowmobile that wouldn't run it was an awesome trip. Dylan, Darren and I would like to thank Terry because if it wasn't for him this trip wouldn't have happened.
 

[pikemaster789]

lloks like an awesome outing, I always love the good ol slimed up jacket. It shows of a successful effort

[Drifter_016]

Nice...........Laker Snot Rules!!!!!!

[er-e-is]

Nice Fish Dylan and congratulations for letting it go. I'm proud of ya!
Did any of them get entered in the derby?

[fish-slayer]

Nice fish guys i know that spot good lake.

[TGF]

Nice to see you got into some lakers Bill. See any wolves like the native was trying to scare us about??
Sure fight better in winter heh when compared to summer.....whole new fish 
How did you make out taping some video footage? Anything that could make it onto television?

[Bill Dance]

Nice to see you got into some lakers Bill. See any wolves like the native was trying to scare us about??
Sure fight better in winter heh when compared to summer.....whole new fish 
How did you make out taping some video footage? Anything that could make it onto television?

Never seen any wolves but there was some old tracks around your holes.
They sure are a different fish in the winter. They fight awesome.
I do have video footage but not very good, still no sound on some video I will post some of it soon on this post.
The batteries were cutting in and out.

Nice fish guys i know that spot good lake.

I thought you would, probably fished in your old holes.

Nice Fish Dylan and congratulations for letting it go. I'm proud of ya!
Did any of them get entered in the derby?

No none of these are entered in the derby as Dylan and Darren are not members and I registered 1 day after it closed.
Always next year. I love a good competition.
 

[salmoncandy]

I dont think you could have picked a better day for campin or getting in and out of the lake. A 180 degree turn from the story I heard of a couple of marshmello heads camping out there in a summer tent at -30. I wonder if there were eaten by wolves.
Awesome fish, makes all the triles and tribulations seem small in cmparison.
SC

[TGF]

I dont think you could have picked a better day for campin or getting in and out of the lake. A 180 degree turn from the story I heard of a couple of marshmello heads camping out there in a summer tent at -30. I wonder if there were eaten by wolves.
Awesome fish, makes all the triles and tribulations seem small in cmparison.
SC

Some of the biggest fish have been caught by "marshmellow heads" that have braved the elements when they needed to  And some of the biggest fish have yet to be seen

[TGF]

I do have video footage but not very good, still no sound on some video I will post some of it soon on this post.
The batteries were cutting in and out.

Sounds like typical Bill Dance style

[mtwhite]

Very nice boys couple of beauties congrats

[er-e-is]

Some of the biggest fish have been caught by "marshmellow heads" that have braved the elements when they needed to  And some of the biggest fish have yet to be seen

Sounds like there might be some "SandBaggin" goin on in nthe North Country....

[TGF]

No sand bagging going on here er e is

[ianwuzhere]

beauty pix!!
you fish and they will come. looks like ya guys had a fun time- slow fishin is never fun but sure makes up for it when you catch the biggest fish youve ever caught thru the ice... hard time gettin the biggun out of the hole??

[Bill Dance]

Here's a little video of my fish. This is with my camera so it has no sound then the batteries went dead. :embarassed:



This is Darren's camera but his batteries went dead. Oh and by the way DON'T get the line caught around your finger, it stings.



Trying to revive my fish.

beauty pix!!
you fish and they will come. looks like ya guys had a fun time- slow fishin is never fun but sure makes up for it when you catch the biggest fish youve ever caught thru the ice... hard time gettin the biggun out of the hole??

Yeah, it's a little more work trying to start a 19lber's head up through a 8 inch hole compared to a 2lb rainbow.
 

[er-e-is]

Bill, did you get that fish to revive? How thick was the Ice?

[Bill Dance]

No sorry to say that it didn't survive. Tried for about 15 min. but it didn't go to waste. The ice was in very good condition. 6 inches of hard packed snow with 12-14 clear ice.
 

[Kyle_]

judging from that release video, id have to guess you drowned the fish. Water is only meant to go thru the gills one way, fish dont swim backwards. Next time I'd try just holding her still and let her do her thing.

[Bill Dance]

Yeah, I did that for the first 5 minutes and it didn't work. In the video I just started flushing water through the gills a couple of times and as you saw it kicked a little, after that the video quit but I stopped moving the fish. I did this for 15 min. and it never got any better. This a good point you've brought up but I was thinking when a fish is in a river and going down stream with the current does it hold it's breath or turn around and get a breath then continue on its way? 
 

[TGF]

If it would have swam away it probably wouldn't have survived anyway. It struggled hard in the fight and expended alot of energy.
While fishing alone once I made a live well trough of 5, connecting 8 inch holes not drilled all the way thru except poked a small hole in bottom of one hole and it filled with water. Put a black garbage bag over most of them holes and kept it from freezing. When I caught a fish I would place it immediately into the make shift livewell, get my camera ready by sitting it on top of bucket, putting self timer on, pushing shutter button then quickly going on other side of livewell and lifting fish up and holding till shutter goes off. Then back into livewell, and then examine my camera to see if I got a good pic, if not repeat procedure again. I would sometimes place tape measure beside livewell to show the length of my catch and take a pic. However they still sometimes didn't survive after livewell. I went fishing in spring right after iceoff and found my released fish in the shallows where the creek flows out. I lifted it up and was exact same markings and size of one I released 3 weeks earlier. Dead  No one else fished that lake that winter.
So now I take it if it comes out of the water as too many variables if it will survive. Chances are it won't so I don't think catch and release (taken out of water) fishing is good for laker populations. If I want to release I pop hook out with pliers while head is still under water, then push gently back to depths. Just because a fish swims away vigorously doesn't mean it will survive.....The more exhausted the fish, the more lactic acid and the longer it takes to recover. A fish that is recovering from being caught cannot chase down food to eat. This can take days to recover sometimes. Lakers as you could tell from the fight Bill are awesome fighters and a guy can't horse them in like a rainbow so more prone to death after catching.

[er-e-is]

To release or not is always a hard call to make with these bigger fish. Some of them just fight their guts out and will not revive. Others seem to revive right away, but I always wonder if they survive. I know some of them do because I see old hook scars in their mouths. I do feel that it's a good thing to try and release these bigger fish. I want a really big one some day and the only way for that to happen is to release these smaller fish. I have no problem with taking a few smaller fish to eat. The 2-5 lb fish, IMO, are better table fare.

[Bill Dance]

I like that idea about having a make shift livewell TGF, I think I'll run that next time.

To release or not is always a hard call to make with these bigger fish. Some of them just fight their guts out and will not revive. Others seem to revive right away, but I always wonder if they survive. I know some of them do because I see old hook scars in their mouths. I do feel that it's a good thing to try and release these bigger fish. I want a really big one some day and the only way for that to happen is to release these smaller fish. I have no problem with taking a few smaller fish to eat. The 2-5 lb fish, IMO, are better table fare.

Myself I rather release most of my fish. I'll only keep a fish if it's not going to make it or if I'm at a new lake and see how the fish taste the first time, usually a smaller one.