Long overdue report from Canada part III

[Scombrus]

I got out on the 30th and 31st too (4 days off....yay) can’t believe it! Ended the year by skunking!

Fishing was slow the first day, but was not expecting the skunk (Canadian word for blanking) to raise its ugly head the second day. Oh well that’s fishing.

Kinda should have known it was gonna happen as everything was going wrong yesterday, snowblower broke, broke an expensive tie down, my buddy showed up with his plow just as I finished snowblowing in 35kmh winds after spending 2 hours fixing ignition on snowblower....then a skunk?...should have known ...lol

Still fishing deep, jigs and minnows, still getting walleye suspended at 20'FOW over 50'FOW, just nothing on the second day. A few fish did show on screen, but did not matter what I tried...they weren't interested.


Here's the vid for the 30th Dec with my Mr. Heater buddy in my flip-up. Darn nice to have the heater...it was freeeeeezing that day.






January 2nd

Went Thunder Lake, a local trout lake easily accessible by snowmobile straight from the house, so much easier and less time consuming than loading the snowmobile onto a trailer and driving to a lake, first trout session of the New Year. My buddy Carmon lives on this lake so I called him before I left and he drove out to meet me on his Quad bike.
Pretty slow start, well, pretty slow for this lake for the whole 3 hours. Lots of small fish with one big Ling. Lost plenty of fish too.
At one point the bells on Carmon's rod went outside, he ran to get it and thought he'd lost it. At that precise moment his rod inside the hut tries to disappear down the hole.
It was in fact on the inside rod and had twisted in his outside line some 20 feet away making the bells go off. I grabbed his rod....and whaddaya know, I get one on. Because Carmon is outside alls I can do is hold onto both rods, couldn't reel...nuffink. WE LOST BOTH FISH!

Great morning out, really good fun, cut short because of my night shift that night.

Here's some video and a pic of the Ling.









January 8

Went back to Thunder Lake again for 2 hours. The ice formed late this year on this lake, and happened during a real cold snap of about a week when we actually had no snow either...result, thick clear ice. This is really cool cuz when you shovel the spot for the shelter its window clear beneath your feet, watching the fish come up when they get to 20' below the ice is awesome!

Fished in 57' FOW. Nothing really even on the graph for the first hour, tried a rattle trap lipless crankbait lure...got my first trout on it...the shine and rattle I think rang the dinner bell. Then the 'action' started...lots of bait on screen, lots of missed fish, got a couple of 25" and a ling too...then packed up and went home to sleep ready for night shift

Here's the vid from that morning.






January 10

Went out for a couple of hours at 3pm to the lake I was referring to in the intro to this post . Was not expecting to catch anything....as I’d skunked for walleye the last 2 times I’ve been to Dore Lake in the previous 2 weeks. I was however under orders to get supper......pressure was on!

The pressure increased because I managed to get a decent eater (16") on the ice almost immediately...then NADA for about half an hour until the BEAST hit, holy man was she a big girl....28" long and probably the same around...belly on it was huge....MY NEW ICEFISHING WALLEYE PB!!!! Well pleased with that. The reason the pressure had increased though is I could not bring myself to keep her...back she went and I still needed another fish(at least ) for supper purposes.

Well I got another about 16" and supper was delicious tonight, great little session again...and got the walleye skunk (Canadian word for ‘blanking’) off my back in style.

I always seem to do sooooo much better when I fish alone....weird...but true.


Here's some pretty crappy video and a couple of pics.













January 17

Back to Dore Lake for the evening walleye bite again. Was setting up my outside line, shack not even set up yet....wham...big girl comes rocketing off the bottom in 30' FOW to intercept my falling jig at 20'FOW....holy schmoly...I’d only been there 5 minutes and bagged me a 27"!!!!

Unfortunately her swim bladder was in her throat and an eyeball froze almost as soon as I got her out...so what I would normally never keep was a supper fish after all Tasted freekin' great though and with the 17" I got too I got lunch for me and my coworkers the next day too.

Missed a bunch of bites, some I managed to get half way up before they managed to eject the hook....dunno how they do that.

Anyway with supper sorted in the first 5 minutes I fished hard trying to catch some of the whitefish that are all over the screen all day long...I could get them to chase but none would do the right thing and commit to the tasty morsels I though I so deftly dangled before them....CURSE YOU FUSSY WHITEFISH...I SHALL REEP MY REVENGE!
I tried every trick in the box....washed a lot of lures

Good afternoon on the ice....not too cold.....and the action was good even if the fish count was lacking. Even the walleye were hyper fussy today....loads of fish coming in to look...like a fish a cast...just had to get the right jiggy wiggy action to tease 'em to bite.


TODAYS VID






Nice!







January 21


MY THERMOMETER THIS MORNING......BRRRRRRRRRRR.




Well...I went out...crazy I know....and endured the coldest blanking session ever, well I lie....my portable Shack was nice and warm.
I left the lake, fishless, in a near whiteout...wind really picked up...must've been touching -50C with the wind chill.....and thank god for heated grips on my snowmachine!